First Things First
Throughout the year, many of our events are lead by volunteers, all of which do outstanding work on behalf of the parish. As the new church year starts this September 1, I want to recognize and thank our parish staff for their dedication and enabling efforts throughout the year. Diane Bravos, our part-time Parish bookkeeper and most-tenured staff member, ensures our financial records are in top order, which enabled another successful external financial audit to be completed this August. Peter Savas, our full-time Parish Youth Director of 15 months, drives youth programming and church school to ensure parish youth have a place to connect, learn, and serve—including the Project Mexico trip that culminated in early August. Sandra Glisic, our full-time Parish Administrator of 8 months, leads our Ministry Council and parish operations, managing the office, establishing communication policies, and implementing parish council projects. Jenny Sciortino, our part-time Communications Coordinator of 8 months, provides creative and consistent communications through the web-site and beyond.

The Heart of the Matter
As we begin the new church year this September, the council brings strategic planning full circle. In 2015, our parish completed a first ever Strategic Plan, based on parish demographics and opinion surveys, to chart a course to 2025. The plan has driven many changes from that starting point to now, including the staff roles and changes that we now have in place. The timing is opportune to revisit the opinion survey.

The survey will again be established around three goals:
• Assess current functioning of parish life
• Provide an update versus baseline for comparisons
• Engage stewards

We will again be asking questions to assess:
• How satisfied are parishioners with overall parish life?
• Is the parish meeting parishioner needs for spiritual growth, fellowship, and outreach?
• Is the parish offering enough ministries for all ages and demographic groups?
• Is the parish being administered effectively?
• What ideas do respondents have for improvements to parish life?
• Are there correlations between demographics and opinions or between engagement and opinions?

Each of these broad questions allows an assessment of parish life to be used in further planning for the future.

This fall please look for the new opinion survey and take the opportunity to provide feedback on our parish progress and considerations for course corrections.