First Church Communications Team

Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Members Present: Carol Cline, Janet Mody, Jerry Niebaum (interim chair), Michelle Parmley, Candice Ranney, and Andy Smith. We were joined by Roger Bain.

Audio/Visual Assistance: Volunteers are needed to help run the audio/video equipment during worship. Andy took down several names that were suggested by team members. It was mentioned that the youth would be a good resource for this responsibility.

Leo Clinic & Other Outside Groups: Amy Rose spoke to a representative of the Leo Clinic to get more information about their group. They do receive funding from Heartland Church, however, there is a divide within the Leo Clinic for support for Heartland Church. Amy recommends that we have a meeting with a rep from the Leo Clinic to learn more about them. The Leo Clinic is asking to present an overview of their services to our congregation, not a request for funding. Jerry said that the church receives many requests from outside groups that want to make contact with the congregation in order to sell their services. Another group that has contacted the church recently is the Windsor Group, an assisted-living community for seniors. Jerry’s point is that these requests lead us to a broader question: What is the process by which outside groups are screened to present to the church? It was decided that the issue on guidelines for screening should come from a larger group in the church such as the Administrative Board.

Video Development with Roger Bain & Inspiration Network: Roger Bain joined the meeting to talk with us about video production. We viewed the video he produced along with an outside production company for the last capital campaign in 2005. As mentioned in the April meeting, we have been approached by the Inspiration Network about having a presentation on Sunflower Broadband’s video-on-demand schedule. This would be a 15 minute informational video about First Church. The cost is $250 per month plus production costs. The team is not overly enthusiastic about this idea, but we do seem to be in agreement that a video presentation would be a good outreach tool for new members. Jerry’s vision for a video presentation is that there would be stand-alone segments that tell the story of First Church in such areas as history, services & programs, and where we are in the Lawrence faith community. These segments would allow for editing if there were significant changes in the church, such as a new pastor or worship leaders. Some of the segments from the existing video, such as the history portion, could be used again, but new information, particularly the opening of the Celebration Center, would have to be added. Roger has offered his services for putting together a video, but there are several areas to consider. One is that this is a very time-consuming project, and Roger’s time commitment to the church is already stretched. Another is the need to upgrade some of the equipment. The current video has some segments where the audio is of poor quality. Also, how much would a video cost to produce? Roger estimates that the post-production work would be in the $1,000 range. More discussion is needed on this topic, but in general, all members think that this is a worthy project to pursue.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, September 4th, 7:30pm room 303 Downtown. [POSTPONED]
Tuesday, October 2nd, 7:30pm room 303 Downtown.