Because maintenance represents the commons and because it is mundane, it is thus the especial responsibility of the board. We have these objectives in presenting this budget for Buildings & Grounds:

• To be appreciated as a reliable and responsible committee
• To get an increase in budget for the coming year
• To get help recruiting volunteers because we can't afford not to
• To be taken seriously, the way salaried activies at UUFSD are
• To discourage launching new programs which add to our backlog
• And, failing all that, to attract "investment" attention from some other quarter

        Tasks           $7,200
        Projects        $8,500
        Maintenance     $4,600
        Total:         $20,300 

I have identified and documented Projects and Tasks that require immediate attention. The tasks are identified by task ID numbers and described on the UUBG website's Master Index and UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List. The projects are listed as UUBG-NNN Project: ----- documents in the Index.

During the past year I have minimized expenditures by relying on volunteer labor wherever possible. While we got a great deal done, this approach is not sustainable. The number of tasks and projects is growing faster than we are dispatching them. And the tasks that are not being handled are those that require particular skills, i.e. not work party candidates.

The table below summarizes a set of spreadsheets that I developed based on 47 Tasks on the TODO list and 21 active Projects. These are items that need to be taken care of in the next year.

For the most part these are not improvements but represent the costs of deferred maintenance. If we do not paint the walkway bridge soon we will be paying for replacing lumber as the planks rot, or just giving up altogether. The Maintenance row is an estimate of these sorts of long-term costs averaged and annualized. For items that last ten years I included 10% of their replacement cost here.

The Volunteer column assumes almost all work is done by volunteers, leaving just the cost of supplies and a few specialized services. As indicated earlier, I do not believe this is realistic. The Professional column assumes that we put these tasks and projects out to bid and/or hire a part time handyman. This would still require B&G to manage the projects. The Vol value column simply highlights the difference between the Professional and Volunteer costs, i.e. the value of of volunteer labor to the Fellowship.

Finally, the Request column is my budget request for Buildings and Grounds for the 2008~2009 fiscal year. It is calculated as the Volunteer cost plus 1/3 of the Vol value. That is to say: we assume that 2/3 of the time we can get volunteers and 1/3 of the time we'll need to hire work out.

                Volunteer  Professional   Vol value    Request
    Tasks          $3,455       $14,600     $11,145     $7,170
    Projects       $4,765       $16,100     $11,335     $8,543
    Maintenance    $3,395        $7,150      $3,755     $4,647
    Totals:       $11,615       $37,850     $26,235    $20,360 

This budget reflects the current reality at UUFSD. We have underfunded maintenance since our last capital campaign. We have hoped volunteers will continue to take care of things, but our population is aging, young folks seem busier and affluent denizens of North County expect others to do the chores.

Note, this budget does NOT include any major capital improvements (i.e. new administration building, wifi throughout the campus, choir lofts in the amphitheater). These are just the costs of maintaining what we have in a sustainable manner.

Stu Anderson
Chair, Buildings & Grounds