"balloon thoughts" on the life and growth of eMinistry
Monday, July 24, 2006
Wowee!!
I am so excited! Today has been a terrific day for scheduling classes -- 2 new 2-session classes scheduled for September, and a repeat of Wayne Schwab's class in October PLUS getting his 4-session more in-depth follow-up class on member mission scheduled for November.
I love the fact that September is almost completely scheduled Monday through Thursday evenings -- 8 classes scheduled, and 4 of those are two-session classes, so a total of 12 class sessions so far that month.
And we're getting such an interesting mix of classes -- from Greg Syler's class on the Bible for people who work with youth, to Roger Robillard's class on end-of-life decisions and planning for your funeral. What is so neat is to give these people who have done or are doing in-person workshops on these topics a platform for sharing their expertise all across the church.
After months of plugging away, it feels like the snowball is beginning to roll, and I am just delighted!
Well we had another class last night -- Wayne Schwab's class on how each area of our life (work, family, community, etc.) can be seen as a mission field -- the place where God is already active and invites us to act to bring more love and justice into the world. We had 8 participants from 5 dioceses, not counting Wayne and me, and I thought it went wonderfully! The part that was overwhelming to me, when I wasn't focusing on the teleclass process itself, was how incredibly rich and amazing the ministry lives of the participants are -- each doing a huge amount, in their corner of the world, to bring God's love and justice into greater reality.
It was great to know that we have a second session coming next Monday...it gives the luxury of having time to get to know each other a tiny bit. We decided at the very last minute (last Friday) to send out a pre-class survey to participants and ask what they wanted from this class experience.....kind of late to get it out, didn't get most of the responses back until Monday and yesterday (the day of the class) so it wasn't all that helpful for this particular class. But I think the idea of a pre-class survey/set of questions is good, and we're going to implement that process in a variety of ways for the upcoming classes.
The other thing Wayne did -- and this is changing my previous thoughts about anonymity -- is that he called on people by name, and everyone participated, and so you got a much better sense of who was on the call... We also sent out a list of peoples' names and locations (no email addresses) after the class, so that we could know each other a little more. I'm thinking that people generally want to feel a sense of connection, and this is one way to foster it in a multi-session class.
Where possible, I am trying to work with leaders to create at least a two-session class. It's not necessary for some topics, where imparting information is the key thing and the class is mainly lecture (vs highly interactive) but it does give more time to cover material, to answer questions, to create connections....
The other thing I've been considering is: offering each class for free the first time around. We learn tons from the actual class process, I learn more about the content, and I can then work with leaders to refine it to fit the teleclass medium more effectively.... People can take the free class as a beta-test, and then we can offer it for a fee. We now have 31 of the 100 free registrations taken....so I expect that by the end of September or October we will be up to the 100 mark.... If we go ahead with the three-diocese pilot project, we'll offer those classes for a fee.
Hey -- lots of stuff in this post -- PLEASE comment and let me know what you think?
So we had the parish-based campus ministry class last night! We had 8 people from 4 dioceses, not including our two class leaders and me. I think it went pretty well in terms of people's comfort level and contributions, and I thought the leaders were great -- they had energy, ease and good group leadership skills, and they have a passion for their ministry that came across wonderfully.
That's what I thought -- don't know about the rest of the folks! We've gotten feedback from only two participants so far -- both had positive and negative things to say. They both rated the overall experience, content and discussion as helpful to them.
One person wished we had a toll-free system, as the long distance charge was difficult. I wish we could, but it's just way beyond what's possible now. Not sure how that would work also, as we use multiple conference call lines... But we can revisit this suggestion down the line when we are bigger and have some income coming in!
Last night's class also reaffirmed what we learned in the first test class in March -- that an hour goes by so incredibly fast!! You can cover a lot of material, or you can build connections between people, but you probably can't do both equally well! One person's feedback was that the process of our self-introductions last night took a lot of time (about 20 minutes) for a one-hour class. I think that's true. In a two- or three-session class, it would be just fine. I loved how we got a sense of who was on the call, but it did put some pressure on getting through the content and allowing time for discussion. So that was a good way to learn something helpful for the classes that follow.
IDEA: What if we sent out a list of participants (on the morning of the class) to everyone registered for the call? Name, location, diocese and possibly parish (but not email address) -- that way everyone would have an idea of who the other people are before the class started. We'd have to make it clear on the registration form what information we would share.... As I wrote in an earlier post, it's an added administrative step that could be difficult later on, with more classes scheduled, but I can worry about that when we get to that!
Connecting people is an important part of what we want to do, but giving value from sufficient content is also key. We are going to have to work on this balance between content and connection with every class we offer. Probably not something perfectly solvable, but an endless balancing act. Another learning from last night: The vast range of participants' backgrounds (some just beginning campus ministry and others further along, more informed and involved) means the class content was probably of varying benefit to them.
The only way I know to get at this one is: since we can't create a class that is perfect for everyone, we have to create such crystal clear descriptions of who the class content is aimed at/geared for that potential participants can self-select themselves (or select themselves OUT of) classes at the initial stage of registration.
What I am going to do is go over the class listings for classes we've got coming up in September and make sure that they are absolutely clear about whether it's an introductory class, a "survey" kind of class, or a more advanced level class.
So -- tons of thoughts about the class specifically and the eMinistry teleclass process more generally. My biggest concern right now is "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." We've got to give participants good value from Day 1, or they'll probably not look at us again. And yet this beta-test period is the time when we are offering classes for free so people can take them without much risk beyond the cost of a long-distance call -- and so we can learn what we need to in order to produce the best possible classes in this medium. And we're not creating a static "product" that can just be refined until it's ready for release -- every class is a new product, a new creation with different participants of different backgrounds and different needs....
But I LOVE this whole process. I love the new thing we're doing -- and I love seeing how we can more and more bring the reality of our offerings closer and closer to the ideal. Thanks to everyone who's taking part in this new venture!
This is so great! Six people have signed up for the parish-based campus ministry a week from today -- from 3 different dioceses. Since one of eMinistry's goals is to create connections across diocesan borders, I'm really excited that we'll have people from such different places "gathering together" for this topic!
Which makes me wonder -- how anonymous will people want to be? In my past two years of experience with teleclasses in the coaching world, I know that some people are more comfortable just sitting back and listening, and never introduce themselves....while others check-in at the beginning of the class and talk often. Would it help for people to have a sense of who's on the call? How can we do that without making those who want anonymity feel self-conscious about it?
I could see asking people at registration whether it's okay to share their name/location on a list of participants....but that could become a nightmare administratively as we offer more and more classes...
