Long Island East District
Long Island East District
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
of the New York Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church
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Click here to download a Disaster Planning Guide created by the Florida Annual Conference.
 
Read the letter from Bishop Bickerton regarding response to Hurricane Mathew.
Text of letter sent to all LIE churches:
 

To: Church Pastor, Chairperson Church Council; Chairperson Trustees

With the authorization of the Rev. Julia YH Yim and the approval of the District Council on Ministries a new Charge Conference reporting requirement to address Church Preparedness has been requested for each Church in the Long Island East District. 

Each Church is asked to appoint an individual to be responsible for church disaster preparation and response for their church.  Each Church will address the following at their respective charge conference.

a.       Develop a disaster plan for your church (what to do in the advent of a disaster either manmade, natural or other) to be approved by the 2017 charge conference.

b.       Attend LIE district sponsored training events to prepare the disaster plan and supporting documents.

c.       Generate a list of church resources that will enable your church to meet the needs of the congregation and / or the community in time of a disaster.

d.       Coordinate with the LI East Disaster Preparedness and Response committee and attend future trainings.

e.       Seek to promote the training of members of the congregation in Early Response Team and Disaster and Emotional Spiritual Care training and other trainings as appropriate.

Sincerely,

Warren Ferry
LI East District Disaster Preparation and Response Chairperson

 

Disaster Preparation and Response



                                       
A Note from DPR Chair, Warren Ferry
Did you ever wonder why some people or organizations seem to most always get things right?  They generally do not have problems doing the job they have to do on a daily basis.  I read a book recently entitled "Spaceman” written by astronaut Mike Massimino a Long Islander who was fortunate to be able to become an astronaut and during his career was blessed to be one of those who serviced the Hubble Space Telescope, twice!  Mike tells in his book about the hours and hours week after week, month after month of the training, practice and process that it took for him and his team mates to be able to accomplish all of the amazing things that they did to repair the Hubble telescope in order to keep it operational.  The book is a really good read and I recommend it.


While we all know the importance of practice, “practice makes perfect”, it is the process and proving out of the processes that enable the team to repeat the tasks.  The Federal Aviation Administration was one of the first organization to document process and develop checklists for flying and now every aircraft crew, air traffic controller and all individuals who are involved in flying the public, utilize checklists for all aspects of flight.  Checklists are the basic tool that enable the airline industry to safely transport millions of people around the world.  As a result of that success even doctors and hospitals are beginning to adopt checklists to be able to make operations and procedures as error free as possible to improve the chance that those operations are successful for their patients and their organizations. 

 

What about the church?  Can the church benefit from written process and checklists?  I believe that for many of the tasks that we do, the church will benefit greatly from having a written process and appropriate checklists.  Because many, if not most tasks that we do in the church are performed by lay persons and volunteers, it is important to capture the basic processes of major tasks, and then provide that process and a checklist to the volunteers to use as a guide for them to do the job. 

What kind of tasks in the church would benefit from process and checklists?  I am sure that many of you will think of lots of areas but some include;

  • Trustees yearly review of the buildings and grounds (HVAC / Electrical) and yearly insurance review.
  • Finance / Treasurer operating desk manual
  • Administrative assistant desk manual
  • Emergency evacuation plans
  • Storm closing policy 
Proposal accepted by District Council on Ministries: