LA Fellows: Week One

So we've had the first week of the LA Fellows program and, boy, was it intense! It feels to me like we've been there forever. We got so much information and the instructors were amazing, but it was a lot. And the days off didn't feel so much like days off as days to work by myself instead of with my friends. Facebook is becoming a fixture. LinkedIn is a whole new world. How do I use that properly? Twitter your job search? Really? Guess I'll find out on "Social Networking" day!

This week we will receive our book of non-profits from which we choose 3 that we would like to work with. I'd love to add American Public Media (Southern California Public Radio) and the USC Foundation to the list, but don't really know who to call to talk to about it. That's a conversation for our facilitator, though!

After Friday, I feel like writing grant proposals is definitely within my abilities and after yesterday, the whole website consultant thing is looking good, as well!

Yesterday was my 4-months-in-the-planning Website Development Workshop with the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. I was not alone! I was part of a team that included Rev. Johan Dodge, Pastor of St. Paul's in Tarzana and Charles "Capp" Cappleman, retired CBS Communications guy and Lifetime Emmy Award recipient. His keynote speech was inspiring in the context of church web presence: here is a guy from the Greatest Generation, telling us all that websites are necessary for church growth and laying it all out there. I totally agree!

The Workshop was a great success! I ended up doing a whole section that was not anticipated, but is one of my competencies: working with the website interface that many of the churches are using or will be using soon. The afternoon was all about Content: now you have your domain and your host, what do you put up there? Thanks to such skilled presentations all week from Allison and our instructors at LA Fellows, I had a feel for pacing and when to involve the audience that I'm sure I didn't have a week ago. Seven churches attended, they all took my card and I think I had better add "Trainer" to my list of core competencies! 'Cause that's what they want, training. Cool!

I end the week feeling a sense that I am moving in the right direction, that I am indeed following my passion into the internet world, that non-profit work will bring great satisfaction to my life and that I can really be in the zone in this business.

If you would like to take a look at the church website I created for teaching the class, click HERE.

If you need consulting, training, writing, or design help, click HERE. You can also see my Powerpoint for the Workshop there.

If you need to hear why websites are absolutely necessary for churches in the 21st Century, what they can do, who they speak to and how to make them speak, send me an email and we can talk! Or read my blog post, Web Ministry 101: Into the Future. The world is your parish!

Peace.