Planning Group Agenda 1: Key Tasks

This first meeting of the Planning Group is naturally an important one. Make introductions between members (where necessary) and allow plenty of time for the meeting. It is a packed agenda and it is important to keep it moving at a good pace. All the additional papers should be distributed well in advance of the meeting. The Planning Group members should also be encouraged to access the Giving in Grace web site before the meeting and familiarise themselves with the overall feel of the site.

By the end of this meeting the Planning Group need to have:

• familiarised themselves with two primary principles of Giving in Grace: the importance of leadership and the preparation of a case statement.
• enjoyed a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of mission and ministry, and begun to identify key areas of focus.
• assigned the Planning Group roles and responsibilities.(refer to the Planning Group Roles document)
• ensured that the financial details in the case statement will be ready for the next meeting.
• determined the dates and times of future meetings.

Once roles are agreed, then members will need to explore the section of the web site for which they have a particular responsibility, e.g. Prayer.

For the next meeting

• the treasurer (with assistance from others in the group) should have undertaken the financial analysis and produced a draft of the Parish Plan.
• The strengths and weaknesses discussion (Section1) and the financial data in section 2 (from the treasurer) should be written up in to the case statement.
• A brief summary of the leadership discussion should have been written up in to the Leadership paragraph in Section 5 of the case statement.
• The leadership coordinator has overall responsibility for the preparation of the case statement. They should ensure that a copy of the case statement is made available for each member of the group, along with the agenda for the second meeting.
• The communications coordinator prepares an outline of the written literature in the Communication section of the programme.