churchIT

CITRT Success

Well, we met on Friday and it was a success. You may ask, what metrics am I using to measure this as a success? All participants left with more valuable knowledge than they came with, all participants were introduced to someone they didn't know from another organization, and all participants would like to meet again, next month. This, in a nutshell, is the value of these types of gatherings. As long as people would like to meet and are learning something valuable to their corganization, every meeting will be a success!

The meeting didn't go as planned and it wasn't very formal, but both aspects made the meeting more productive. We just had an open discussion. Topics discussed included ChMS, websites and hosting, virtualization, antivirus, upgrading server storage, and desktop security. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone made a comprehensive set of notes.

In the next few weeks we are going to have a "workshop", for lack of a better name. It turns out that Sagemont was the only organization with a successful deployment of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). Chris McGuffin had the great idea that we should meet and deploy WSUS. We will meet at Sugar Creek to teach and deploy WSUS. After it is deployed at Sugar Creek, we will get it deployed at Windsor Village UMC and etc. This will help local churches deploy technology and keep everyone from reinventing the wheel every time someone wants to deploy a new technology.

We did not decide on the next meeting date, time or location, other than the middle of June. Who would like to host the next gathering? Post a comment or email me at scott.reichling {AT} sagemontchurch {DOT} org

Update: Houston CITRT Gathering May 18

Well we're only a couple days from the Houston CITRT Gathering from 11-1 on Friday, May 18. So far we have 4 participants, several that are interested but have not given me a yes or no, and 2 that are interested but cannot make it. If you are interested you can email me at scott.reichling {AT} sagemontchurch {DOT} org. I will need to know who would like a Jason's Deli box lunch, by 10:30 Thursday morning. The options are Ham, Turkey, or Roast Beef on white or wheat bread, just let me know your preference.

We will meet in the children's building conference room. The side entrances to the children's building will be locked so please enter the main entrance. You can find a map here. If you need directions to the church, you can find them here. Once in the children's building, walk past the big fish tank, and take the elevator (on your right) to the second floor. When on the second floor, exit the elevator, take a right, and walk down the hall to the conference room. Don't worry, signs will be posted!

Topics: I wanted some kind of roadmap for our discussions, so here is what I had in mind. This is not set in stone, so let me know what you think.

Connecting – Let's spend some time getting to know each other.

Future Gatherings – How often, when, where, and what is our purpose as a group?

Local Church/Ministry Involvement – How do we engage other churches to become involved? I think this may be partially tied to the above topic.

Open Discussion – This group will be about the participants, so what do you want to talk about?

Houston Gathering on May 18th

Chris and I just had a conversation and instead taking time to plan a first meeting through blog posts and comments, we will schedule a Houston CITRT Gathering and start the connecting process and plan on where this group will go. The first gathering will be here at Sagemont Church on Friday, May 18^th from 11am - 1pm. Sagemont will provide Jason's Deli boxed lunches to all participants. If you are a Houston area church IT professional and are interested in joining us leave a comment on this post. Include your Name, Church's Name and email address and whether you want a box lunch or not. If you want a box lunch we are offering a choice of Ham, Turkey, or Roast Beef on white or wheat bread, just let me know your preference. I will need to know who wants a lunch by Wednesday, May 16^th.

I will post details on where on campus we will meet early next week but directions to Sagemont can be found here http://www.sagemontchurch.org/directions.htm.

If you know of an Houston area church IT pro at another church, forward this information to them. This meeting is not for us local big Baptist churches but it is open to all Christian denominations and churches of all sizes. As Chris said, "an opportunity to share thoughts and ideas as it relates to IT issues and God's Kingdom." Chris and I look forward to you joining in and participating.

Update: Most of us have commitments during the week, so if you cannot come to the meeting on May 18th, please leave a comment to let us know if you are interested in participating in the Houston CITRT.  Also let us know day(s) of the week and the time of day, that would allow you to participate.  We will include this information in the discussion of future gatherings.

Houston Area Roundtable

Chris McGuffin and I met on Friday to talk technology and a Houston Area Roundtable. A large chunk of time was devoted to forming a Houston CITRT. We debated different options, like where we would meet and how often. We thought it would be great to if we could meet once a month, for lunch, at different local churches, but this really depends on what we, as a group, would want to do.

Chris said the most of the Houston churches at the Spring Roundtable were interested in "getting together". Chris was going to contact those churches about forming a Houston CITRT. I'm doing my part by asking any Houston Church IT person who may stumble across this post, would you be interested? If yes, post a comment and let us know. Also include your opinion on how often should this group meet (monthly, quarterly, annually), what time of day(lunch, dinner), and where (hosted by a church, meet at a restaurant, or food and fun at Dave and Busters).