Good News, Bad News

I took a look at some attendance figures today. In particular, I was interested in attendance trends for the 8:45 and 6:00 (Refuge) services. This is what I learned about 2011 attendance at the 8:45, 10:30 (included for comparison), and 6:00 services:

Date	8:45 Service	10:30 Service	6:00 Service
Jan. 2	65	145	28
Jan. 9	102	162	44
Jan. 16	125	130	27
Jan 23	90	135	cancelled
Jan 30	108	118	21
Feb 6	145	129	cancelled
Feb 13	109	129	26
Feb. 20	120	138	32
Feb. 27	116	133	25
Mar. 6	110	140	22
Mar. 13	74	135	23
Mar. 20	108	125	20
Mar. 27	169	140	21
Apr. 3	128	164	33
Average	112.1	128.1	26.8

The good news is that the 8:45 service seems to be gaining a constituency, as its attendance is much improved from last year. I suspected this was the case, since there have been more cars in the parking lot when I arrive on Sunday for choir rehearsal than formerly.

The bad news, of course, is that Refuge, attendance appears to be down. Kris reported an average attendance of 34 last year in the annual report. (See “Annual Report Part 7.”) The number so far for 2011 has declined by 7.

I have no explanation for either of these trends. Perhaps someone else does.