UNLEASHING YOUR PARISH GEEKSOR WHAT TO DO WITH

THESE WEIRD ANIMALS!

WHY GEEKS?

• Geeks can make your ministries run smoothly

• Geeks can help others reach their goals by providing the right

tools

• Geeks can enhance parish communications

FINDING AND PICKING YOUR GEEKSGeeks are not all created equal, but all can be useful

Geeks aren’t all 20-something white males, quite the opposite in fact

DIFFERENT TYPES OF GEEKS

Technical Geeks

•Programmers

•Network Specialists

•Web Programmers

Designer Geeks

•Web Designers

•Graphic Designers

•Presentation

Designers

Consumer Geeks

•Video Editors

•Audio Editors

•Photographers

Technical Geeks

Designer Geeks

Consumer Geeks

TECHNICAL GEEK: THE PROGRAMMER

• Most likely your least useful

• May or may not be male

• Works in C#, Python, knows

Linux inside out

• Worse: knows COBOL

• Goto person if you have

advanced needs

TECHNICAL GEEK: NETWORK SPECIALIST

• Will set up your office wifi

• Will deal with laptops so they connect to the office wifi

• Will handle security

• May also set up backup procedures

• Will potentially deal with hardware issues

TECHNICAL GEEK: WEB PROGRAMMER

• Will set up your website for easy

updates by others

• May handle mail setup with

network geek

• Will talk to hosting company

• Goto person for e-newletter

technical issues, and email

merge

TECHNICAL GEEK: PLATFORM, NOT CONTENT

• Does NOT create content

• Does not create graphics

• Does not edit photos

• Does not write the newsletter

• Does not choose colours

DIFFERENT TYPES OF GEEKS

Technical Geeks

•Programmers

•Network Specialists

•Web Programmers

Designer Geeks

•Web Designers

•Graphic Designers

•Presentation

Designers

Consumer Geeks

•Video Editors

•Audio Editors

•Photographers

Technical Geeks

Designer Geeks

Consumer Geeks

DESIGNER GEEK: WEB DEVELOPPER• Understand the needs of mobile platform

• Is aware of 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface

Design by Jacobs

• Is not scared of fluid design

• Is aware of Colour theories used in marketing

Colors and Marketing

• Will implement your website platform

• Tools: javascript, wordpress, html, css3, html5 and

many others. (bonus points for Django, Ruby on Rails,

etc..)

DESIGNER GEEK: GRAPHIC GEEK• Has a background in graphics design

• Can edit photos

• Can create newsletter layout

• May work hand in hand with the web developer to

create the graphical media used on the website

• May create the whole website look with (or instead of)

the web developper

DESIGNER GEEK: PRESENTATION GEEK• Expert in PowerPoint, but not necessarily a

professional

• Knows about and uses Prezi

• Background in marketing could be useful

• Good graphic eye

• (definitely not me)

DIFFERENT TYPES OF GEEKS

Technical Geeks

•Programmers

•Network Specialists

•Web Programmers

Designer Geeks

•Web Designers

•Graphic Designers

•Presentation

Designers

Consumer Geeks

•Video Editors

•Audio Editors

•Photographers

Technical Geeks

Designer Geeks

Consumer Geeks

CONSUMER GEEKS: CONTENT, NOT PLATFORM

• Do create content

• Do create graphics

• Do take and edit photos,

videos

• May write the newsletter

based on layout created by

graphics geek

MOTIVATING YOUR GEEKS

Provide work-worthy

experience to junior

geeks

Allow a geek-out

experience

(hackathon-

experience)

Allow professional

geeks to try some

new technology

Geeks are well paid professionals

Or hungry beginners looking for a

job

Geeks enjoy their work when they

can learn something new

Geeks want to see things change for

the better

Geeks will often volunteer in many

organisations. Why not the Catholic

Church?

GEEK PRIESTS: THEY EXIST!

• Fr. Roderick Vonhögen

• Bishop Tom Dowd

• Fr. Cory Sticha (Montana)

• Fr Darryl Millette (Saskatoon)

• Saskapriest

• SportsFathers

PARISH DATABASE

• BIGGEST CORE COMPONENT OF YOUR COMMUNICATION PLAN!

• A Big Beast to be tamed!

USAGE

• Keep track of donations

• Emit tax receipts at end of the year

• SO MUCH MORE!

• Keep track of families

• Keep track of parishioner needs

• Keep track of parishioner talents

• Enhance COMMUNICATIONS

PARISH FRIENDLY

ACOLYTE

HELPMATE

PARISH SOFT

POWERCHURCH

SHARING IS NICE

• Installed on one PC: no sharing, access is controlled by physical

access

• Installed on a network: sharing within the office, access is

controlled by a mix of physical and virtual.

• Installed on a cloud: sharing wherever you are. Access is

controlled by virtual only.

CLOUD OR NO CLOUD?

• Access is based on roles.

People access only what they need to.

• Accessible from anywhere: a parishioner’s home, a senior

residence

• Backups are off site and guaranteed (best data security!)

• Privacy and security is controlled by the strength of your

password

• Support for all platforms, tablets, cell phones etc…

WHO GETS ACCESS TO THE DATABASE

• Donation follow-up (accounting)

• Catechism / Religious Education

• Youth group

• Any and all ministries

ACCESS IS LIMITED BASED ON NEED

IMPORTANCE OF EXPORT => FREEDOM

• Export as XLS or CVS

• The importance of the QUERY (lets you choose whom you want

to export)

• Export means you don’t care as much about the features in the

database program (mail merge, email merge, etc..)

DONATIONS

• Paypal

• SquareUp (and iPad Stand )

• GetPayd (or Payd Pro for Interact transactions) (Youtube)

The new generation doesn’t carry cash.

The new generation doesn’t have cheques.

NON SOLLICITED COMMUNICATIONS

• New Canadian Law!

• Select appropriate recipients in your database

• You need appropriate info first! Look for talent, known

languages, interests.

• Make each communication personal through the power of well

thought out mail merge. Use relevant personal info.

• Always use their name. No “dear parishioner”. That will be

considered spam within 2 seconds

OPT-IN COMMUNICATIONS

• Flocknote (ease of use, subscribing is easy)

• Mailchimp (no cost for less than 2,000 emails)

• Always allow for opt-out – it’s the law!

• Each ministry in the parish should be set up for sending

newsletters, reminders, etc.

TWILIO (DEMONSTRATION)

• Sends txt or phone call automatically

• Takes messages for you

• Requires programmation (either a web programmer, or a

programmer)

• Very versatile – you could have a whole phone system!

• 1 contact per second. Easily reach everyone within minutes

VOLUNTEERS

• Cloud-based: access everywhere

• Post your openings

• Manage your volunteers (who can do what)

• Reports are A+

• Used by major players (YMCA, Breast Cancer Association,

Salvation Army)

SMALL COMMUNITIES

• Google Maps demo

• Ignio

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Instagram

• Hootsuite : to keep your sanity!

• Parish App (Catholic Mobile Media)

• ECatholic Websites

VISUALS: WE LIVE IN AN INCREASINGLY VISUAL WORLD

• SlideTeam (for PowerPoint)

• Parish Designer

• Catholic Memes

• ECatholicWebsites.com

“

”

THE CHURCH IS EVER ON A JOURNEY, SEEKING NEW WAYS TO ANNOUNCE THE GOSPEL.

Pope Francis on Twitter – Nov 8th 2014

SOCIAL MEDIA