Survey complete! For now, anyway….

By Melinda C. Henderson

Well, we inadvertently deleted the e-mailed survey; we sent some that went to the wrong folks; we sent some to the church and not to the designated responder; we sent some to the designated responders who did not respond then we sent them to the church; we sent some surveys that would not allow the responders to type in their addresses; we received surveys by snail mail rather than by e-mail; we entered some survey answers by our hand rather then by e-mail response; we tallied one survey twice (guess it was floating out there in the ether net and popped into our data base more than once-or did the respondent actually do the survey twice?) and couldn’t delete the extra response; we begged and pleaded and phoned and e-mailed responders, their church secretaries, the senior wardens and/or the priests.  But at last it is over for this year!  Yes, the Diocesan Survey is complete!

Dr. Sam Fisher (Political Science and Criminal Justice Department of the University of South Alabama) deserves a metal for volunteering to help us through this.  He used his Zoomerang e-mail survey program to deliver and receive the survey.  He sent extra surveys to those who deleted them inadvertently, to those whose surveys went somewhere else, to those who wanted hard copies of the survey and to those responders who went elsewhere to do something more important before pushing the final submit button. He programmed the computer to tally frequencies and to compare parish and mission churches.  He answered more questions than the law allows. If you see him, be sure to say “Thanks!”

Many thanks are also due to the 60 of you that took time to answer the 84 questions! Do you realize that is 94% of our 62 churches?  That is a phenomenal survey response rate and the sample is representative of our diocesan missions and parishes of all sizes.  
You are probably saying, “Now what?”  or “What’s next?”  or “Why did we have to answer that survey anyway?” Remember that the survey was based on much of our Five Year Plan.  The results were tabulated into frequencies and given to the Standing Committee during their meeting on April 19, 2010.  The members now have a good idea of where the entire diocese stood in relation to the Five Year Plan at the end of 2009 (before we even had a final copy of it approved).  When the survey is repeated it is their hope that clergy, congregations, commissions, coordinators, agencies and boards will have done their appointed work according to the plan and that the 2010 survey frequencies will reveal that we are further along in terms of meeting our mission statements than we were when we started.  If certain areas are unchanged further analysis will be done and the plan may need to change.  If certain areas are perfect (don’t we all wish it to be so?) that area can be dropped and another program or project can be inserted for us to strive toward.  
Appropriate sections of the survey have also been mailed to commission chairmen, coordinators, etc. along with survey comments.  They will be able to use this information to plan their programming for the coming year.  In addition, they were furnished with the names of churches that requested resources, materials or consultation in specific areas. It is hoped that they will be contacting these churches to further assess their needs and to determine how best they might assist them, and perhaps the entire Diocese, to address those needs.

“Anything else?”  Of course!  Clergy and congregations can use the Five Year Plan and their answers to the survey to plan some of their programming over the next few years and to gauge some of their strengths and areas that may need strengthening by reviewing the Plan and the answers given by our churches as a group. All churches may not be able to achieve all elements of the plan but all churches can know what is currently deemed important at the national and diocesan level by reviewing the plan and working to meet the goals where ever they can.  They may even choose to incorporate parts of the diocesan plan into their own Five Year Plan.

“Is that all?”  No, that’s not quite all.  As individual parishioners and leaders in your congregations and in various church related groups you each have an obligation to be well acquainted with the diocesan statements of vision, mission and commitment and to identify your personal obligations to help in appropriate ways to see that the plan is enacted at all levels.  You are also responsible to see that we achieve our mission and eventually our vision. You can start by getting your personal copy (and a copy for your group) of the plan as well as the survey results.  Click here to download The Five Year Plan, etc. and The Diocesan Survey Results, 2009. Call or e-mail if you think you need help implementing the plan (850-892-5610; 850-8307663; mendych@aol.com).  It all starts with you!