ACS Webinar Guest Appearance

I had some great fun working with the team from ACS last week.  Darci Shelley (ACS R&D Lead) and the ACS team asked that I be a special guest on the MegaChurch Team Webinar and since I am always up for trying out something new I agreed to participate.

For the past few months they have been building the community and communication lines between the MegaChurch segment of the company’s customers thru webinars twice each month.  The webinars have included product road maps, current features and new features in the latest release of the software.

This week’s webinar focused on the Registration component of Access ACS, the updates to this component are expected to release in November and this includes some great interaction between Registrations and Facility Scheduler.  We have been working with the R&D team for 9 months on this integration are very excited to see it come to market.  After these changes are in place we will be moving back over to the ACS Registration suite from ServicU.  This progress will take us one step further in fully defining the work flow for organizing, scheduling, managing and hosting events for our ministries… and a large portion of that process will be automated.

Darci asked me to be on the webinar to talk about how ACS and Northwoods have worked together to improve this part of the product line and how it is improving our workflow.

It was a lot of fun to announce live the branding Northwoods.ME for our AccessACS (ACS on the web) portal and to be part of the ACS iPhone application announcement,  ACS ChurchLife!, all on the webinar!

I have said it before, ACS has the right people on their team and they continue to impress me.  I am continually reminded they are the right team at the right time for the needs of our ministry! 

I had a great time working thru the technical challenges of a live webcast from multiple sites with the ACS team.  I got to learn a lot about AdobeConnect, which continues to impress me.  We used our web cam and ACS made me a co-presenter and I was able to stream my video and audio and interact with the ACS team.

If you are an ACS customer and missed the webinar check it out in your client portal.

If you aren’t an ACS customer and you are just curious about the webinar and want to check out the recording post a comment and i’ll send you a link to watch the recording.

Not your normal Workers Comp Claim

Most of our staff went white water rafting about 10 days ago for our staff retreat and had a great trip on the Gully River in West Virginia.  Some of us did the whole 26 mile marathon including 6 class V rapids… what a awesome way hang out in nature!

But now some of us have been noticing we have little red bumps on our arms and legs…. It drove one of our staff members so crazy he had been calling the exterminator and treating his home for fleas. 

Today 3 of us figured out we all had the same thing and started to draw the conclusion that it was from our trip.  After comparing our red bumps we all figured out that we all had the same thing. 

Several went to the doctor and found out that its an allergic reaction to the river water… or some sort of bug bites.

So when white water rafting, watch out for the little critters or you might be enjoying the company of your fellow staff at prompt care.  Note to self… Your student ministry staff is only the best choice of guys to go to the Prompt Care with if you are willing to be rolling on the floor laughing… thanks for a great experience Chris.

ACS Technologies iPhone Application

ACS released their iPhone application today.  The application allows you to search contact information out of your Access ACS database from the handset. 

The application is called ACS Church Life.

The search functions are very quick and from the search results you can easily email or call any contact.

Or map the addresses of the contacts.

I talked with the R&D team at ACS today and they are continuing development to improve the iPhone app.  The next addition to the iPhone app will be the ability to search events out of Facility Scheduler, so you can check the room and other information about your event.  Down the road it will even include access to connections and other modules in the ACS product suite.  This would allow pastors or others who need to note information about a hospital visit, phone call or other interaction with an attendee to make those notes in a secure location while out of the office and that information becomes immediately available to the teams who need it.

Great Job on a cool tool!

Would you Ride The train?

We are working thru our travel plans for the 2009 Spring Church IT RoundTable/Ministry Tech event…. and that leaves me wondering would you ride the train? 

 We are thinking about taking Amtrak from Chicago to Colorado.  It is a scheduled 15 hour trip over night (yes i know train travel isn’t always on time but nor is air travel).  The cost per person is roughly $190 per person.  It could be a great time for CITRT community before and after the event…

Would you be interested in a train trip with others next spring?

CITRT & MinistryTech Discount Code

A special discount code is being offered to all those invovled in the CITRT who are planning to attend MinistryTech/Spring CITRT 2008.

If you REGISTER before September 30, use the coupon code ‘CITRT’ for an ADDITIONAL 25% off the early bird rates!

CITRT and MinistryTech Spring 2008

The Church IT RoundTable (CITRT) is excited to announce a partnership with MinistryTECH to combine the Spring 2009 Church IT National RoundTable with MinistryTECH, to be held April 23-24, 2009 at Woodmen Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs.  We are collaborating with Terrell Sanders of MinistryTECH to plan the conference so that it includes the peer learning, community, and inspiration that are the hallmarks of the CITRT.  The combined event will have keynote sessions, breakout sessions, RoundTable sessions, a vendor fair, and ministry tours.  Mark your calendars now for an awesome time next April in Colorado Springs!

If you REGISTER before Sept 30th and use the coupon code ‘CITRT’ your early bird rate will be discounted by and additional 25%! 

Are you going to Chareston???

Just 26 days left until the Fall Church IT RoundTable hosted by Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC.  Registration is just $50 and there is plenty of space for you AND your team!  Don’t miss this opportunity for peer learning and great community! 

If you haven’t attended a RoundTable before, you have missed some awesome events and networking with some great people… (who knows they could have even been your next staff member).   
If you have attended a RoundTable and you haven’t registered, shame on you… you KNOW what you will be missing and there aren’t many reasons to miss our Fall 2008 event.

Top ten reasons to attend the Fall RoundTable:
10. The legendary Jason ‘the King’ Powell
9. Knowing that number 10 is a joke experiencing some great community and having fun with your peers.
8. Hear about some of the latest technology from key vendors and manufactures.
7. Bring an entire hotel’s WiFi to its knees in under 10 minutes.
6. Testing the limits of beta technology for crazy ideas at 1 am.
5. Cornering your favorite CHMS vendor and making them cry.
4. Hear the best and worst network war stories of 2008.
3. Be thrilled that the your worst story of 2008 wasn’t the worst in number 4.
2. Win a trip to the Spring 2009 CITRT– just kidding..
1. Wondering if 2 isn’t a joke and never knowing for sure.

Definition of a Roundtable

http://jpowell.blogs.com/jason_powell_church_it/2007/05/wow_theres_been.html

Past Roundtable topics
http://jpowell.blogs.com/jason_powell_church_it/2007/11/it-roundtable-t.html

Fall 07 Roundtable links
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/10/roundtable-posts.html

Some Vendor Love

Recently we have started doing a little business with Zones (including the $300 Sony laptop Deal) and while talking to our rep Nathan I was giving him a hard time and said he should be showing us more love… He asked if a box of widgets was a good first step and we said we love free stuff so a few day later a box arrived with some cool widgets… including my favorites.. the Crucial Memory Hog and the Kaspersky Dancing robot.