Warning: Long post
RANT & WARNING: I hate Zoom, and anything built on it. It has so many under-the-covers security issues which no amount of tinkering by patches can fix. They did not built security in design, and there is a reason that they are free and cute. There are better solutions out there. I am disappointed in United Church of canada for not alerting folks to alernatives. END OF RANT.
Background. I had been aware since February and discussing with family in California the importance of preparation, increasingly so as March kicked in and news shifted. I had a discussion with my minister on Tuesday, March 10 at my home, that I was concerned that we shook hands the week before, and I recommended changes to service. We were on very different pages re the risk and the response. He left for the states on Thursday, and was unable for dialogue until the following Tuesday. Our past chair and chair of worship were also in the states and unavailable. On that same Thursday that he became unavailable, the government gave guidelines, and I, as chair, was making emergency decisions regarding church on Sunday, March 15th without past chair, chair of worship, or minister. Life was interesting.
logistical information
- Church has used constant contact and has decent email list (thank goodness)
- Church has been using youtube for recaps of the message each week prior to Covid.
- Church would be considered small, and a "heart" church
- Church has not used any online communication tools for meeting prior to covid-19
- Church does not have a choir. Band, few singers and upbeat music.
- I have a paid GoToMeeting account for my business as it is a secure and robust solution. It has 1800 capability for callers
Here is a bit of a rundown on the timeline.
March 14th: Response team formed, with M&P for Health & Safety, Chair and SC&O & youth leader (staff)
March 15th: Advised anyone over 70 or with health challenges to stay home. Did not have bulletin. Used yardsticks to show distancing. Very direct to people who didn't practice distancing. One singer at front. Minimal band. (Met people outside and advised them of rules). No coffee.
March 16th Started daily response team meetings using GoToMeeting.
Sometime that week: Minister and chair of worship had to self-isolate for two weeks, due to US travel, so unavailable for in person. transitioned to Minister, Worship chair and myself as response team. M&p chose to opt out
March 22nd: Pre-recorded sermon, posted on YouTube and shared in eworship
March 23rd: determined way to do etransfer and changed standard signatures in our eNews, eWorship to include how to support church
March 25th: First board meeting online via GoToMeeting. Response team offically took over communications via constant contact in part due to office staff access and in part due to the importance of immediate / non-standard communications.
March 28th: Use of online increases to include sunday bible study, small group gatherings and some council teams. (using my account still)
March 29: Pre-recorded sermon, plus coffee-time offered via GoToMeetings
April 2 Started offering GoToMeetings for youth. Using my account still
Palm Sunday: April 5th Prerecorded message
April 7th; Started providing our eWorship communications to a sister church, for the ability to join Easter service and get message along with future services. (they are without minister at this time.
Good Friday, April 10th: Pre-recorded message, readings and singing using GoToMeeting. Edited and placed on the youtube channel
Easter Sunday: April 12th: live Service offered through GoToMeeting, including soloists and communion.
April 14th - Response team transitioned to two meetings / week: Tuesday and either Thurs or Fri
April 14th - Agreed to move forward with offering live online services each Sunday including ability to call-in with 1800 for those socially isolated without internet, as is so important for people to be connected with their community
April 14th - Youtube now back to its primary purpose of the re-cap, and that is included in weekly eworships for anyone who had issue joining, but has internet, but..watches are up significantly
April 15th (or thereabouts): Not-for-Profit licenses acquired for free for 90 days from LogMeIn for GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.
April 18th: Started printing and doing delivery of order of service, enews, eworship and call-in information for those without internet. Dropped voices united to homes of those without internet
April 19th - GoToMeeting used for church service. Have individuals attending who never attended the service in person prior, but are known to the community. Numbers are good.
Apr 22: started online bible study on Wed, in addition to sunday bible study
Noted: getting donations through PayPal from constant contact eworship communication and etransfers
April 24th (or thereabouts): got the 1800 feature added to church goto license, so transitioned fully to church account's gotomeeting and gotowebinar (you could hear me shouting hallelujah. The load of starting the meeting due to my protection of my account was beginning to wear me thin)
April 26th - GoToMeeting used for church service (still on my account due to timings for communication via email and print)
Sat: May 2: Started to include a sister church in our communications for youth
Sun, May 3: Used GoToMeeting for service, bible study & coffee time using church account, with multiple organizers, and admin able to set them up. Woot! As part of this transitioned eworship and e-blast to administrative staff including training in meeting setup. New formats and lists
Sun May 10: First trial of GoToWebinar. Love it, with some gotchas. Continue to use GoToMeeting for all bible studies, social times, and meetings.
Tues, May 12: Initiated discussions to provide tablets to those who do not have access to internet and are socially isolated.
Sun may 17th: using GoToWebinar again
Other notes:
- We support Narcotics Anonymous through their meeting at the church 3 nights per week. We worked with them to allow them to continue to meet in the building until March 21st, when they decided to no longer meet. This was important, and why Social Concerns and Outreach were engaged with response team.
- We also have people that we regularly support through food, so kept our pantry open when the church was closed until we could determine other approaches.
- Crafts are being delivered (or picked up) for kids.
Where we are now
- Multiple licenses for GoToMeeting, allowing for organizers to setup and run their own meetings, as well as share leadership. Used by council members and staff, as well as our sister church
- Constant contact has 3 sends: eNews, eBlast & eWorship
- Gatherings for bible study, coffee time, plus council and committee meetings
- Multiple licenses for GoToWebinar which allow for music sharing and a much better overall performance. Note: GoToMeeting is excellent but when you have 30 people sending video down a pipe, and trying to chat, well, as people have indicated re zoom, something has to give. GoToWebinar has better mic control and video control, plus video sharing is done from the primary servers/uploaded, so no issue with network at the hosts site)
- Looking at getting more people online by dropping off simple tablets with internet paid for by the church
info for techs
- GoTo* is related to Citrix, you can still see it in some of their scripts. It is an app built for performance and security.
www.winnipegfreepress.com
www.thebigredchurch127.com
sacompassion.net
