Catching up

Haven't blogged for a while as I've just been so busy doing the day-to-day stuff of building eMinistry. Thousands of emails and administrative details, which I actually enjoy -- and then the great pleasure of intial contacts with potential leaders. There are so neat people out there! So many possibilities to explore....

I'm thrilled that the National Episcopal Health Ministries board has decided to work with eMinistry to offer an introductory teleclass on "Health Ministry in the Small Church" in November -- that will be super for them and great additional experience and publicity for us.

Also, we've got 11 different people from 11 different dioceses signed up for Lallie Lloyd's class on the Millennium Development Goals in October -- and are starting to get registrations for the second session in November.

AND we are getting our first paid registrations! Wowee! I have agonized over what to charge, and what people will be willing to pay, over the past weeks. Have finally settled on $10 a class hour for the present. We'll still offer a lot of first-time classes for free or at a reduced rate....But to be able to at least begin to cover the cost of the leader's stipend is terrific! I've been told by a lot of people that we're charging way too little, but I still think that because very few people in the Church have experienced a teleclass -- let alone heard of it -- a lower charge is the way to go in this start-up phase.

As I wrote in the last post, we've had the disappointment of low registrations for some classes, so we've had to cancel and reschedule them till later in the fall. The leaders have been understanding and gracious. But a second issue is also that people register but then don't show up for the class. I think part of that is due to our offering classes for free during this beta-test period, and perhaps our beginning to charge a fee now for most classes will increase people's commitment to participate. But at this point, no shows are a really problem -- every person's presence really matters! If you've got 12 to class, it doesn't matter as much if a couple don't attend -- but when you've got 4 registered and 2 don't show up, it makes for a much less vibrant class. I know this is basically a problem of publicity and promotion -- the more widely we're known, the more people will see what we're offering and will want to register.

Got to get back to work,

onward and upward!

Elizabeth