Church IT Association - Where Do We Go From Here?
Posted on April 24, 2007
Now that the spring Church IT Roundtable is over, there is talk about forming some kind of church IT association. Tony posted about it and Jason has, as well and others are, also, I’m sure. So, what does this mean? Is now the time to organize and be a formal group? Maybe. It does seem that way.
I commented on Tony’s post yesterday and maybe I should have just written my own post instead, considering how long my comment ended up. Like others, I wonder what this group should look like and how it will take shape.
Honestly, the roundtable that just happened looks to be the foundation for our national association, those that were there connected with many others and plans are already being made for this fall.
Although there’s no right or wrong way to go about this or even a proven method, as I look back over the last couple of years, here’s what I see. 3 years ago, I found myself in the position of being the sole IT volunteer at my church and responsible for a lot of things. I loved it, it was a great time and I also realized I was probably in over my head. I had been playing around with blogging and thought if I blogged about what I was doing, I could learn from others that knew more than me.
At that time, there were not many church IT blogs for me to tap into, so I thought of a catchy name for my blog and off I went. My initial purpose for doing my blog was to learn how to do IT in a church and I am much smarter when it comes to many things these days than I used to be, for sure. My blog has also connected me with many, many church IT people, which I didn’t anticipate in the beginning. I started out anonymously, not even giving up my name, but over time, that changed. Now, I’m pretty transparent, down to even putting my phone number on my blog.
I am doing more things for more churches these days than ever and that’s exactly what I want, and I see God leading me to do more all the time.
From when I first started my blog through today, I have watched this church IT group take shape and we can talk about it all day long, but I think the reality is that the church IT association or group or whatever you want to call it is here now.
So, the question becomes, where do we go from here? I wonder if attempting to administrate a group like this could mess up the continuity we are already seeing. Maybe not. I’m open to anything, really, and I’ll help out however I can and support whatever this becomes.
Tony suggests the name Church IT Association. It has a nice ring to it. Maybe we need a CITA logo that all of us proudly display on our sidebars. A website makes sense, but what does that entail? Are their dues? Maybe, maybe not. Is it national? international?
Will there be local chapters? There is one starting where I live (Joplin area CITA?) not because of the roundtable but it just so happens that Bryson and I met the week before the roundtable and we both have the same desire to network with other local churches. Any other church IT people in the Joplin area wanna connect?
The group has already started, the conversation has already started, where do we go from here?
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Have you considered asking ICTA if you could have a specialized forum within the association? ( http://www.icta.net ) Pete Holtzman petereg@icta.net is the head of it. It is a significant group already established. Just a thought. Eric
Hi guys…
Eric Busby at Saddleback here. Sorry I missed meeting with you all. Maybe in the fall.
As a church technologist you have to come up with answers to complex problems quickly. As the Pastor of Channel Development at Saddleback Church I would LOVE to have a very connected interactive experience with all of you so we could solve some of these together.
Sooo…. I would like to invite you to be my friend on twitter. This means you will get my tweets and I will get your tweets. I have it setup to go to my cell phone. Robert Scoble has over 3000 twitter friends. This is where I saw this work for the first time. Everyone collaborates instantly. The wisdom of crowds, the long tail, disruptive innovation, collective wisdom, etc.
For example, this morning I want to ask a question about Wikis and volunteers.
I would tweet it to you, you could tweet back your thoughts. We would all benefit.
So, I invite you to check me out on http://twitter.com/ericbusby - I think a micro blog is better for pushing the innovation curve in my world anyway.
(If you follow my tweets I will add you as a friend so I get yours too)
See you there?
Eric
I’m thinking the pattern we’re establishing is a good one. We have 2 events each year: Spring and Fall. Each event is hosted by one of our churches. The host church plans the best event they can, taking into account all feedback from previous events, but still uniquely the vision of that host church.
The next step is to look for a way to scale up. That’s what we’ll prototype here in Kansas City in October. If our idea works, it could be used again for future events. If not, it will be a learning experience.
Right now it’s grass roots. No need for dues and fees and professional management. I’d like to keep it that way until it gets too big and we all agree it isn’t working. Right now it’s working, so I don’t see why we should rush to formalize things.
I do like the idea of local/regional roundtables forming where people can get together within their own cities on a more frequent basis. We’re already doing that a little bit here in KC. I also like the idea of connecting the local/regional groups into a larger group. But let’s let that unfold in its own time.