Tons of learnings from last night's class!

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!

peace and grace,

Elizabeth