I know I've talked about this to other church IT folks, posted on it briefly a time or 2 and even mentioned it in the last Church IT Podcast ... does it make sense to have some sort of a National Church IT Association?
There's a National Association of Church Business Administration ... why not one for IT?
I'm still amazed at how little impact all our blogs have on getting more church IT staff/volunteers connected. This is backed up every time I talk to or hear about a church (yes, even large churches) that have been looking to network with other church IT folks ... it happens more often than you think.
How do we get everyone better connected?
That was my main goal for getting the Church IT Roundtable off the ground. While it's had a great start and the upcoming spring event is perhaps doubling the number that can attend, it still has many limitations on how many can actually participate.
So let's get rid of the physical space and travel limitations of the roundtable ... thus the interactive Church IT Discussions Podcast was born. It appears to be reaching a larger audience ... over 300 downloads of the 3 shows to date! That's certainly a start, but I'm still thinking bigger.
On my way down the road long range to-do list is pursue some sort of National Church IT Association. On my 2007 to-do list is to get many of us at least thinking about it ... talking about it ... brainstorming ... pondering ... perhaps laying out some next steps ... etc. For sure I'd like to find some time at the upcoming roundtable to dialog this with others ... hopefully Tony can find us a time slot.
Imagine the possibilities if even 1/4 of all the church IT staff/vols out there were connected ... talk about some serious Kingdom action taking place!
I really feel that this is worth pursuing. So I'd like to encourage all of you to begin pondering this as well. This will be one of those reoccurring threads as time progresses.
So let's start with step 1 - Do you think this is worth pursuing? Would you join and encourage others to join such an association assuming it's done well? Give me some feedback.
Jason, like you and I have discussed before I think this is a great concept! Count me in. There are conferences and associations for almost every other facet of the church. I think those of us techies should figure out a way to harness the power of the masses (other IT Pros). I think we sometimes get fairly absorbed in our server rooms to remember that we don't have to recreate the wheel but can resource ourselves with the knowledge and experience of others. Past experience has shown me that collaboration with other ministries (i.e., Willow, Saddleback, Southeast, etc.) have encouraged and given me a breather from day to day life…. Not to mention getting me excited to go back to the office with my new dreams… I am willing to help make it happen as I have said in conversations before... I agree 2007 should include laying the ground work.
Posted by: Jason Lee | January 30, 2007 at 08:47 AM
I think that is an excellent idea, although based here in the UK I would be thinking of international!
I've written reviews of various groupware packages like Webex for Personal Computer World www.pcw.co.uk and Computeractive www.computeractive.co.uk, often with an eye to how they could work for my local church and the deanery (quaint church of england term for group of churches in a vaguely county sized area). My other area of interest has been redesigning the local church website www.copthorne.org and the possibilities it has opened to us.
It would be good to have a forum for sharing experiences and advice with other churches.
Tim
Posted by: Tim Smith | January 30, 2007 at 09:14 AM
Tim - good point ... why stop with national when we can go international :-)
Jason - thanks for the feedback.
Posted by: Jason Powell | January 30, 2007 at 09:22 AM
I think it's a great idea. So long as you extend the international thinking to those of us Down Under.
I'm the main volunteer IT/tech/sound(!) guy at a church of around 120. Sounds small to most, but its big to me, having come from a rural church of less than 30! I'd like to see communication between tech guys from smaller churches too - we face a unique set of challenges, not the least being an often very tight budget, along with a lack of many (or any) other tech volunteers at the same church.
Just my $0.02.
Posted by: Jon Ikhthus | January 30, 2007 at 09:58 AM
This has been my dream for years! Until I found this blog I never there were that many Church IT people out there. I thought I was a rare breed. It's good to know there are other geeks like me out there. I'm up for getting together as often as possible. I've discussed with my team of volunteers what a Church IT Conference would look like, but we didn't know if there'd be much interest. I'd love to see this happen sometime in the next year!
Posted by: Bryson Medlock | January 30, 2007 at 10:41 AM
Jason...I love the idea. Although I'm not the "IT" guy I am the pastor that supervises the area. It would be very beneficial for Justin, our IT guy, to be a part of this type of a community. Go for it! Who knows I may even come and hang with all of you.
Posted by: Jeff Wilson | January 30, 2007 at 12:19 PM
Ever since my boss started attending the NACBA meetings, I wondered about the same type of thing for IT - NACIT? Count me in.
Posted by: Brett Anderson | January 30, 2007 at 04:09 PM
Excellent idea. I'm happy to assist in any way.
Posted by: David Russell | January 30, 2007 at 05:51 PM
I'm certainly all for making this a discussion point at the spring Roundtable. I wonder if we could get Phill Martin, "Mr. NACBA," to join in on this discussion?
Posted by: Tony Dye | January 30, 2007 at 08:41 PM
I've been pondering that same idea for a long time - With annual or semiannual conferences (think ITRT, scaled up a few orders of magnitude). The exchange of ideas with such a large group could be tremendous.
Posted by: Ian Beyer | January 30, 2007 at 10:43 PM
I'm with everyone else - great idea and it is worth putting time into making it a reality.
Posted by: Brian Slezak | February 01, 2007 at 09:56 AM
I think this is a great idea. Steve Hewitt has tried this through CCMag, and I have tried it through CMA. A couple of years ago we merged the two as part of the National CMA Conference, but the recent CMA leadership change has brought a restructuring that has weakened it considerably.
Steve's experience was that doing it well was costly, and it occasionaly broke even.
I suggest considering doing something periodically online with an every-other-year actual gathering. That may help folks to appropriately budget for it. Perhaps in the in-between years it could be done regionally.
I'd be glad to help any way I can... let me know.
Posted by: Nick Nicholaou | February 10, 2007 at 10:14 PM
Jason,
My boss is a national officer for the NACBA and she has already told me she will help this effort out as much as she can. My staff have been working on a Kansas City area church IT group but have dreams of branching out and networking with fellow church IT staff all over. Count me in with your plans. I will do all I can on my end! Mike Mayfield
Posted by: Mike Mayfield | February 11, 2007 at 04:25 PM
Mike,
Thanks for your comment. I'd be very interested to hear how we might work with the NACBA to pull something off. Could we do a phone chat in the near future to maybe dig in a little deeper?
I'd also be curious to hear how your KC area plans are working out and details around what's working/not.
Thanks!
Jason
Posted by: Jason Powell | February 13, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Nick,
Thanks for your comment.
We'd certainly appreciate your help and involvement since you've "been there done that".
I'm thinking I might try to do a conf call with several of us in the near future to just get some initial thoughts flowing.
Thanks,
Jason
Posted by: Jason Powell | February 13, 2007 at 10:10 AM
I would join and encourage others to join a community like this. I've been looking for something like this and actually just found your blog a couple of weeks ago. I hope that things like videoconferencing or streaming are considered for those who can't attend things like the roundtable due to geographical and/or resource constraints.
I'm not a 'Jason Powell' or 'Tony Dye' in terms of church IT popularity or experience :-) but you can count me in to contribute (what I do know about starting and running organizations and the technology to support) and help lay the groundwork for this.
...As long as it's not called "National Church IT Association." :-) But that's just my personal preference
Thanks for getting the vision to do this
Posted by: NCB | March 09, 2007 at 12:32 PM
I've posted my suggestion about our next step on my blog:
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/03/fall-it-roundtable-invitation.html
Posted by: Clif Guy | March 10, 2007 at 05:45 PM
Looks like a lot of agreement here. Very cool! In short, put me down as yes. In long:
I was there to hear Phill Martin at the recent Spring round table, but I couldn't visualize what an NACIT would look like or work like. So far we've tried to keep with a round table like format. If an NACIT keeps the core values of why we like doing this, then - why not? The NACBA has done quite well right?
Posted by: Brian Slezak | April 23, 2007 at 05:54 PM
Wow, this sounds like a great idea, please let me know if I can help out!
Posted by: Eric Poon | July 12, 2007 at 10:09 PM
Incredible!
I have been searching for a community just like this for a while. I came across the podcast a few months ago and I must say this is truly a blessing! I am all for a NACIT. My thoughts exactly on why shouldn’t the church IT have it’s own group?
On a side note thank you Jason for starting one of the most exciting communities that I have come across in a long time! Your thoughts and vision re-ignite me now on a regular basis in which I can get excited in going back to the office and serving our ministries on any level I can.
Stephen Smith
Sheffield Family Life Center
KC MO
Posted by: Stephen Smith | August 19, 2007 at 02:59 AM