If, after reading what follows, you are inspired to participate, please see our schedule of work days. Or, if you want to take it a step further :-), please e-mail bagc@stjohns-jp.org to find out how you can take on a leadership role.

Mission

To take care of / facilitate the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the Church, its grounds, and the Rectory. Also, to provide a medium in which parishioners can come together to get to know each other while doing good work.

Activities

The Building & Grounds Committee (BAGC) tasks fall into four broad categories:

1. Monthly Parish Work Days;
2. Yard sale fundraiser for the Operating Fund;
3. One-off minor repairs; and
4. Arranging for and overseeing contractors' work.

The sections below describe some of the activities we have taken on in past years.

Parish Work Days: Monthly work days (actually, half-days, from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM the 3rd Saturday each month) are a mainstay of the BAGC, providing both a time for parishioners to come together in camaraderie, and also a means to help save the Church money by doing minor repair work and maintenance ourselves. They vary in size and scope, as can be seen from the examples below:

• Stripping down and re-painting of the Rectory front porch. This took 3 work days plus 11 weeks' worth of Tuesday evenings to complete.  When finished, it was a remarkable transformation - one that saved the Church more than $2,000 (estimated) in contractor costs.
• Installing fire extinguishers, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and safety-related signage in the Church.
• One work day in the spring and one in the fall is devoted to sprucing up the grounds outside the Church: mulching, weeding, raking, etc.
• In November we have a work day to put plastic insulation on all needed windows in the Guild Room and elsewhere, to help the Church save on heating costs.  This work day we also have a major raking effort (35 bags or so!) to clean up after the trees on the Church grounds.
• Part of one work day in the Spring, and twice in the fall, we clean the gutters all around the church (except for the very highest one in the back, which we have to have done professionally).
• Other work days cover tasks a bit more mundane: scaling the heights to change the Church chandelier light bulbs; various smaller painting and carpentry jobs.

Yard Sale: The yard sale has been a record breaking event in the past few years, netting over $3,000 each year. It can't be done without the incredible effort put out by about 40 people, who organize and orchestrate not only the main yard sale, but also a plant sale, bake/refreshments sale, and jewelry sale. In addition, people can contribute by donating items for all of these events, and opening your wallet to buy things as well!

One-Off Minor Repairs/Maintenance: Separate from work days, other minor repairs/enhancements have been undertaken in and around the Church over the years, some examples of which are given below:

• Replacing the sanctuary thermostat in the Church.
• Repairing/reinforcing the steps to the pulpit.
• Repairing the "ceiling" in the window bay by the Tower Entrance stairway (it had completely fallen off).
• Rebuilding the two screen windows to the left of the Main (non-Tower) Entrance to the Church.
• Adding solar powered lights to the two sets of stairways on the Church grounds.
• Installing a screen door in the Rectory tenant apartment.
• Reserve shoveling to make sure that Church paths and the public sidewalk are clear in event the regular snow removal contractor is unable to clear them in time.

Arranging For and Overseeing Contractors' Work: Over the course of the year a good deal of maintenance and repairs are carried out by contractors,both scheduled and one-time. For example:

• Turning on and off the sprinkler system in the spring and fall.
• All of the landscape work which keeps the Church lawn looking so beautiful.
• Repairing the chandelier to the left of the pulpit in sanctuary, when it became unfastened from the joist 25 feet up.
• Cleaning the highest gutters at the Church and Rectory in the spring and fall.
• Major trimming of the large trees at the Rectory.
• Snow removal after storms.
• Installation of the chandelier at the Main (non-Tower) entrance to the Church.
• Church basement fuse box repair.
• Church furnace repair/maintenance.
• Re-shingling a portion of the Rectory roof.