These property team reports typically cover isolated information on some specific details of selected property related things of current interest ... mostly to me I surmise ... and you may wonder why I bring them to your attention. That is a very good question, and I suspect it has mostly to do with my needing to periodically meet my commitment to provide some copy for Tidings. I know that from time-to-time I have also attempted to let you know that the Property Team is stretched very thin, and it is often a challenge for us to keep up with even routine matters. I thought I would devote this month's Tidings contribution to the "Big Flick".
In the first few years of my career at Seabrook Station, we were engaged in initial construction and licensing, all of which involved many thousands of details, and all of which supported the main event ... getting the plant built, licensed and operating. As a co-worker at the plant responsible for driving details to completion would often remind us when it seemed we might be getting lost in details, we had to always focus on the "Big Flick" as he put it. Of course he was referring to the big picture goal of building, licensing, and operating the facility. The same kind of thinking applies to any major enterprise involving a huge number of details needed to make a major project come to fruition. I use my Seabrook Station example because it spawned one person's view of the "Big Flick" that sticks in my mind, but we have other obvious examples such as the overhaul and refueling of submarines at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the major highway and bridge construction project on the Spaulding Turnpike and approaches, and, yes, the ongoing periodic maintenance and refueling outages at Seabrook Station. What all these major enterprises have in common is the recognition of their respective "Big Flick" and the appropriate resources (time, people, funding) to allow the big picture to be achieved.
Here at Holy Trinity we have our own "Big Flick", although I surmise there are many views of the definition of our big picture. The Property Team has to deal with its own big picture which, of course, has to be a subset of the many "frames" comprising the Holy Trinity "Big Flick". Are you confused yet?
I have to keep the big picture for property matters as simple as possible. My big picture view says the property team deliverables are a safe, presentable, legal, serviceable facility (building and grounds) that continues to meet the needs of our congregation (as defined by our Pastor and leadership team). And I want to say that this is a tall order! The team is significantly constrained by time, people, and financial resources. We have a large facility and are basically operating in a reaction mode, dealing with things that come up. We mostly take on problems as they find us. We do not have the resources to develop and pursue a "Big Flick" property plan. When I first became involved with Property Team matters, we had a substantially larger group of volunteers doing what had to be done. More people meant a wider range of available skill sets to do things, resolve problems, seek bids, coordinate outside services, and tend to the many details needed to keep property matters on track.
Today we are much more limited in what we can do. Our facility is larger and older than it has ever been. It demands more and more. To be sure, we still have fantastic volunteers, but not enough of them, and the budget for routine work does not support hiring of outside services to do things that we have typically done ourselves over the years.
I wish I could be more positive, and I wish I was better at recruiting volunteers ... and I wish I was better at developing and using budgets, and ... and ... the list goes on.
David Mercer, Property Team Leader