One of our parishioners sent the following suggestions in an e-mail. When I asked if I could post her suggestions, she said yes, if I would keep her identity private. The ideas she suggests are good, so I happily agreed in order to keep this conversation going. (That really isn’t her in the image at right.) Here are the suggestions from “Secret Agent T.”
Hi Troy, Thanks for sending this to me. It’s a great idea to open this up to everyone.I do have some ideas, which I’d like you to bring up in your next meeting. I know sometimes the budget does limit our wishes. According to my experience, these are my suggestions:
- Location of the choir: It would work out better in the South side instead of the North side, because:
a) the sacristan has to go around the choir and cables, making it dangerous or difficult for her to go to the sanctuary
b) When we open the overflow, the noise from the overflow is amplified by the microphones used by the choir.- The ventilation during the year is not appropriate. There are spots where you get too cold or too warm. During the Spanish Masses, the air does not circulate, either in the winter or in the summer.
- I’d like to see the overflow more as part of the church, when we open it up for Mass. It’s not an inviting worshiping area. Perhaps this area could be turned into a cry room, with a glass in between the overflow and the church.
- The sound system needs to me more friendly and easier to adjust according to the needs. If the sound system was to be improved, it’d be ideal to have some speakers in the outside of the church for special celebrations such as: Palm Sunday, Easter Vigil, Corpus Christi, etc.
- A video recording system would be ideal for special celebrations, such as Father’s 25th Anniversary, 1st Communions, Confirmations, baptisms, etc.
- For the safety reasons, the doors of the church need to be “lockable”, meaning with a bar. Right now, we lock those doors and if someone wants out, he/she unlocks it and leaves, leaving the church vulnerable.
- The South doors to the church let the light through, which at certain times of the day can be very bothersome — blinding those facing that door, in our case the choir and the people seating in the overflow.
- A picture or statue of the Holy Trinity is a must for me, since we don’t have one single image with the Holy Trinity.
- I understand this is just a renovation and not an expansion, but we should consider adding to the capacity and not taking away.
- Marble or tile floors would be easier to take care of.
Thank you for your involvement and I am looking forward to the new renovation final plans.
T
The good news for Secret Agent T is that, except for #5, the committee has considered all these suggestions. Some of these are easy to address (#6) and some are a bit more challenging (#2 & #9).
Please e-mail your suggestions, and share your thoughts in the comments.
Troy,
The site looks great and your efforts at making quality daily posts will no doubt have a profound impact on this project.
I like all of “Secret Agent T’s” ideas save the video one which seems over the top financially. Hopefully the legal folks can give some feedback on the locking the doors scenario.
For me a sound system upgrade is at the top of the heap.
I like many of Agent T’s ideas.
I think that adding space should be the #1 priority. Our Spanish Masses are very packed and we cannot forget that our Hispanic community is here to stay. We need to accomodate their needs and space is certainly a main one.
As I suggested in a previous post, I believe that the best way to do this is to make the church cruciform.
Using part of the overflow and building direclty opposite (south)would address Agent T’s #1 and #9 and #7and #3 concerns.
I would say NO to the idea of turning overflow space into a cry room. As a parent of 6 I have strong opinions on cry rooms. Having one near the front of the church would be very distracting for the congregation and the Priest, not to mention very stressful for many parents who go there to manage their child’s behavior. They certainly don’t need an audience.