Over the past 4 years, our team has done numerous Facility Condition Assessments. These are evaluations of a church facility that include:
- Fresh Eyes Assessment
- Identification of deferred maintenance
- Development of a Capital Reserve Plan
- Bench-marking of facility operational expenses
As we have analyzed these assessments (which every church should have done) we have identified a significant pattern...and not a good one. What we have seen in every one of the FCA's we have performed, where the facility has some level of deferred maintenance (which has been all), there are 3 significant budget line items that are underfunded:
- General Maintenance Budget - the stuff you need to do to keep up with the natural rate of deterioration and wear/tear.
- Facility Staffing - Best practices have been proven that you need 1 full time general maintenance staff member for every 35,000 SF of facilities.
- Capital Reserves - these churches have deferred as they did not properly plan for the inevitable costs of capital replacement and renewal.
So...how do we remedy this? GREAT QUESTION!
The easy answer is increase the budget for each of these. There you have it...case closed. NOT!
Most churches cannot immediately increase their budgets to be in keeping with intentional Facility Stewardship. This means we need another approach. Consider these:
- What if we could make our current staff more effective and efficient?
- What if we could free up 10-30% of their time to inspect the facility? I would suggest that this kind of increase would reduce the calculation of the number of full time staff needed.
- What if the time they had on-the-job was utilized to perform tasks that only a human can perform?
- Perform a periodic walk through, meet with vendors and negotiate the best rates, get on the roof every month?
- Verify all the emergency lights are operational.
- ETC!
With the introduction of the INTERNET OF THINGS over a decade ago, there are few reasons or excuses to not add automation to the routine and mundane tasks of setting HVAC setting, unlocking doors, setting up digital signage. What if you could automate those tasks...how much more time would your staff have?
If you have not added FACILITeSPACE to your facility automation...now is the time! *Click below for more information.
