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2020 taught us many things. Chief among them is that many of the jobs we once thought could only be done in office can be done successfully in a virtual setting. Many organizations have been able to allow most, if not all, employees to work from home for the past year. During this time, organizations have begun working through many of the challenges that come with such a sudden and abrupt shift in daily routines. One thing learned is while parts of our daily lives seemed to be put on hold, so many work-related things carried on as usual. While our ministries may look different than they did a year ago, we still find ourselves dealing with the realities of running an organization. One of these realities is the ongoing need to hire new staff. Working from home created a new set of issues for hiring employees. How do you onboard a new employee and help them feel part of your community when they are working from home? There are several ways you can help a virtual new hire feel connected to your ministry and get them set up for success right from the start. Here are a few things to include when virtually onboarding a new hire: Make sure new hires have all the IT equipment they need and are familiar with the programs they’ll be using. This includes company email, video conferencing, VPN logins, etc. Be able to fill out HR paperwork digitally. A lot of an employee’s first day is filling out paperwork for HR. E-signature tools allow for many of these documents to be completed electronically. Don’t forget to send new hires a digital copy of your employee handbook as well. Bring them in to your ministry. Look for ways to help new hires understand and feel part of your workplace culture. Set up meetings with key employees. Provide them with literature and brochures on your mission and vision. Make sure they’re invited to any virtual team-building activities. People still rely on our ministries for the help and comfort they provide, perhaps now more than ever. In order to continue to provide these services, we need to ensure that our employees, especially our new hires, are engaged and connected to the community in which they work. Our Human Resources team can help United Methodist agency’s annual conferences, and large organizations find qualified applicants for your vacant positions. Contact our Connectional Relations team today to get a free Staff Recruiting Consultation with our experienced professionals.

With virtual worship growing there are many questions on how report the number of people viewing online. Does one view equal 1 person? Use this resource to help gain a better understanding on how to account for online viewers.

As virtual events make it even easier for guests to decide last minute if they want to attend an event, having guests commit early of their attendance is important. A terrific way to do that is with registration. For in-person meetings, you must give your food guarantees weeks or months prior and plan the proper amount of space, so registration is a great way to know who is coming. No matter which type of event – virtual, hybrid, or in-person - registrations are important. So, if they are important, what should you be looking for in a registration platform? Well, this article hopefully helps answer that very question. Cost We’ll start more generically with the cost. A registration site/software is a solution to a lot of difficult problems in the event world - getting your attendees' information, helping manage those attendees, and communicating important information. Therefore, it is wise to budget for this helpful solution, but it shouldn’t break the bank either. Shop around and see what a reasonable cost for the time is – especially considering what you will save by using registration software. The ability for the software to take payments is often a large cost, and how much you may save on communication costs to do everything in the software matters. The cheapest option may not be robust enough, but the biggest option may come with a painful price tag. A “Copy Event” Feature Not all your meetings are first-time meetings. Most of your meetings are annual meetings or conferences that have similar questions, agendas, and layouts year after year. Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to recreate your site from scratch every year? Look for a registration platform that will allow you to copy or duplicate your event year after year and spend your time only changing the things that need changed and not coming up with the full framework. Custom Reporting When an event is quickly approaching, do you want to spend your time focusing on final details or trying to manipulate that excel spreadsheet to produce the exact report you want? I’d definitely choose the final details. A good registration software allows you to create custom reports that are a quick, one-button press to get the data you need when you need it. Make certain your software will let you create these extremely helpful custom reports. Custom Landing Pages Your marketing team has worked so hard to create your event logo, colors, and fonts. An ideal registration site would allow you to continue to use that event marketing in the registration site and the website. Check when shopping for a registration platform that you can edit all those features and more to truly make each registration site the same level of quality that attendees will be receiving at the event. That being said, also make certain you don’t have to have a computer science degree to make your site is user-friendly and looks the way you want. User Access Profiles As there are many important figures in the life cycle of a successful event, being able to use your registration software to customize what each person can see and do within your registration platform is extremely helpful. Some of your staff may need to be able to put up new information for attendees to see, others may just need the ability to pull reports, and others may just need to view information without having to ask you each day for something. Choosing a registration platform that allows you to customize your user’s access profiles can save you time and unneeded headaches. Surveys After your wonderfully successful event is finished, having a registration software that will link with those registered for surveying will allow each year to get better and better. What better way than not having to manually cross-tabulate survey responses with which items each attendee registered for, etc. Having a site to do that can help you quickly wrap up each event and present survey responses to your stakeholders is extremely important. A One-Stop-Shop The best registration platform can do it all and keep it all within the site. This is easier for attendees, and yourself. If your site can give discounts, apply that to an attendee’s invoice and then take a payment, you just saved a ton of time manually doing any of those steps. If your software can send out automatic reminder emails for important dates and things to know and show you who all it was delivered to, that is great! And if your registration site can simply merge with an event website, you just saved yourself the difficulties of learning different computer code! Make certain when shopping around, your platform is robust and can be a one-stop-shop. Good Support Is anyone more frustrated than someone who has been staring at a computer screen for 45 minutes trying to make a discount happen, move that logo ½ inch to the right, or simply just see who registered? As with all technologies, there is a learning curve, make certain you have a great support team you can pick up the phone and call and get a quick response or solution to what had you frustrated in the first place. As a Certified Meeting Professional, I have used many different registration sites and Aventri remains high on my list because it does all the above and more! Contact our Connectional Relations Team at ConnectionalRelations@gcfa.org for a free demo of our preferred software.

Do you feel like you’ve hit a plateau in the HR area of your ministry? These days, it is easy to get caught up in just getting work done. Many of us are overwhelmed with daily tasks. Assessing how your HR functions can provide insight into how you can more effectively manage your staff to reach your ministry’s goals. Streamline your current processes Coordinating your organizational procedures and processes is a powerful tool in improving the overall efficiency of your operations. Technology advancements and developing internal communications systems can help to remove work silos. Conducting an HR assessment will also help your ministry identify new policies and procedures that could further improve your organizational effectiveness. Personnel file audits Auditing your files to ensure compliance with federal laws can save you from potential penalties and legal fees. Reviewing personnel files can help your ministry catch errors or identify missing documentation, will allow your HR team to correct these errors, and confirm that your ministry has proper personnel files. This also could be a great time to check your staff and volunteers for any personnel file updates that may be needed. Information like mailing addresses and contact information can cause major headaches when they aren’t updated regularly. Identify your organization’s culture, goals, and resources. How familiar are your organization's personnel and stakeholders with your ministry’s culture and goals? An HR assessment can assist your ministry in identifying and communicating the core values of your work. Examining your ministry’s current resources can help you create a strategy around to achieve your goals and identify areas where your ministry will need assistance. This could lead to strategic partnerships that can help you achieve your goals. Reveal effectiveness blockers There may be internal policies and procedures that restrict or completely block your organization from making changes necessary to improve your effectiveness. For example, setting up online giving or donation portals can help your ministry secure financial resources, but your ministry’s policies could make setting that up difficult. Identifying potential barriers your ministry may face will help you better prepare and equip your organization and personnel. Being proactive about improving your organization’s functionality will help your ministry optimize its resources and capitalize on its opportunities. The Human Resources Team at UMC Support can help you conduct a thorough assessment and develop strategies to increase your effectiveness. Contact our Connectional Relations team today to set up an HR Assessment with our experienced team.

As we learned in our day to day living, some lessons and habits from the pandemic are here to stay. We know, we know, we are all tired of Zoom meetings… but consider whether or not an element of virtual meetings could remain in conjunction with your in-person meeting. In event terms – consider a hybrid event. A hybrid event is a meeting, event, or conference that combines an in-person component with an online or digital experience. Below we will review some considerations when planning or deciding if you should host a hybrid event. Strategize your goals Like every event you plan, take some time to sit down and write out your event goals. When you look at the purpose of the meeting – whether it be networking, getting work accomplished, training, etc. – you may determine some elements of virtual would be more beneficial to utilize while other elements of in-person would be better. Write these down and develop a unified event goal. Use these event goals for the virtual audience and the in-person audience. Consider hiring help Planning a hybrid meeting means planning 2 simultaneous meetings - one virtual and one in person. While a lot of the content is the same and the experience is designed to be similar, you will need to fully plan and execute two separate events. You will need two separate dedicated teams to ensure each event happens without a hitch. This may mean more staff than you currently have, different expertise than you have, or simply the need to focus on something else. You have heard the old adage, “hire out that which you don’t like to do.” Well, this is true for a hybrid event – if you love the in person side, hire out the virtual side, if you love the virtual side, hire out the in-person side. A little help can go a long way when running two simultaneous events. Create similar, but separate, agendas Speaking of simultaneous events, the next important consideration is your agenda. Look very critically to determine which content, sessions, and work needs to be accomplished by those online and those in the room to meet the unified event goal. But also think about the separate goals. Remember it is much easier to stay alert at an in-person meeting than a virtual one. Plan your agenda with both types of attendees in mind. And if this means splitting sessions and only having the critical content online, make that decision and market it well. Make certain to let attendees know the benefits and tradeoffs of their decision to either join the meeting in person and or virtually so they can register accordingly. Use your virtual lessons We have all now had 10 months of virtual meeting experience. Time to put those lessons to the test. All what you learned in the virtual world stands firm in a hybrid event – you still need to continue to educate your speakers about the virtual platform, engage your virtual audience, work successfully with sponsors for the virtual portion, etc. As you are planning a virtual event and an in-person event, use the lessons you’ve learned in planning the virtual side and don’t revert back to your pre-COVID in person ways. Think through your tech In that same vein, don’t think about your on site technology needs in the same way. A virtual only meeting or a in-person only meeting have very different needs than a hybrid meeting. When conducting a site visit at the hotel or venue, ensure the space is setup to be able to handle the power, connectivity, and equipment required to bring in the virtual hub as well. Then think through which technology can make the agenda successful and engage the audience as much is needed and budget accordingly. You will be spending more on your AV and technology needs while doing a hybrid event. Charge accordingly I know it can seem weird to tell people who are just sitting at home on their computer that they should pay to attend your event, but your tech expenses will be higher. You will need extra labor, extra equipment, and likely extra bandwidth, and this comes at a price. While you're in-person attendees expect to pay a registration fee to take care of the cost of them being there, meals, printed materials, and more, your virtual registrants still are costing you to attend your event. Look through the technology and AV budget line and divide that line item up between your in-person and virtual attendees to determine a virtual attendance fee. React to audience needs Virtual and live audiences have different needs. But the goal is still to create a unified meeting experience. Ask yourself the following questions prior to the event: How do you adapt content and create a digital experience that keeps your virtual audience as engaged as your in-person participants? Do you need additional moderators to facilitate discussions with the online audience? Should you use a wide angle camera so the virtual attendees get the feeling of being in the room? Do you create different slides to ensure the virtual attendees are following along? Do you ensure when going off schedule a slide is put up for the virtual attendees and the speaker says what the agenda is from the podium? How do you create an in-person experience that makes your live participants feel special? A little bit of planning the actual attendee experience goes a long way. Define roles We already talked hiring help, but once you have decided who is on the team, what the agenda is and how to react to attendees needs, it is time to talk roles. The person who is ensuring the live stream is up and going cannot also be calling the show on stage. The speaker giving the in person talk cannot be at the computer answering questions coming in. The manager who is working with the banquet team to ensure the room is set properly cannot be ensuring the correct attendees are logging in online. Take time with the team to write out all potential roles for your virtual portion and your in-person portion and assign them prior to getting on site. Once your event day rolls around, having the roles assigned will result in a standing ovation – both from your in-person attendees and via clap emojis from your virtual attendees. After considering all the above, you may decide a Virtual-only meeting or an In-Person-Only meeting is for you. But you may also decide that a hybrid event may make your meeting more successful and better than ever! Maybe it is a way that you can keep travel costs lower, increase attendance or simply to make your meeting more transparent for those not formally invited. For any of those reasons and more, a hybrid meeting may be the way to go! Whether you need the in-person logistical support of a professional meeting planner, the AV support from an experience in-person event producer, the production and technology support from a Virtual Meeting expert, or even virtual event logistics, GCFA is here to help. Contact ConnectionalRelations@gcfa.org today to speak to a certified travel and meeting planner to help with your event!

Your ministry’s digital presence is more important than ever and with the entire world engaging in digital spaces, communicating with your audience is becoming more difficult. Whether it’s changing algorithms or the sheer amount of content competing to grab digital media user’s attention, sharing your ministry’s story effectively requires a plan. With patience, intentional work, and a clear approach you can develop a digital communication strategy for your ministry. Define Your Brand The first step in developing a digital content strategy is defining your ministry’s brand characteristics. Your brand provides the foundation for your digital content and engagement with your audience. The mission, vision, and core values of your ministry offer emotional connection points for potential supporters. For more help with ministry branding, read the four key elements of branding your ministry. The next step in the process involves looking at your brand in the digital mirror. Analyze Digital Presence Taking an objective look at your ministry’s various digital media channels is the next step in your digital media strategy. Gather the number of followers on your social media channels, subscribers to an e-newsletter, and website users to understand your ministry’s digital reach. Create lists that rank this data by followers, average monthly engagement, and audience profile. This will help you identify the digital channels where you have the largest audience, and which channels your ministry should focus on to reach your target audience. Declare Campaign Audience Take intentional time to create audience profiles for your target and any secondary audiences. These profiles should include information like age range, gender identity, social activity level, and personality traits. Identifying key audiences within your ministry and communities you engage with can help inform this information. Also using tools like MissionInsite can help you understand your geographic community. All this information will help you clarify who you are trying to communicate with and how to measure your strategy effectiveness. Prioritize Goals and KPI This is an essential step in determining campaign success. Setting your goals for the campaign will help refine your list of key performance indicators or KPI’s. Matching goals with appropriate KPIs will help your digital media team analyze the campaign performance and make improvements based on data analysis. For example, if your ministry is looking to increase brand awareness on social media, key performance indicators would be your ministry’s reach and impressions on your social media posts. With your goals and KPI’s clear, your ministry is ready to develop content. Categorize Content Sources Now it’s time for the “hard” question, how do you create content? A common misconception about digital media content creation is that you must create content. Your ministry’s activities and missional work can provide the bulk of your social media content. A three-category strategy that includes spiritual wellness, missional work, and community support, can help your ministry build a consistent content schedule. Bible study subjects, lectionary verse, and inspiring sermon quotes can be placed in a spiritual wellness content category. Sharing the weekly activities or events of your ministry and sharing community events or resources can fill the other two categories. With a solid content foundation, your ministry is almost ready to engage your digital community. Identify Digital Engagement Tools Digital media, especially social media, is more than a bulletin board. Simply sharing your events or announcements will not yield campaign success for your ministry. Reacting, commenting, retweeting, or clicking content can be difficult to manage if done on each digital media platform. Using a content management system like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social can help your team interact with digital content and post content to your various digital media channels. Choosing the right content management system must be done through careful consideration of your ministry’s needs and available resources. Once you find the right platform for your ministry, you’re ready to give your content some personality. Curate Content Style With the understanding of who you are and your audience, developing a content style is simple. Your ministry content style is the key characteristic of your ministry’s digital presence and engagement activities. Design aesthetic, brand personality, and dialect are essential in creating your content style. Take time to think of your ministry as a person and answer questions like: What types of graphics and photos would this person post? How would they interact with their digital community? Would they say ‘hello’ or ‘hey’? Your answers will help you curate a content style that gives your ministry an appropriate digital presence, accurately reflect its brand and is visually pleasing for its audience. Digital media success isn’t by happenstance, it takes time and a plan. The award-winning Communication and Marketing Team at UMC Support can help your ministry develop a strategy to identify, reach, and engage your digital audience. Contact our Connectional Relations Team, at ConnectionalRelations@gcfa.org, to set up a digital media consultation with our team.

Being proactive about your IT needs can help you avoid long conversations with random tech support technicians. Gathering basic information about your ministry’s IT infrastructure will help you effectively communicate your current technology and help an IT professional develop an IT support solution.

Non-traditional revenue, defined for this resource, is revenue obtained in a way that is not “business as usual.” For churches, we think of the offering plate, pledges, capital campaigns, dedicated gifts from church members, and the traditional stewardship season as usual avenues for giving. Nontraditional revenue invites us to think outside the box and brainstorm new ways of raising funds for ministry.

Your ministry's brand is more important than ever in the virtual world. Our award-winning Marketing and Communications team developed a checklist for your ministry's brand elements. Get a better understanding of what you have and what you need.

2020 turned one of the church’s greatest strengths - community and connection - into a challenge. Your brand plays a bigger part in connecting with your members and community. These four essential branding elements will help your ministry establish a brand that stands out in this digital age. Story Your ministry’s unique story is the primary element of your brand. It’s the reason people connect to your ministry and why they will stay connected. Why did God call your specific ministry to work in your community? Express your brand or ministry’s promise to your audience. You should set expectations for interactions with your ministry by sharing authentic and relevant content. Whether it digital or in-person, telling the story of your ministry is the most powerful branding tool you have. You’re sharing evidence of the effectiveness of your ministry and the impact you create in the world. Personality One important thing to remember in our new digital world is to be social. Your ministry and its brand need a personality that is attractive to your audience. The words you use in copy and the graphics you display are all a reflection of the personality of your brand. Consider this as you interact and engage with your digital community: is your ministry an exciting and in-your-face ministry or a calm and introspective ministry? Your brand’s voice should match the in-person experience people would have when they come to worship. Graphics What do people see when they see your church’s brand? A better question would be, “what do you want people to see when they experience your brand?” Visual graphic elements like logo marks, brand colors, and fonts, etc., can help your ministry set expectations for interactions with your church and membership. Your ministry deserves a clean and professional logo and graphic elements. Transparent backgrounds and scalable graphics provide your ministry with the flexibility and versatility to properly represent your brand through graphics. Your logo and graphic elements help your ministry make an impactful and lasting first impression. Standards No matter where someone encounters your brand, their experience should be the same. Aligning your brand standards in one brand manual document helps your staff and members authentically communicate the love of Christ that can be experienced through your ministry. Brand standards also help your ministry present a professional look and feel. You want to build a long-lasting relationship with your audience and your brand standards help them become familiar with your ministry and reinforce your brand’s story and personality. Set guidelines for how, when, and where your ministry’s key branding elements can and should be used. Is it time for your ministry to reintroduce itself and reimagine ministry? The Communications and Marketing Team at GCFA can help your ministry create a professional and eye-catching brand. For more help like this contact UMC Support’s Connectional Relations team and set up a brand assessment virtual meeting today.

Webinars have become a critical tool for educating and informing audiences in our new virtual world. Making the user experience relevant and convenient is essential to a successful event. Give your webinar a solid foundation by taking care to properly create your virtual event. Goals and Outcomes The cornerstone of any meeting’s success is understanding why you are meeting. Understanding what you want attendees to learn or get out of the Webinar is no different. Organize a brainstorming session with leadership and presenters and write out all potential goals and outcomes. Then narrow it down! Ensure your webinar is designed to clearly communicate your main goals. Determine Your Platform There are many technological platforms out there and choosing which one helps you get to your goals most effectively is the next key step. Do you want attendees to interact with the platform? Do you want them to be able to be seen and heard? Or do you merely want to track if someone has watched something and can take a quiz on it afterward? Your goals will help determine which platform can be right for your Webinar. GCFA’s A/V and Meeting Planning staff are familiar with many different platforms and can help talk through the benefits to each based on your goals. Make a Production Schedule and Agenda An agenda is key. It keeps the Webinar on track to hit your goals. It can also be a tool to entice attendees to attend. Agendas that are distributed early help guide presenters but it also allows attendees time to think of questions. Make certain when you are setting the agenda, you plan the webinar for a time -- and time zone -- that is convenient for the majority of the attendees. A production schedule is best managed by a professional. This is someone who can ensure there is enough time between all segments of the Webinar and can make sure the platform technology can keep up. This keeps attendees from getting information whiplash when switching topics and presenters. Send out Invites and Track Registration Invites are your first step to getting people at your Webinar. Send the invite to your email list, post about it on your website, social media, and in some cases ask people to share it, even via word of mouth. The more people you invite the more people who will attend. But don’t simply invite people and hope they show up, get them to commit. The easiest way to do this is through a registration website, like Aventri which streamlines tracking attendance and communication. Always capture people’s intent to attend and their contact information. If someone RSVP’s, they are more likely to actually show up! A registration website, like Aventri, can be used pre-event to communicate easily and effectively by sending automatic confirmation emails with links to get on their calendar, reminders prior to the event, and any updates mid-meeting. Pre-Record and Finalize Presentations A well-recorded video of a presentation or a polished slide deck or document can engage your Webinar audience to stay involved for the duration of the Webinar. Make certain the professionalism of all presentations matches your message and your brand. Train the Audience and Leadership It is always good to ensure everyone is on the same page with how to use the platform you have chosen. Even if the platform is not new to your audience and leadership, it is still best to plan testing for each group to explain how each feature will be used in the specific context of your Webinar. In some cases, a simple introduction to the software and where questions should be directed could be included in the first few minutes of your Webinar. For completely new Platforms and for those who may not be as familiar with technology, it may be best to plan trainings prior to the Webinar’s date to ensure everyone has access and is comfortable using the platform. Test your Platform Log on EARLY. Make certain the kinks are all worked out before your attendees log on. You shouldn’t be handling technical issues while attendees are entering the Webinar – you should be welcoming and helping them look forward to is to come. Engage Audience Keep the Webinar moving! Downtime of virtual Webinars is much more taxing on attendees than downtime of in-person trainings. Ensure you continually ask questions, get feedback, allow for breaks, and present attendees with information that will keep them tuned in to the content. Make certain leadership and presenters have brainstormed different ways to keep people involved through each presenter and each transition. Send out Materials or Publish the Recording Giving people tangibles to take away from your Webinar keeps the information fresh in their minds. Whether you publish the recording of the Webinar on your website or send out follow up materials via email, just make certain you follow up with resources that help drive your goal. One caution, if you do plan on publishing a recording of the Webinar, be mindful of confidentiality, and be sure to disclose your plans to record to your attendees. Send Follow Up Survey Feedback is key! Virtual gatherings are here to stay. Understanding what went well and what didn’t will help you plan an even better Webinar in the future. And guess what, the contact information gathered during registration or registration site like Aventri makes it easy to send out post-event surveys and gather streamlined responses! Your audience will appreciate the care you take in providing a simple and informative webinar. UMC Support’s Travel and Meeting Planning team can help your ministry plan and produce webinar events. Contact our Connectional Relations Team today to begin the process.

Looking to upgrade your church’s audio/visual (A/V) system? A comprehensive A/V self-assessment will help you understand your current capabilities and assess your needs. Our in-house A/V specialist developed this resource to help you effectively communicate your setup to a trained technician. Expand your knowledge of your technology setup by filling out the resource. UMC Support can help your ministry save money when you purchase and install new equipment. Email your completed assessment to connectionalrelations@gcfa.org and receive a free advanced virtual A/V Assessment from our A/V Team.