* April 17 - Explore Hegre's past and present and how we got to where we are
* April 24 - Where we want to go
* May 1 - How do we get to where we want to go

The Hegre Strategic Planning Committee held its final meeting Sunday 1 May before church services to talk about actions that can be taken during the coming year.

The recommended actions include:

-Improve internal communications by:
*congregational organizations bring information to the church council twice a year including plans, needs, events, and accomplishments.
*adopt guidelines fr event planning

-The council should appoint a temporary committee to review the church mission statement and constitution. The committee should also looks at the structure of the council, committee structure, support teams, and prepare "job descriptions" for council positions and other relevant positions.

-The council should appoint a temporary committee to study membership issues. The committee should develop a membership survey, study community demographics, and publicity to support church activities.

-The council should appoint a committee to study sharing arrangements. The committee should study the feasibility of arrangements with other churches in the area and report the findings to the council and congregation.

-The council should annually appoint a strategic planning committee to review progress on previous goals, long term needs, and make new short term goals.

The committee also discussed notes from the April 17 meeting. The "Reasons for Change" entries will be amended to more accurately reflect current situations.

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The Hegre strategic planning committee met for the third time Sunday 24 April before worship services to talk about the future.

The discussion included Hegre's place in the community, relationship with the ELCA, Hegre's identity and involvement of members in the work of the congregation.

The committee settled on exploring a cooperative venture with other small Lutheran congregations in the area. Existing arrangements allow member churches to retain their identities while retaining clergy and staff to support congregational activities. The community agreed during the next year that the Hegre council should 1) study existing arrangements and how they are working and 2) explore the interest of other area Lutheran churches in joining a cooperative arrangement.

The information would be brought to the congregation for discussion. The committee also agreed if a cooperative arrangement is the congregation's choice, it should be completed within five years.

Sunday 1 May the strategic planning committee will explore actions that can be taken for the future.

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The Hegre Strategic Planning Committee had their first meeting Sunday 10 April before services.

We talked about how the committee will work, and the purpose of this kind of planning. (The conversation is far more interesting than the plan on paper.) We will meet for 4-6 Sundays at 8:00 a.m. in the church basement, prior to the worship service. We will cover: 1) Expectations of the committee; 2) Where we are as a church and why; 3) Where do we want to go; and 4) How do we get there from here.

Come and join us for coffe and conversation. There were only 6 of us for the April 10 meeting. We need more voices to talk about the future of Hegre.

Notes from the meeting:
Expectations for the Strategic Planning Committee
* Membership - including local missionary work, overcoming conflicts and competition to church activities and participation of all members.
* Look at Hegre's Mission Statement - Does it need revision?
* Communication - including within and among Hegre organizations and publicizing Hegre's role in the community
* Planning - looking ahead and planning things out to be the best they can be
* Sounding board and forum to look at Hegre's two main functions - social support and the formal rituals of the church
* Evaluate financial goals - how to meet 2005 budget through new income sources or budget cuts