Some reactions:

Some property committees have women??? Wow!

Tack strips--close to the ceiling, or at children's eye level--are a good way to hang temporary stuff without hurting the wall. The strips are permanently attached cork board type stuff about 1/2 to 1" wide, pretty unobtrusive.

I count myself blessed that the CE chair is married to our property chair--it simplifies some things.

I also count myself blessed to be in an old church that used to have a larger congregation--we have a surplus of rooms. The easiest ones to get permission for total renovations have been the ones up behind the balcony (the hs and ms youth got those--the adults don't like climbing the stairs anyway) and the rooms that had become storage closets over time--when no one has opened the doors for years there is less investment in preserving what used to be.

I once helped develop a child care program and one of the facilities we visited with really cool digs was located in a historic downtown building with WPA murals on the walls. The space the kids got was two stories on the first floor, but don't touch the walls. The daycare built a two story house with all kinds of nooks and crannies (didn't need a roof) and a fenced in "yard", right in the middle of the murals. Sometimes the obstacles can push us to the most exciting places.

Peggy Sorensen
Broad St CC
Columbus, Ohio