I have heard it said that communication is difficult across the annual conference as there are many different ways that people communicate and there is not a single best way to communicate.
I believe that there is a hint of truth here, but that it could be addressed relatively easily.
I propose that both the Kansas West and Kansas East Annual Conferences take seriously the need to communicate and make improvements in the efficiency by which it is done. To that end, I propose that every church in the conference have a computer and high speed internet access. Broadband is spreading across rural areas and could be also facilitated through services like WildBlue. This would level the playing field of communication technology and allow communication to move toward standardizing via email and other electronic means. Will this take time? Yes. But I believe that creating a benchmark of technology for each church could increase communication and over time make things like annual reports much simpler as they could be completed electronically. Not being able to communicate is a myth of the annual conference.
Rev. Andrew Conard 
7 replies on “Myths of the Annual Conference: Communication”
Didn’t you post this before?
Maybe… I guess I feel strongly about it.
Speaking in general (I don’t yet have a grasp for the specifics of the KS area, but do know how things were in Indiana) it does seem like there are communication problems. What you’re proposing might be a solution to those problems (or at least a step toward addressing them), but for the time being I’d say there are still communication problems within our annual conferences.
I might suggest that we have communication issues, not all of which will be solved by technology. Technology, however, can help in some important ways. It would be more realistic to propose that every charge have such technology. In two and three point charges, for example, I do not believe ther eis need for such technology at each church on the circuit
Good post.
I’m in the Central Pennsylvania Conference which is largely rural (and small towns), so broadband access has been a real challenge. In fact, I now have broadband access for the first time in my life because I moved (from a rural area to a small town) last summer!
That said, I think my conference does a good job in this area …
+ We have a Media Team which leads this effort.
+ Periodic (daily or as necessary) email called the QuikLINK with news and announcements (archived on the website).
+ The conference bi-monthly publication is also posted online.
+ Our bishop has posted a few video messages at YouTube.
+ The 2 districts I’ve been in both use email regularly.
+ Last year, the conference assigned all pastors in our conference email addresses to remove the problem/challenge of maintaining ever-changing email addresses.
One thing I’d like to see us develop better is our blogging network. We haven’t done anything in that area yet. But I’ve been planning to suggest it.
I really don’t know how our conference compares with others in this area since it’s been my only experience, but it seems to work well.
Jeff – I appreciate your fresh look at the annual conference.
Mark – You make a great distinction here. Thanks for the reminder that technology can only be a helper to the issue that remains, communication. Thanks for the nuance about charge vs. church. Good stuff!
Randy – Thanks for your perspective from your conference. I really like the common email addresses so that there can be continuity of communication in that way. How is that managed? I hope that your efforts are successful in blogging network.
Thanks, Andrew. I’m not really sure how it’s managed, other than through the Media Team’s office.
I think it incorporated two options for Web mail access (Squirrel and something else, I think), but I chose simply to redirect all email to my primary email service which I pay for (fastmail.fm).