So, what’s new with The Sparrow’s Nest is one of those questions I’m never exactly sure how to answer. It depends on how much time you have to sit and listen to my brain dump. 🙂 This is my attempt to give you snapshot just from the past week or so to keep in you in the loop .

The Facilities team of Matt Liefer, Mark Atchley, and Jason Carothers met at The Nest to walk through and discuss developing projects for clean up, renovation, repairs, and additions that are needed to get The Nest operational by this fall. Tim Nilges will meet me next week to look at the landscaping and making a plan to ensure water drains away from the house. Their suggestions will be the basis for our workdays this fall. Our biggest and most immediate need is filling the pool with dirt to avoid high insurance premiums and difficult licensing requirements. Other suggestions have been filling halfway with concrete and topping with topsoil or building a deck over the pool. We are also getting bids on replacing the windows, electrical boxes, and flooring. Kevin Thompson has been working diligently with the bank, title company, working through the easement issue. We should have news very soon on closing on the property in O’Fallon. We hope to have a ribbon cutting in late August.

Fundraising continues to be a primary focus to support all the start up costs and staffing needs this year. This Sunday is the Silent Auction at The River City Rascals. Allison Thorn as well as Jen Riley, Carla Klaskin, and myself have been running around picking up auction donations, creating bid sheets and descriptions. I’ve also been trying to recruit volunteers to help with set up, selling 50/50 tickets, manning The Sparrow’s Nest Information Table, and manning the actual auction. The Sparrow Scramble Team also met this week to continue planning for September 13. Donations of sports drinks, soda, and bottled water are greatly needed. We discussed approaching Sam’s Club for donations as well. Cynthia Colthorp is organizing all the food. Derek Conley is working on hole games. Shari Hammer and Kelly Willbrand are working on registration. Allison Thorn and I are chasing sponsorships.  Sponsorships are going well but we do need folks to start confirming their foursomes.  The Fundraising Chairs will meet towards the end of August to start planning for next years sponsorship opportunities. Jeremy Walker is working to quickly get the eStore up and running with Sparrow merchandise. Betty Lovell is coordinating The Little Things project where local women are sewing hand made baby items to sell on the Sparrow eStore as well. Individual donations are still the crux of our funding. I have several grants in the pipeline and drafting several more.

Board Development Kevin and I also have been reviewing The Sparrow’s Nest bylaws and board terms. We will have our annual meeting in September to re-elect officers. We have been interviewing 2 additional board members but are open to what God is doing bringing other self starters, highly motivated, strong leaders to the board. Several board members will be attending the Global Leadership Summit in August as well as the rest of the board is making plans to attend the Alliance for Life Conference in October.

The Com Team is meeting next week to plan out the next 6 months communication plan. Board Member Caleb Freeman will be directing that path. Becky Sieve and Elisha Niemens are working on facebook. Jen Riley, Adria Gratiot, Joelle Sanders, Sara Berry, and I will continue collaborating on the monthly newsletter. We are still looking for a team member to manage twitter.

The Operations Team is still plugging through those last policies needed for licensing and hiring our staff. Kate Thoelke is researching salary ranges. Becky Sieve is proofreading the document and looking for policies that are still needed. Sandra Wilhite is finalizing de-escalation policies and I’m drafting our programming requirements. We hope to have job descriptions posted in the next 30 days. We’re working with Mercy, Thrive, and Safe Homes to formalize our partnerships with them through Memorandums of Understandings.

Volunteers will be sad to learn our Volunteer Coordinator is moving to Dallas next year so we will looking to somehow fill her shoes soon to continue collecting volunteer interest forms and moving through volunteers through the application process.  We’re slowly getting the trainings in place for those who want to work with our residents directly this fall. I want to remind people that if they feel called to serve our residents they need to go through the application process, background check, trainings, and serve as a general volunteer for admin or events to fulfil the the 36 hour or 6 month relationship requirement. We really need someone to step up as a Prayer Coordinator. 

I hope this gives you some information that you have been looking for. Are we pulling off the look of calm cool ducks floating on a pond or do you see how we are paddling like mad underneath the water to get The Sparrow’s Nest to launch? 😀