An Obvious but Important Observation

Let me start with a confession: I sometimes secretly imagine myself working as a sportscaster. Not because I'm a huge sports nut (average, not huge) or because I think I've missed my calling (most days I feel I'm where I should be). It's because sportscasters can say the obvious and get away with it.

"Baseball games are won by teams who can get points on the board. If this team can't do that, its over for them." (Wow!)

"A quarterback who can run and throw has got a pretty good future in this game." (No way!)

"She's an excellent runner because she's fast - faster than anyone else on the track." (That makes sense.)

Which all leads me to hope you'll let me get away with stating the obvious: effective communication requires clear communicators and active listeners.

Pretty obvious and yet incredibly important.

Let me focus for a minute on the first part: clear communicators. At New A.C.T's October meeting we hired a media consultant to look at our message and our audience to help us more clearly communicate what is happening with the new conference development. United Methodist Communications has enthusiastically offered to pay half the consultant fee. The turn around time is pretty quick: we'll have in hand a plan by January for immediate action. This will be helpful.

But already New A.C.T. has acted to more effectively get the word out:

• A weekly email "blast" containing the most recent information on the new conference has been going out for over a month. Feedback on this resource has been extremely positive. If you're not receiving this, send an email to uppernewyorkarea@gmail.com and you'll be added to the list.

• North Central New York and Western New York have also combined their conference papers into one publication called Transitions which features all sorts of new conference articles as well as happenings in all four annual conference. Wyoming and Troy also have their conference papers online and feature all sorts of new conference information. Checking out these publications is a great way to get to know one another now.
  

• A series of five Advent bulletin inserts containing a complete overview of where we are in the development of the new conference will be available to all congregations in the area this Advent season.

• A new Facebook group called "Upper New York Annual Conference" has also been created. As of today it has over 400 fans who are involved in a lively discussion about the proposed name for our new conference ("Upper New York AC). Why not join in?
  

• UpperNewYork.org continues to feature articles, team minutes, and blog links. Its our "one stop" information kiosk for new conference development.

And there's more to come. New A.C.T. understands we have an obligation to get clear and helpful information out to everyone.

But you will also have to do your part to complete the communication loop. Again, its obvious but needs to be said: you will have to actively seek information and provide feedback. Please click on every hyperlink in this blog post. Read, digest and respond. Good communication is a partnership of communicator and listener. Let's help each other make this work.

Staffing for a Good Start

This week New A.C.T.'s Interim Personnel Planning Team posted job descriptions and a request for applications for four senior executive staff positions: Director of Connectional Ministries, Treasurer/Director of Administrative Services, Director of Communications, and Conference Benefits Officer.

Why these four and only these four to start off? New A.C.T. applied the same principle to decisions about conference staffing its been applying to other aspects of new conference development: we want to start off as a new conference with enough but not too much.

New A.C.T. believes these four senior executive staff positions are enough to get us off to an excellent start. Wherever we discern Christ leading us as a new conference and area in the future, we'll want these four persons to be walking along side us. They will provide vital and necessary support to all sorts of conference and local church leadership.

But New A.C.T. also believes to develop more senior level staffing at this time would be to do too much. Why? Well, not because these first four will be all the staff we need, but because we haven't discerned what our future staffing needs are.

You know the saying, "get three United Methodists together, and you'll hear at least four opinions." Just imagine the number of opinions you'd hear if you get 180, 000 United Methodists together! Well, sisters and brothers, that's what we're about to do in the Upper New York Area.

Since I joined New A.C.T. last November I've been sitting with just a small fraction of that 180,000. Around the table at New A.C.T. meetings the twenty-five of us have all sorts of ideas about what this new conference could offer God and the people of Upper New York. And many other folks who don't sit around that table but who've been interested in the process have shared their hopes, dreams and desires.

It's pretty exciting and I know its just the beginning. As this conversation is deepened, broadened, focused and blessed, our conference's programs and ministries will emerge. And we'll be looking for some new staff to help us turn our dreams into accomplishments.

But we're not there yet. We don't know what outcomes (i.e., the fruit of our mission and ministry) God seeks from us yet. Discerning those outcomes is the work of the new conference, not New A.C.T.

And because the outcomes we seek determine the sort of staffing we need to put in place, we need to wait on identifying other staff. To do the staffing before we're clear about outcomes would be to put "the cart before the horse." Once our new conference and its leadership are in place (i.e., after July 1, 2010), we can begin this work.

Does that make sense? Let me know.