Jason Powell - Church IT and Other Musings

Church IT Network 2013 Schedule = 2 National Events in Feb and Oct

2013 SCHEDULE Unveiled! 

In efforts to move our big National event from Spring to Fall (get away from Easter and Spring break and unpleasant weather in Northern States) we’re having 2 National events next year!

National Spring 2013 event >> 2/27-3/1 in Phoenix, AZ at Christ’s Church of the Valley http://www.ccvonline.com/Arena/default.aspx  Schedule will be a mix of training, workshops, presentations and peer roundtable discussion spread over 3 full days.  And like we started last Spring in Dallas, we’ll have a separate Web/Dev track again so be sure to invite your web/dev peeps!

National Fall 2013 event >> 10/21-10/23 in Kansas City, KS at Church of the Resurrection http://cor.org/  This event will also be a 3 full days of a mix of training, workshops, presentations and peer roundtable discussion.  This event will also kick our web/dev track through the roof by hosting Refresh Cache along side our Church IT Rountable event!  RefreshCache mirrors the DNA of our community so it was a no-brainer to host our 2 events together in 2013.

From the RefreshCache website …
The RefreshCache community is a group of connected web developers and designers from churches, businesses, and non-profits that leverage the power of Church Management Systems. Our purpose is to create an environment driven by innovation, collaboration, sharing, and openness. We seek to empower each other; to share ideas and code, and to shatter the traditional business dependencies on silos and secrecy that plague many ministry organizations today.

We believe that through our God-given talents in design and software engineering, we are in control of our own destinies. With innovation and collaboration, we can give birth to far greater things than a single church IT staff can alone.

More details to follow, but we wanted you all to get this on your calendars NOW!  You’ll want to be at BOTH events if at all possible, so get it in the budget and start convincing your boss now.  We had almost 300 in attendance at our Spring event in Dallas!  Wonder what will happen in 2013? :-)

Starting 2014 our schedule will be a Spring Regional Event (date will change each year based on Easter) followed by a big National Fall Event (late October timeframe).

We’re EXTREMELY pumped to have 2 events next year AND have the location and dates ready for peeps to put on calendars :-)

Fall 2013 info here http://citrt.onthecity.org/plaza/events/31f191abbdc5a211e5bef29603ecec996f06ace2

Microsoft's Open License Charity / Non-Profit Retail Price List

[edit 11/17/12 - removed https and link seems to work more reliably]

Microsoft has moved their charity / non-profit price list from it's prior location.  Took me a little digging, but here's the new URL for those intereted: http://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/Pages/Licensing/Downloads/open-license-charity-estimated-retail-price-list.aspx

As always, use the above link for budgeting then hit up your preferred vendor (Dell, CDW, Zones, CCB, etc) and make sure you get pricing BETTER than what you see above.  Never pay retail :-)

If the above link is having trouble here's the complete pricing lineup. http://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/pages/licensing/price-lists.aspx This link also has a link to a doc on: Finding answers to common questions about the Microsoft Open License for Charities that enables nonprofit organizations to purchase multiple software licenses at reduced prices.

Other posts on charity pricing = http://jpowell.blogs.com/.services/blog/6a00d8345325d569e200d8345325d769e2/search?pager.sort=relevance&filter.q=charity