Looking back at my calendar in the days I was on district and sectional staff, my calendar was a mess. Thing is there were times the staff needed to meet more often, yet for a short period of time and without all that travel.
Why then do staff have to travel up to Allentown (a good 1+ hr for me), Harrisburg (1.5-2 hours), Scranton (2+ hrs), or Springfield (20 hours by car or a pricey airfare)? Why not have a conference call and web conference option for a lot of these meetings? Why not cut out parts of the meeting which are planning sessions during a conference call or web conference?
I recall at the very first Junior Computer Camp…
…I put together a conference call between my staff and the district Junior Camps Coordinator, who was at that time away in another state. Why wait until the next district roundtable (or whatever it is called now) to have a breakaway meeting? Why not do it when you have a group of people involved in that group aready together who can spare 15 minutes to meet? In this instance it worked great and I’d do these kind of meetings again next time I serve in an administrative role like that.
My point is that we need to make effective use of the technology, people, and resources we have in administering our organizations.
Here’s a list of some methods and resources I’d consider for wide-area administrative planning:
- I’d use WordPress 3.0+ and Google Apps to create the workspace. (Microsoft project is since it isn’t highly + freely available.)
- Create an event calendar, to schedule event, deadlines, and schedule collaborative meetings (Google apps)
- Create a list of goals and objectives
- Create task lists, including tasks groups, task types, deadlines, resources needed, etc (Google app + WordPress)
- Since we’re talking about lists, why not add a prayer list and send out weekly prayer list emails?
- Create resource lists, which include people, materials, facilities, and other resources
- Schedule conference calls (with web conferencing) with the entire staff, then with work groups, and individuals. I’d have regular status update meetings and would not at all depend on a roundtable meetings (the one that people take off a Sunday to travel for hours to load up on coffee to try to keep attention and want to leave as soon at they get there)
- The project website is where details get put together, as well as the event is administered. The public website is of course where people go to find out info about the event, register, and view social media from past related events. (WordPress would be used, along with Vimeo/YouTube, Flickr, Google Picasa, etc.)
I’m going to stop there and am going to list the methods I’d use to run this event as well as a staff I’d be facilitating:
- Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the source. If the God’s will isn’t there, then all efforts are in vain. Plus the Holy Spirit does all the heavy lifting. We need to be in tune to what God is doing and how God is providing.
- Staffing and Head hunters: It takes people to make it happen. we need people to recruit the right type of people to join the staff for the roles needed to run the event, with emphasis on matching people’s abilities with the needs, not just throwing bodies in the mix.
- Prayer: This is were the the staff connect with God and we follow the guidence of the Holy Spirit.
- Project/event website: I already mentioned details about this in my last list. Don’t make the mistake of relaying on the chaos of each staff member’s inbox and computer workspace. Centralize it online!
- Public website: <sameless jab>Penn-Del’s website needs converted to WordPress 3.0+</sameless jab> If so, they could easy create an event website for Powwow, Camporee, etc. And social networking integration would be more streamline, where news would automatically be syndicated to facebook and twitter.
- Phone calls: Though I use my phone for everything but calls, we still have calls. I think we get lazy, distracted, or too busy to make a simple call to people.
- Conference calls: With Skype I can host a conference call with a smaller group size for next to nothing in cost. So many other solutions out too.
- Web conferences: Web conferencing allows for computer screen sessions, along with a conference call. Solutions range from free to low cost
- Staff emails: The are emails to entire staff, work groups, individuals, etc
- Marketers, personalities, and MC’s: We need people to market these events, as well as be the voice + personality of the event. For example, when I think Tour de France, I think Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, and Verses.
- Email marketing or mass emails: There is a right and wrong way to do this. An email should be quick, to the point, and points to where all the details are on your website. It should not be an SOS call to get those registrations in, as well as a comprehensive book of details. Maybe get someone that’s good at mass marketing, not some computer geek, heading this up. (That is unless your computer geek is good at mass marketing.)
- Postal mailings: There is a lack of effective mass postal mailings, since we are lazy with email. I’d send out 1-4 times a year to Outposts and Church (especially those that are not chartered) a post card or letter sized poster summing up what is going on and when. Point to the website for full details. (Sounds like what you need to do for a mass email.)
- Feedback from participants: Do your feedback in-person, on paper, and web form. Don’t neglect the personal touch and listen to people. Also, try to avoid feedback vampires that love to be critical and cynical. Some ideas might be outside your organization’s norm, yet take time to process ideas, where some ideas might be good to implement later, if not sooner or at all.
There is so much more I can divide this post and expand on. My prayers continue to be that we get servant leadership in place throughout our organizations who know how to effectively organize and administer organizations, rather than sail ship with leaks covered up with duck tape.