Facilities

From CS-Quakers

The Facilities Committee is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the interior and exterior cleaning and maintenance needs of the Friends Meeting House, located at 158 Southern Blvd, Chatham NJ.

Routine interior cleaning has been managed by contracting for paid “light housekeeping” work. This has been arranged for a total of 3 hours per week; vacuuming, mopping, disinfecting the bathrooms and emptying all trash cans for the entire building. Routine cleaning beyond the weekly contracted “housekeeping” is completed by Meeting members and attenders during work days. The Meeting does not have Township refuse collection, therefore, for sanitary reasons, members cleaning up after fellowship will take trash with them after Meeting for worship. If the Meeting commits to a long term tenant we may revisit having an outside contractor for trash removal.

Ongoing cleaning and maintenance work (indoors and outdoors) will be assigned to monthly work days. The committee will, annually, determine a list of chores needed on a monthly or periodic basis, arrange for all materials and tools to be available and announce the work day needs and

date to the Meeting community. These chores include, but are not limited to such items as; cleaning baseboards, fingerprints on walls and door frames, dusting, window cleaning, managing clutter, co-ordinating lost and found, and changing light bulbs. Outdoor chores include, but are not limited to; tending garden beds, low branch tree trimming, covering air conditioners in the winter, raking leaves, pulling weeds, cleaning out gutters, checking water hoses. Currently, Trustees arranges for regular lawn mowing and snow plowing to be done through a paid contracted arrangement. Tasks requiring specialized or heavy equipment such as scaffolds or especially long ladders should be outsourced for safety reasons.

The Facilities Committee will meet once a month to discuss maintenance and cleaning needs. The committee will maintain the essence of Chatham-Summit’s spiritual priorities when considering action for the property needs. Planning and delegating cleaning and maintenance needs will be handled during the monthly meetings. The committee will have “walk-throughs” to identify needs, systematically (could be 4 times a year, or a room each month, for example). These “walk-throughs” will generate a list of chores for scheduled work days, as well as identifying significant repairs, organization, or tools needed. Facilities will also maintain some method to record or note issues of maintenance brought to it by the Meeting members at large. This will include inspection of equipment and supplies. Significant repairs or equipment needs will be reported to the Trustees. A designated person from the Facilities Committee will maintain an inventory of supplies such as toilet paper, cleaning supplies, garbage bags, paper towels, etc. A log of the purchase of these supplies will be kept in the janitorial closet in the lower level. Receipts are to be forwarded to the Meeting Treasurer for reimbursement and accounting needs. Additionally, a note pad will be available for communication between the contracted housekeepers and Facilities Committee.

The committee will schedule work-days, promote the “agenda”, have a coordinator from the committee to lead projects, get equipment and put the work day on the master calendar.

Clerks of this committee will meet, at least, once a year in a joint meeting with the Trustees to confer on needs and progress of the Meeting property. A representative from this committee will attend Monthly Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business. This representative would contribute updates and requests to the Meeting, as well as bring updates from other committees and Meeting for Business back to the Facilities Committee. An annual report will be made to the Meeting for Worship for concern for Business.

Facilities will maintain a “log book” containing materials related to meetings (agendas and minutes) and the work calendar(s) with tasks checked off which will serve as the facilities corporate memory.

As an integral part of Chatham Summit Monthly Meeting’s commitment to Earthcare Witness, the Facilities Committee will be mindful when purchasing or specifying supplies, that they be, as far as possible, earth friendly with a low environmental impact.

10/14/09