Annual Report 2024-2025 - Flipbook - Page 9
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY
CONNIE BROICH
We are the team of people who provide the critical
infrastructure which supports Plymouth Church’s wider mission
of loving God and neighbor. Plymouth can open its doors to
our neighbors because we have this team of people who are
responsible for the behind-the-scenes work to make our building
inviting and comfortable. This work includes cleaning, room
setups, coordinating building use, maintaining all aspects of
the building and surrounding grounds, tracking policies, and
managing the back-end technology software and infrastructure.
We have a robust Building & Grounds committee that gives
countless hours of help and expertise ranging from architecture
to windows which helps ensure that we are able to preserve this
building well into the future.
• Our 3-year contract with Lumen for Internet connectivity
was due to expire at the end of May, so we took the
opportunity to explore other options, hoping to save some
money. We found a more affordable, redundant solution
with Aureon as a primary provider and Metronet as a backup.
We maintain the same primary Internet speed through
Aureon and Metronet’s backup connection will be lower, but
overall, we saved nearly $700/month by making the switch!
The Operations and Technology team consists of the
following people:
Building and Grounds Updates
• Director of Operations & Technology – Connie Broich
• Administrative Assistant – Dan Schott
• Facilities Manager – Dan Mowry
• Assistant Facilities Manager – Jan Kinney (PT)
• Custodians:
− Full-time: Mike Perry, Zack Creviston, Nicole Freeborn
− Part-time: Roberto Sanchez, Brian Leckrone
Administrative and Technology Updates
• With assistance from Pam Duffy, Former Moderator, we
have made significant progress on updating church policies.
We now have a policy tracking system in place and are
working with the Boards and staff to review, update and
approve policies on a consistent 3-year basis.
• We implemented managed printing which helps reduce
unnecessary printing, provides confidentiality, and allows
us to track printing costs on a more granular level.
• In order to maintain a secure and functional computer
environment, we have established a 4-year replacement cycle
for staff computers. We purchased seven new staff computers
at the end of 2024.
Plymouth’s commitment to operational excellence includes
providing first-class facilities to support the congregation and
Plymouth’s staff. The Trustee’s Building and Grounds Committee
guiding principles are to operate and maintain Plymouth’s
buildings and grounds in a way that is respectful of its historic
and artistic features and of our planet and that is respectful to the
needs of the next generation.
Plymouth Foundation-Funded Projects:
The Plymouth Foundation has been instrumental in their support
of the necessary facilities projects throughout this past year. Here
is a list of the projects they sponsored through their generosity:
• In Waveland Hall, two of the room dividers, now 20 years
old, were failing. We installed two new room dividers so we
can continue to split the room into separate spaces.
• Parking lot repairs to South, Circle, Ingersoll, and East
driveways.
• Front step repair.
• Added additional dirt around sidewalks due to soil erosion
• We switched our website domain provider from Sherweb to
SquareSpace.
• Installed a newly fabricated downspout in Plymouth Nursery
School playground.
• We have converted our elevator phone lines from Plain
Old Telephone System (POTS) lines from CenturyLink to
networked/cellular phone lines through Lumen. POTS lines
are being eliminated by most phone companies, so this was a
necessary step to ensure we have functioning phone lines in
each of our four elevators.
• Hired Air-Con to do mapping of all the underground drains
• We reviewed our current billing from MidAmerican Electric
and determined that our current billing structure was the
most cost-effective plan available.
• Made irrigation system repairs to get the system functional
again.
• Engineered a solution on the east side of the church to
mitigate water flow issues by installing a cement drainage
system with a new “beehive” drain.
• Replaced all the exit signs in the building which were
installed 20 years ago.
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