St. Anne's Futures Committee - needs you! (January 2006)
At Vestry last January the Committee proposed conducting a survey of our parish members to find what St. Anne's means to them and to get  ideas on what they think would make St. Anne's a better church in the future, and thereby increase active membership.

Since that time we have prepared our survey questions and started contacting parishioners. But, alas, our Committee lost a few members and calling was suspended so as to avoid confusion with a second survey initiated as part of the process of finding a new rector.

We still want to resume our Futures' survey, then continue with developing plans for increasing membership at St. Anne's, and fundraising.

The St. Anne's Futures' Committee needs volunteers to help If you can assist, please contact Gerry.

St. Anne's Development Fund Update:
Last January 30th, St. Anne's Vestry established the St. Anne's Development Fund to support active membership growth at St. Annes. This recognized that membership growth must be actively pursued in order to sustain St. Anne's as a viable church through the coming decades.

As of December 11, 2005, the Fund has received a total of $470 in donations (even though no active fundraising activities have yet been undertaken). A heartfelt thanks to all donors who have made contributions. An example of where some of these funds might be directed would be to support additional advertising for St. Anne's in the Byron area.

Parishioners are encouraged to place donations to the fund in an envelope on the collection plate, or drop off an envelope at the church office. Please indicate 'For St. Anne's Development Fund' and your name/envelope number on the front.  Alternately, a donation may be included with your weekly envelope giving. Simply indicate the amount to be directed to the St. Anne's Development Fund on the front.  This fund is a worthy candidate if you are considering a bequest to St. Anne's.

Please contact  the church office@ 471-0800 if you require further information regarding donations or bequests.

Calling all St. Anne's members! (June 2005)

Representatives of the Futures Committee will be contacting all St. Anne's members 16 year and older to ask:

1. What does St. Anne's mean to you? And
2. What do you think would make St. Anne's a better church?

(we also have some other questions to ask while we're at it).

You might consider thinking about these questions and making some notes in advance of our call.

As we have over 400 people to contact at over 220 homes we are unlikely to finish our contact list before the summer. 
We will continue our calling through the summer and into the fall, if necessary. Rest assured, we plan to contact and hear from every member of the church.

We are looking for additional people to help us with our calling. The more people we have, the smaller the lists and the faster our work gets done.

If you can help, please contact Gerry to offer your help.

What do you see in your future? December 2004 update

The Futures Committee of St. Anne's has been meeting for over a year now and gazing into what our future might be like in this expanding area of west London. We have tried to consider all possible options that allow us to serve our community.

A great deal of information has been gathered and reviewed. At the January 2004 vestry meeting most of this data was shared, including: parish attendance history; 2001 Census data on population breakdowns by religious affiliation in our geographic area; population growth projections for our area, and a recap of St. Anne's historical milestones.
 
Growth continues to happen all around us and we must, as a parish community, decide on how we respond to that growth. Our quick survey before the summer break confirmed the idea that the parish supported increasing our active membership. We commenced looking at ways to increase our active membership and, as a natural extension of this, our available worship space.

Our work on how to increase active membership is ongoing and will be reported on at a later date.

When the committee considered available worship space, our initial options ranged from: relocating the church community to currently undeveloped land; to merging with adjacent parishes; to expanding the existing church building; to redeveloping our existing site. 

The committee is convinced after reviewing available information that, due to a variety of factors, our  current site represents the best option for parish development in the foreseeable future.

Many of you may be wondering about the property adjacent to our parking lot and whether this presents an opportunity for the church. The answer to that is both yes and no. The committee has discussed how purchasing the property could fit into any future development plans for our site and while there are a variety of potential uses of the property, a majority of our committee believe that its purchase is not required for our parish community to grow.

A more detailed report will be tabled at the January 2005 Vestry meeting.
 
Yours truly,
Gerry,
Chair, St. Anne's Futures Planning Committee