A few months back a group of Evergreen folks (including Publicity Committee, some Board members, some Committee on Ministry members, and others) got together to talk about reaching out effectively to the wider community. A large number of people in our area hold values very like our UU Principles, but they just haven’t yet learned that we are here.

       A clear first step was to get a better sense of ourselves as Evergreen Fellowship. None of our computer systems track this information, especially why Evergreen is important to us. So, a survey was made available by the Committee on Ministry (staffed by Rev. Bruce Davis and Dan Klimke) to Evergreen’s members and friends to find some answers. The survey was completed by 125 people in our congregation, which is a terrific response. Thank you.


DEMOGRAPHICS
       The first data point provides some very important information for us to look at as a Fellowship. I won’t bore you with all of graphs, but some are important—especially this one. Looking at the age of our members and friends, it becomes obvious that there is a huge group from age 50 to 70. Ten years from now, that group will be 60 to 80. These are the so-called baby-boomers coming into their senior years. The health of the whole congregation will depend on growth in the younger decades, especially younger adults from 20 to 50, many of them with children. There’s no magic number for the mean age of a healthy, growing congregation, but it’s surely less than our current adult mean age near sixty years.

 

 

 

 

The length of time members and friends have been at Evergreen varies widely, with several being part of the community for less than a year, and quite a large number for ten to more than twenty-five years.

 

 

 

 

 

Near seventy percent of surveyed members and friends attend between two and four of the Sunday services. This demonstrates our commitment to Evergreen and how important the Fellowship is in the lives of the congregation.
 

For those responding to the survey, 31 children or grandchildren are active in Evergreen RE program. Women account for 66% of respondents, and 34% were men. 76% of those surveyed reported having life partners.

The geographic spread of members and friends across our area is significant. A zip-code map is included below. The majority come from Everett, Marysville, and Snohomish areas. On average it takes about 17 minutes for people to get to Evergreen on a Sunday morning, or 34 minutes round trip. This makes us more like a rural or county congregation, drawing from several localities. Distance is a factor that we must take into account for our programming, covenant circles, and pastoral care support.

 

 

The "Why" of Your Being at Evergreen

 

The responses to the open-ended question about Evergreen’s importance to you, led to the following clusters of responses:

• Warm, caring and supportive fellowship family/community. Deep, trusting relationships, friends, safe (73)
• Shared values (including UU, liberal religion) Like-minded people (37)
  
• Explore Spirituality and personal development (27)
  
• Valuing diversity of people, open-minded, inclusiveness (21)
  
• Sunday services/ Minister entertaining, inspiring, sermons, warm (17)
  
• Classes, small groups, and activities for children, adults, intergenerational. (16)
  
• Social action, environment (8)
  

Also listed as important were music, welcoming, social activities, discussion groups, and Men’s and Women’s groups.

Regarding what would make Evergreen better:

• Closer to home (11)
• More members, financial security, pay staff better (7)
• More involvement in what needs to get done (5)
• Wider community social action (5)
  
• More small groups, spiritual direction group, singles (4)
  
• Environmental leadership, solar panels (3)
  
• More young adults (3)
  
• More ethnic diversity, more intergenerational (2)
  

Also listed were more social time and fun, better parking, and improving RE interest for some children.

       Those who have reviewed these data have pointed to the fact that there are more responses about how Evergreen is working than concerns about what improvements need to be made. That does not mean to rest on our laurels, but it is OK to take some pride on all that is going well in our Fellowship community.

       The multiple choice item about what attracts a member or friend to Evergreen suggests that highest importance goes to our agreement with UU values, our emphasis on spiritual growth, and our quality of welcome. The similar item that asks why we stay at Evergreen indicates that a number of factors are very important, including Sunday service and minister, warmth of community connections, evolving friendships, small-group experiences, the music program, and the direction and growth of Evergreen. These priorities were further confirmed by the rating items that followed in the survey.

       Perhaps the greatest consternation of the survey was presented by the “forced choice” item suggested by our Publicity Committee. Each of us was asked to do the impossible—choose between items that were both important. Please know that the folks using this data realize the importance of all of the following areas to Evergreen members and friends.

So, if you had to choose…. The prioritized results over the 125 Evergreen survey respondents are as follows:

 

A. Warm interpersonal connections and intentional family.
B. Personal and spiritual growth
C. Educational programs: children, adults, and intergenerational
D. Enjoyent and participation in music and the arts
E. Social action and justice activities

 

       So, what happens to this information? Does it get stuffed in a notebook and become “shelf-art” on a bookcase? Definitely not. The first use of this information is to inform ourselves about who we are. Presentations have taken place in both Board and Committee on Ministry, so that our leaders can make decisions with this information in mind. The information will also be essential as our Publicity Committee creates a program of invitation and outreach to prospective new members and friends at Evergreen.

 

       Organizations that know clearly why they are important to their people are much more effective at engaging newcomers and encouraging them to join.

       The response to the survey was simply amazing. On behalf of all those involved in putting it together, we thank you so much for making this a success!

 

With love,