Facilities | Retreat House | FAQs
FAQs about the CCC Retreat House
Q. Why does CCC have a Retreat House?
A. The name conveys the mission -- to provide a location for retreats from our ordinary lives in order to help us to reflect, to enhance our spirituality, to promote education in our values, and to build community. (10/15/11)
Q. What can you do there?
A. The house itself, while rustic, provides space for meetings, reading, reflection, and meditation; for cooking and dining; and for sleeping. A separate chapel affords space for meditation and worship, and a large field gives us lots of space for outdoor activities. The surroundings are rural, isolated, and bucolic. Many users have enjoyed exploring the woods and climbing neighboring hills. The Cacapon River, which runs down one side of the property, affords swimming, tubing and fishing for summer camps and other users. (10/15/11)
Q. Why are we considering renovation?
A. Right now, we cannot make full use of the facility. In 2006, the fire marshal declared the second floor of the building unsafe for sleeping and limited use of the kitchen. In addition, the facility does not meet current standards for accessibility. (10?15/11)
Q. How many people can be at the Retreat House at once? How does the capacity correspond to the size of groups that might want to use the facility?
A. At present, we can sleep 8 people in the main building, where sleeping is limited to the first floor (in space formerly used for meetings and living areas). A rustic bunk house provides additional space for 8, and a screened sleeping pavilion used by summer camps can hold about as many more; neither have bathrooms. For busy weekends, sometimes attendees use tents. More people can be accommodated on a day-use basis, so a group of 30 or more might use the house for a one-day meeting.
Before the code violations became apparent in 2006, the main building had space to sleep 24 in three bedrooms on the second floor. At that time, the first floor was used for meetings and for dining. (10/15/11)
Q. How much is the Retreat House used now?
A. At present, the Retreat House is used for CCC summer camp (now three one-week sessions) and retreats for a number of groups, such as the youth group, men’s group, and young adults, as well as work retreats. (10/15/11)
Q. Was it used more extensively in the past, before the fire code problems became evident?
A. Yes. Many more groups used the facility for fall or spring retreats. In years of peak usage, finding an available weekend was sometimes difficult. (10/15/11)
Q. How limited is the use of the facility now?
The fire code problems mean that we cannot now use the three bedrooms on the second floor for sleeping, and the first floor meeting rooms have been pressed into service as bedrooms. The number that can sleep in the main building is thus limited, and lack of a bathroom makes the bunk house less attractive to some. The second floor is usable for meeting space, but as these rooms have no heat source, spring and fall use present a challenge. In addition, we can only use one of the range tops in the kitchen, which makes cooking for large groups difficult. (10/15/11)
Q. Is the Retreat House just for our camping ministry?
A. No. The summer camps for children and youth have continued to be prominent users, by working creatively within the current limitations on the building. However, the facility was never conceived as just a place for camps, and other groups continue to use the facility and have found it a valuable spot for retreats as part of their activities. (10/15/11)
Q. How far is the Retreat House from Silver Spring?
A. The trip from CCC takes from 1.5 to 2 hours, using an appropriate choice of routes and not counting any intermediate stops. The distance is just over 100 miles. (10/15/11)
Q. How is the Retreat House now funded? Is it paid for from the CCC budget?
A. The routine operating and maintenance costs of the Retreat House are met by nightly fees paid by those that stay there. At present the fees are $15/night for adult members and $20/night for non-members, with slightly lower charges for kids. The CCC budget pays for property taxes and utilities, an amount now typically budgeted at $3,000 per year. This amount is the financial contribution by the church as a whole toward having a retreat house as part of its overall program. (10/15/11)
Q. Could we just continue to use the Retreat House as it is?
A. Yes, as long as we observe the constraints imposed by the fire marshal and otherwise live with the limits of the facility. (10/15/11)
Q. How much is it going to cost to renovate the Retreat House?
A. Costs of renovation will depend on how extensive a renovation we undertake. We are now exploring options. Guesstimates range from perhaps $150,000 up to about $500,000, but we will not have a reliable sense of what is possible until the discernment process if farther along. (10/15/11)
Q. What is the minimum needed to get the Retreat House “back on line?”
A. We don’t know yet. One of the options we are exploring is what is the minimum to that would be required to meet the code. Experience with other projects suggests that addressing the evident code problems will necessitate some other changes as well, because if we start a project we may need to bring other aspects, such as the electrical system, into conformance with current codes as well. (10/15/11)
Q. What would it take to make sure that the facility is accessible to all?
A. Besides the need for an accessible entrance to the first floor, the major concern relating to access is that no sleeping area or bathroom is accessible to those in wheelchairs or with other mobility limitations. Making the second floor accessible would be prohibitive. To ensure accessibility, we need to consider adding bed and bath space on the first floor. (10/15/11)
Q. Could we rent out the Retreat House, if we renovate it, to help defray the costs?
A. Yes, we believe outside groups would be attracted to rent the facility. A renovation would be likely to increase use by both inside and outside groups, and if the facility is improved we are likely to attract more interest from outside groups. Note, however, that the year only provides a limited number of useable weekends, and to increase outside income we might have to curtail our own use. At rates comparable to those today, increased use by outside groups would increase total income only if this use was in addition to use that would otherwise be made by CCC members. To the extent that outside use replaced that of CCC groups, total income would remain about the same unless we charged outside groups significantly more. (10/15/11)
Q. Won’t the money we got from the sale of the painting discovered at the Retreat House go a long way to pay for the renovation?
A. The sale of the painting netted CCC $82,775 several years ago. Those funds were added to a “Retreat House Restoration Fund,” and some of the fund has been spent on planning. In October 2011, the balance in this fund was $79,619. This amount represents a start, but more funding will be needed to plan and complete a renovation. (10/15/11)
Q. If we do a renovation, would we have to increase our fees (for CCC members and others) to the extent that potential users might prefer to go elsewhere?
A. At present our low fees appear attractive, and if raise them by too much, potential users might well go elsewhere. If we are able to secure the funds needed for renovation by fundraising from the congregation (and former members with an interest in the Retreat House), we should be able to avoid any substantial increase in operating fees. (10/15/11)
Q. Would CCC have to go further into debt to fund a renovation of the Retreat House?
A. Our discussions so far have been confined to approaches that would involve raising the amounts needed for renovation in advance, meaning that we would not add debt -- interest and principal of which would have to be paid from the CCC budget or from fees paid by Retreat House users. Considering that CCC has about $1.6 million in debt resulting from renovation of our main building, adding more debt -- and hence requiring the debt be serviced from either user fees or the CCC budget -- might be a difficult choice. (10/15/11)
Q. Have we considered partnering with other churches or another organization to help share the costs?
A. Some have suggested this idea as a way of spreading the costs of renovation. However, if another organization were to take an equity stake in the property, our ability to use it for our own programs and to control the calendar would be compromised. In addition, finding another, compatible organization to share use of the house and that has funds available for this purpose might not be easy. (10/15/11)
Q. Would it make sense to sell off part of the land to help fund the renovation?
A. This possibility might be worth considering. However, we would also need to consider the loss of control over the part we sell and whether we could ensure that a split of the property would leave us with space adequate for our programs and that would not interfere with the unspoiled views. Also, the entire property now receives an advantageous property tax rate (unlike our sanctuary, it is not tax exempt) because it is treated as farm land -- a neighboring farmer uses the main part of the property for pasture. Subdividing the property might mean we would lose that advantage and hence see an increase in taxes. (10/15/11)
Q. How much could we sell the property for?
A. We don’t know for sure. As one indicator, the current tax assessment on the property totals $107,220 (land - $33,780; improvements - $73,440). It is hard to judge how closely that amount approximates what the property would bring if sold. (10/15/11)
Q. What might we do with the money if we sold the Retreat House?
A. We could establish some sort of special fund to support activities similar to those for which we use the Retreat House now, or we could dedicate them to other purposes, such as paying down our mortgage or supporting aspects of our operating budget. (10/15/11)
Q. Have we considered using other facilities in the area of CCC for our retreats? How would that approach affect our costs and programming?
A. Other facilities that are suitable for retreats are available within a comparable drive from Silver Spring. We have not investigated them extensively, but it appears that the usage fees are higher than we charge for the Retreat House. We would have to fit our use with the availability of these facilities. Whether we could find a suitable site for a CCC summer camp program is less apparent. (10/15/11)
Q. How does the need for funds for the Retreat House fit with the other needs of CCC for funds? Can we afford to spend a lot on a renovation while we have a big mortgage on the church building?
A. Clearly, our other financial commitments are concerning. We think that some donations might be forthcoming specifically for the Retreat House if they were needed. We don’t yet know how much a renovation would cost. How we might afford it, should we decide to move forward, is for us to discern together in the course of the congregational discernment process now ongoing. (10/15/11)
Q. What about security for the building?
A. While the building is unoccupied much of the year, its obscure location seems to afford some protection and few problems have arisen over the years that CCC has owned the building. Mr. Davis, the neighboring farmer who uses our pasture, mows around the house and keeps an eye on the property for us. If we were to do a substantial and obvious renovation, security problems would be more concerning, and we would have to consider how to mitigate them. (10/15/11)
Q. How does the Retreat House fit with CCC’s mission?
A. This is a good question -- one that we will be considering in the course of the congregational discernment process. All members and friends are invited to join in discussions of this and related questions starting in late October. (10/15/11)
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