When you must share the house - or borrow it

I had an interesting conversation recently with someone that felt that they could not benefit from consulting services because, not having their own facility, they held their worship services at a nearby school. We did not go into details as to whether they would have a building anytime soon, and, quite frankly, it doesn't have a significant impact here. There are several safety and security issues that crop up in relation to sharing a house of worship - or borrowing one temporarily. I'll spend a little time on a few here...

Access: It's still about Access Management. Who has it, who needs it, and how do you know. How many access points does a school, or community center typically have? Quite a few in my experience, so how can you be sure who is in or out of a facility. What about hygiene facilities? At any given time, how do you know they are safe? In other words, who may be lurking in a restroom? How are collections processed and safeguarded? Who has access? How do you know. There are probably more keys floating around for those buildings than anyone can know. As a periodic user of the facility it is unlikely that you can change this fact, but you can manage the subsequent risks.

What are just a few thoughts to take away?

Keep a closer eye on children particularly when they head into the restrooms. It's also a good idea to ensure that these areas are searched by responsible adults prior to use. This could be done by those that arrive to set up.

Segregate the area to be used from the facility in general. Many schools, at least the ones I remember, had fences that were pulled across specific hallways as the school was closed. If these exist, and it DOES NOT create an evacuation hazard, then they should be used. Be sure that school officials are the ones to actually close and lock these to ensure that doing so keeps the occupancy within local code.

Any area in which cash is to be processed or stored should be adequately protected. It is my opinion, that when this is done within an uncontrolled location, like a school or community center, then a cash-in-transit provider should be used whenever possible - and please choose a reputable one (email me for some guidelines to use when evaluating vendors). Either way, I would not bother to count or process the funds on location; instead I would work with a bank that would provide a counting room and process it there. Otherwise, just pass it on to the bank and let them process it. I know it is important to give credit to those who use checks or donation envelopes and this service can be done by a CIT service; or this can be done in a counting room at the bank. There are other options but the bank is convenient since the funds will end up there anyway.

Nursery areas should also be carefully selected and searched since they are more likely to have a dangerous objects present (at least objects dangerous to young children).

Just a few thoughts. I'm sure this will be revisited again.

Rob
/