Interviews:

The first step in the assessment of the “State of the Parish” was to conduct personal interviews of those people familiar with St. Margaret Mary Parish. The Vision Team conducted interviews with Father Walsh, the Parish Staff and the Chancellor for Administration in the Diocese of Orlando. All interviews were conducted by two Vision Team members who used a consistent set of questions for each interview. All reporting was anonymous and the responses were consolidated into one report. The Vision Team analyzed the responses to identify key subject areas or “themes”. As themes surfaced, they helped the Vision Team identify potential “focus areas” for further feedback and assessment. This formed the basis for the next step, interviewing Parish Focus Groups. Also, some“early victory” actions were shared with the Parish Council for possible immediate actions.

Focus Groups:

The seven Focus Groups were the Parish Council, Parish School Board/School Parents, Seniors, Youth/Young Adults, Families with No Children in the Parish School and Families with No Children at Home. A special attempt was made to identify a diversity of people , both highly engaged parishioners and less engaged parishioners of various ages.

Professional consultants from Research Powered Marketing Group were engaged to facilitate the Focus Group feedback sessions and common topics were discussed. Upon completion of all the sessions, they delivered to the Vision Team a summary presentation of the feedback shared. This presentation further validated some themes and common insights that had surfaced during the Interviews. The next step, the Parish Survey, was another way of surfacing these common themes and potentially capture additional themes.