Westman Bible Conference: Insider Eye 2

So we’ve got our workflow for conference day laid out. For advice on that, we’re hugely thankful for the organizers of Christianity on Trial.

Lost in Space

Over the past week, we identified a minor communication issue between the sub-groups involved. Our board is communicating with the host church leadership, who are communicating with volunteers from among their congregation (we also bring our own cohort of volunteers to the table).

Our communication has been reasonably good, but it seems we’ve failed to stream a clear picture of the conference day through the channels to the volunteers churchside. More than one casual conversation this week has tipped me off to this. The main question is, “How long is the day?” My answer: “About 11 hours.” Their response: {stare of shock}

We don’t need people feeling all stressed out because they’re not sure how much is expected of them. That would not make me a happy or satisfied co-ordinator type person. So…

Communications Fix

Doesn’t much matter where the breakdown was, the point is now just to see that people aren’t caught off-guard by something very different from their expectations. We’re at T minus 8 days, so now’s the moment to correct.

So, today we threw together a bulletin insert with some detailed info for the host church, and conspired with a very understanding and gracious secretary to have that available to the congregation on Sunday. Our host’s secretary is one of those awesome ladies who, I’m certain, is in cahoots with the Lord to keep the world turning. God’s inner circle? All secretaries.

Keeping the Loop Live

Today, for me, was all about communicating with co-ordinators. We have a huge geographical spread to deal with. Our book fair co-ordinators currently live about 40 minutes south of Brandon. Two of our board members live 40 minutes northeast of Brandon, another almost an hour north. We’re about 45 minutes to the northwest.

Email is from God, I tell you. From God. Also, free North American calling, in that it certainly encompasses Manitoba. I’ve talked to pretty much everybody conference-side today.

Hospitality

Our hospitality requirements are coming together. Not knowing what our financial support will be like, we’ve done as much as possible on a volunteer basis.

It’s been really quite humbling how people who barely know us have stepped forward to pitch in. We have about 117 dozen cookies coming in, for one thing. We also have a totally fabulous lady who happens to be my mother-in-law tackling the hospitality needs. Her knowledge base and experience are fantabulous.

Ode to a Potato

Next: Collect the final volunteer sign-up info and make sure everybody gets fed. It’s a long day. Lunch and supper need to be there for folks. I pretty much have a head count, but we do need to know who’s there when.

Fiddle-dee-dee potatoes! No, I’m not Irish. We will need to have a couple of people’s help with potatoes for the volunteer meal, so they don’t go all, like, ugly and black or something due to a large time gap between prep and cooking/serving.

It’s these little items that cause stress, and it’s amazing how they can impact working relationships. So I’m taking a moment to pray over this: Lord, please send us some people who have it on their heart to help, but maybe aren’t sure how, for whom this would be the perfect thing for them.

Making Pretty Paper Things

More and more paperwork? Well, not really. I have to make some area schedules and building-use signage for posting, and a Master of Ceremonies toolkit for my beloved husband.

Having done all this for the first time, the wonder of digital technology will allow me to store it all on the hard drive for next year. There are a number of things that will be much less work.

I am so thankful people have talked to us and coached us about this stuff. Time to make myself another to-do list. I cannot tell you how good this is for my prayer life. In everything by prayer…