Peter Lane

AI, Automation and the Admin We Can’t Avoid

Posted on by Peter Lane

(aka: Why ChatGPT Can’t Replace the Parish Secretary — Yet)

I recently helped someone use AI to draft a pastoral care roster.

It confidently produced a six-week schedule — nicely formatted, evenly distributed, and even colour-coded.  A small miracle, except for one problem: it assigned duties to three people who’d moved away, one who’d passed away, and one who had, in no uncertain terms, declared themselves done with morning tea forever — and said so loudly enough that even the flower roster flinched.

That’s the problem with clever automation: it’s fast, it’s convincing… and it doesn’t actually know your people.

🤖 “Yes, and here are three ways to make your bad idea better.”

We like the idea that technology will take boring tasks off our plate. And to be fair, it often can. But AI doesn’t say, “Are you sure that’s wise?” If anything, it says, “Yes — and here are three ways to make your bad idea even shinier!”

I’ve had this same tool write notices, suggest announcements, and summarise minutes from meetings I wasn’t in.  Which, as it turns out, is still slightly better than most people manage after actually attending.  But it also generates hymns that rhyme “Holy Ghost” with “vegemite toast,” and thinks the Lay Preachers’ Network meets monthly in Rotorua, led by someone called Cheryl.  So we’re not quite ready to hand over the mailing list.

🧠 What AI can do well

There’s real potential in using AI as a support tool. It’s excellent at:

  • Summarising minutes (though more on that in a moment)
  • Rewording notices in plain English
  • Writing templated blurbs for events
  • Suggesting topics or structures for sermons, emails, or posters
  • Helping roster-wranglers match names to roles (if you feed it a correct list!)

Used well, it’s like having a patient, mildly robotic intern who never sleeps and doesn’t complain about your formatting choices.

✋ What AI can’t do (yet)

It can’t remember who swapped with who last Easter. It doesn’t know that Margaret never says yes until Dawn does.  It doesn’t see the half-raised eyebrow in a committee meeting that actually means “not now.”

AI can’t exercise discretion. It doesn’t sense relational dynamics or know when to tread carefully.  It doesn’t even blink when your most pastoral person gets assigned to prune the hedge.

And no matter how confidently it generates a suggestion, it still doesn’t know anything.  It just guesses what would look plausible based on the internet and a frankly suspicious number of LinkedIn posts.

🙃 “The minute secretary is redundant now, apparently.”

This might sound like a punchline, but it’s something I actually heard recently — from a real, human minute secretary, no less.  AI tools like Otter.ai and Fathom are now quietly turning up in Zoom meetings, transcribing conversations with eerie fluency and very little oversight.

Some IT teams are reportedly having quiet panic attacks about this trend — not least because many of these tools store data offshore, with no real guarantees about privacy or data retention.  “Free” transcription comes with hidden costs, and they’re not always paid in dollars.

Let’s be honest: we didn’t all sign up for this.  But the tools are here — and some are genuinely helpful.

⚖️ Use it? Sure. But don’t give it keys to the vestry.

I’m not anti-AI.  In fact, I’ve seen it do great things — like help someone draft a sermon outline when they were under time pressure and stuck for a start.  (Philip Garside wrote about his own experience with AI sermons: AI-assisted sermon.)

But the golden rule is this: treat it like a tool, not a secretary.  Please and thank you are optional — but double-checking is not.

If it saves you time, excellent.  If it gives you ideas, fantastic.  But it won’t notice who’s tired.  It won’t ring someone who missed the meeting and quietly ask if they’re okay.  And it certainly won’t follow up when you forget to.

📬 Got AI stories from your church?

At d|c|t (the Diaconate of Church Technologists), we’re collecting stories — both the successes and the “well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…” moments.  If you’ve experimented with AI tools in your church (for admin, worship, planning, or pure curiosity), we’d love to hear from you.  Your examples will help shape a practical, grounded Church + AI resource we’ll be releasing later this year. You can contact us through dct.org.nz/church-ai.  We’re here to help churches navigate the digital world with a bit of wisdom, a bit of humour, and only as much automation as necessary.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30 years of experience with Technology systems.  We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles.  These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz.  We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we use technology in churches, located at dct.org.nz.   

Peter Lane

Unlocking Smarter Governance: Low-Cost Process Support for Church Boards

Posted on by Peter Lane

Governance Tools to Help Church Boards Thrive

With Methodist memories of Conference starting to fade, we may also find ourselves forgetting about Standing Orders, Consensus voting, Resolutions, Amendments, and Procedural Motions. For many, the world of formal meeting procedure is a strange one—a complicated and sometimes baffling set of rules intended to make formal meetings more effective.

Whatever we think of procedure, as churches continue to expand their role in community leadership, governance for boards and committees has become increasingly complex—and increasingly important. This is especially true as churches fund community initiatives through grants, drawing on public resources. From compliance to financial stewardship, decision-making in church boards can be daunting, particularly for leaders without professional governance training.

Fortunately, decision support systems tailored to the unique needs of church boards can help to streamline many of these challenges and make them more manageable.

Decision Support and Process Support Systems: What Do They Offer?

Decision support systems (DSS) and process support systems are designed to help boards operate with more clarity and structure. For church boards, these tools enable better agenda preparation, more accurate minutes, and clearer action tracking—all of which reduce the administrative burden on already stretched volunteers.

In particular, DSS tools can:

  • Add structure to meetings with pre-set templates for agendas and minutes.
  • Help with compliance by creating an easily accessible record of decisions and actions.
  • Support data-driven decision-making by keeping key documents and voting outcomes organised.

Process support systems, meanwhile, ensure that decisions made in meetings are implemented effectively by providing reminders and follow-up tracking between meetings.

Top Free and Low-Cost Tools for Church Boards

Here are some accessible options to help your board or committee improve governance processes:

Microsoft Teams and the Decisions App

If your church already uses Microsoft Office through charitable licensing, Teams provides an excellent collaboration platform. Adding the Decisions app takes this further, offering tools to organise agendas, track decisions, and simplify compliance. With built-in templates for meeting minutes and action items, it’s an intuitive and powerful governance tool that’s easy to adopt.

Microsoft OneNote

For boards needing a simple and low-cost solution, OneNote provides a shared notebook system for governance records. Its tagging feature makes it easy to highlight action items and revisit decisions, all while keeping key documents in one central location.

Boardable

Designed specifically for non-profits, Boardable includes tools for managing agendas, meeting minutes, and communication. Its voting feature streamlines decision-making, and members can access meeting packs remotely—ideal for boards with members unable to attend every meeting in person. While it’s a paid tool, its focus on non-profits makes it affordable and well-aligned with church governance needs.

4Minitz

4Minitz is a free, open-source tool designed to simplify meeting management by providing structured templates for agenda creation, minute-taking, and action item tracking. It’s ideal for church boards looking for a flexible solution without ongoing costs. With 4Minitz, boards can efficiently document decisions and assign action items, all while maintaining transparency and accountability. Its ability to send minutes by email ensures everyone stays informed, and since it’s open source, it can be self-hosted for added control over data privacy. This makes it a great choice for churches looking for an affordable, customizable solution.

EasyRetro

While primarily used for retrospectives, EasyRetro also offers robust functionality for meeting minute management. This tool provides ready-made templates that help structure meetings, document key decisions, and assign action items. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to export minutes in various formats, including PDF, ensuring that everyone involved has clear records to refer to. EasyRetro is particularly useful for church boards that value collaboration and efficiency, offering a simple way to track follow-ups and maintain transparency. With its free version available, it’s an affordable choice for churches seeking a straightforward solution to minute-taking.

Tips for Implementing Decision Support Tools

Introducing a new DSS or process support tool can take some adjustment. To ensure success:

  1. Assign a point person to guide the setup and help other members get started. Simple onboarding sessions or step-by-step guides can make the transition smoother.
  2. Periodically review how the tool supports your board’s processes. Adjustments may be needed to keep the tool effective as priorities evolve.

Final Thoughts

Decision support systems tailored for governance can transform the way church boards and committees operate.

By bringing structure to agendas, documenting decisions, and enhancing transparency, these tools empower church leaders to focus on their core mission, confident that their governance processes are sound.

Explore these tools today, and see how they can strengthen your board’s decision-making for the challenges ahead.

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30 years of experience with Technology systems.  We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles.  These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz.  We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we use technology in churches, located at www.dct.org.nz.   

Peter Lane

Tips & Tricks for Hosting Online Meetings and Events

Posted on by Peter Lane

It is now a cliché that Covid has caused more advances in the adoption of remote presence technology and videoconferencing as productivity tools than the industry’s marketing activities caused in the previous 10 years.

This has the potential to create large benefits, but like all technologies, has also the potential to create significant disadvantages, often due to people trying to do more with the system than it was intended to achieve. 

In the context of remote meetings by video conference, this often takes the form of assuming that people develop a relationship with each other just as well over video as they do in “real life”.  The reality is that, while it can be done, the relationships people form using video-only take longer to form, are not as deep and break down more easily than the relationships between groups that meet in person, even only occasionally. This can be important to understand, as particularly in governance contexts, the relationship between meeting members directly contributes to the meeting’s effectiveness.  Video calls let people fill in a speaker’s intent and motivation more than text-only or voice-only communication, but this is kick-started by having pre-existing face-to-face relationships.

Another disadvantage is that all the tips and hacks we have learned to make running meetings easier in a lifetime of face-to-face meetings, now need to be re-learned (or even discarded) to suit the digital medium our meetings now tend to use.  This article hopes to present some tips for running meetings and events online to mitigate this issue.  They are aimed at meeting organisers but hopefully will be of interest to others as well.  “Meetings and Events” is a large scope, though, and not all events will need the same level of attention.  Each meeting will have its own requirements for formality, record-keeping, interaction and relationship; and these requirements will translate into different ways to manage the specific meeting.

Planning and Preparation 

Hopefully, this is something you do for face-to-face meetings as well.  Because video communication leaves out a lot of the subliminal content we unconsciously take for granted for in-person meetings, good planning and pre-meeting communications are arguably even more important. 

  • Set up the meeting and invitation as far in advance of the meeting as you can, and configure it so that participants can join the meeting (at least to the waiting room) before the meeting and encourage them to check they can access the meeting with all the audio, video, sharing etc working as they expect.  For a presentation or seminar, you may even consider doing a “dry-run” with the presenters. 
  • Produce a “running sheet” for the event.  This is like an agenda, but is typically more detailed and focused on the production requirements, not the content.  It could indicate things like timings, backgrounds, and resources needed when things like notices need to be put in the chat, when videos need to be played etc. 

Minutes 

One thing I learnt as a consultant is that it is really, really hard to both run a meeting and take good notes.  Contrary to a lot of opinions expressed to me, this doesn’t get easier in an online context.  In fact, if you have to manage the technology as well, you are now trying to do 3 things at the same time instead of two. 

  • Appoint someone whose only job is to take notes.  If you need to do more than fire up the meeting and share a screen once or twice, appoint someone else to manage the technology.  If it’s even mildly complex, consider producing a running sheet for them. 
  • Consider using a software notetaker.  With the surge in AI that’s happening in the tech space just now, there are some significant advances in this space.  I’ve been playing with a Zoom plug-in called Fathom AI notetaker for a while and the results are impressive.  I initially considered it a good fit only for enterprise sales calls it now seems to be a good general-purpose tool.  At a meeting last week, I was blown away by the 2 sentence summaries it generated on the fly for each section of the meeting. 

Screen sharing

If you are sharing a document or a PowerPoint slide, consider logging into the meeting from a separate computer (no camera or microphone needed) and sharing the document from there.  Then you can Pin the screen or remove it as required.  You can also pin the document side by side with the speaker, giving a much better view of the speaker than Zoom’s default thumbnail view. 

Running the Meeting or Event 

  • When hosting a video call with a large group, try to ask specific questions to specific people, and use their names when doing so.  This establishes who will be answering the question and avoids the ever-awkward “No, you go ahead.  No, you!” situation. 
  • If you (or your technical delegate) need to share information in the Chat during the meeting, set all the information up beforehand in a document, then cut and paste it at the relevant time.  This saves getting it wrong at the psychological moment or forgetting.  Don’t forget to put the name and location of the file in the running sheet! 

If nothing else, consider these six golden rules for better video meetings, (adapted from a Trello™ blog post): 

  • Use video for strengthening existing relationships 
  • Have equipment that works – and test that it is still working before your meeting 
  • Look professional yourself and aim for a professional-looking delivery, flowing smoothly from topic to topic. 
  • Make sure everyone feels included 
  • Set up team rules to make video meetings more manageable – this can be just as simple as waiting till called on before speaking, but whatever the rule is, it needs to match the requirements and purpose of the meeting.  For example, if you are running a brainstorming meeting, preventing people from speaking till called on may be counterproductive. 
Peter Lane

Church Management Systems

Posted on by Peter Lane

What do Breeze, Wild Apricot, Toucan Tech and Infoodle have in common?

They are all examples of the names chosen by the developers of specific examples of a – relatively – new type of software, Church Management Systems or ChMS.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that this type of software is enjoying a revival, as similar programs have been around for about as long as programmers have been involved in churches.  However, the current ChMS solutions are leveraging the commercial sector success of CMS solutions – Customer (or Client or Constituent) Management Systems.  Consequently, the underlying technology is very robust.  [Note: frustratingly, CMS is also used for Content Management System, a website solution component.  Some providers get around this by using CRM for Customer Relationship Management]

The underlying premise being all CMS systems (including ChMS’s) is that collecting all the data about one’s customers (or congregants) that can be accessed by all authorised parties in the organisation.  This leads to a number of benefits;

  • There is “one source of truth” – if Mrs Smith tells the door greeter that she has a new phone number, then (in theory – humans can still break the system) everybody else using the CMS can access that number as well. 
  • A centralised solution is also easier to keep backed up (and because it is a centralised solution, it is more critical to make sure it is backed up).
  • A benefit for larger organisations is that if the ChMS records details of all interactions, then if a contact makes a call to the office, then it doesn’t matter who answers, the answerer able to bring themselves very quickly up to date with the context and requirements for that contact.  In a church context, privacy and confidentiality requirements need to be observed, but the principle still applies, especially for administrative matters.
  • ChMS solutions usually support managed communications and automation.  Need to send out a reminder for that special Sunday School event?  Email the pew bulletin to non-attendees?  These types of communications have the potential to make people feel wanted and included but are typically not done because they are too time intensive.  CRMs can make this type of communication happen for the cost of a few hours of upfront set-up and some regular procedures to ensure details are captured and kept up to date.
  • ChMS solutions can keep track of skills, qualifications and expertise held by members and staff.  If a job comes up that needs specific skills or qualifications, you can quickly find out who has those skills.  If a qualification needs to be renewed from time to time, you can have reminders sent to relevant people when renewal action is required.  You can organise all your contacts into groups so that sending an email to the Parish Council, to the entire congregation, or to Homegroup members are all just a couple of clicks.  Most ChMSs will take care of privacy issues for you by hiding everyone else’s email address.
  • Safeguarding and protecting the vulnerable – these features have become particularly important during the pandemic.  Most ChMSs provide some level of “Check-in” capability to allow you to know exactly who was at a given event, track attendee numbers against a limit and allow follow-up to attendees – whether to say, “Thank you for coming” or, “We’re sorry to advise that one of the attendees has tested positive”, as the case may be.  We also live in a society that is increasingly paranoid about the safety of children.  Civil requirements for managing children’s groups are becoming increasingly complex and are likely to become mandatory in time.  Most ChMSs can offer at least minimal solutions to assist manage these requirements, ranging from Check-in/Check-out capability, recording who dropped off or picked up a given child, restricting who is allowed to pick up a given child, to recording allergies or medical conditions and specific first-aid protocols for individuals.  To my mind, it is these types of features that make the most compelling case for churches to adopt ChMSs at the moment.
  • Overall, the benefits of ChMS can be summed up as releasing time spent on administrative tasks for missional and relational activities.  Churches have a large volunteer work component, but it is decreasing over time, so if there is a way we can shift our volunteer resources from administration to strategically focused activity, there should be a significant benefit.

Considerations

Modules, modules and more modules!  ChMS vendors seem to love modules.  The typical product structure is a core module with at least the CRM functions and a number of optional add-on modules (usually at additional cost) providing additional features such as Accounting functions, Donor management, Service planning, Attendance Tracking, Online Giving etc.  Make sure you get all the features you need and that you understand exactly what that costs.

International Law.  If you are looking at Accounting or Donor management or similar features, make sure that the solution you are thinking of complies with NZ requirements rather than US or EU requirements.

Buy a system with room to grow.  Church management systems can help you grow your ministry, so be sure to buy a system that can handle more than your current needs.

Think twice about building your own system.  It may seem tempting to build your own church management software to save a little money, but in the long run, you will end up spending more.  You will likely not be able to migrate easily to another solution or share data with others if you take this path.  Leave the software to the experts and focus on what you do best: building your congregation.

Peter Lane

How to Create Graphics for Websites & Social Media

Posted on by Peter Lane
Buidling the word website (with cranes). Creating Graphics for websites and Social Media

Among other things, a global pandemic can change the way we communicate.  The Covid pandemic is no exception. Now, it is more important than ever that we know how to create effective graphics for websites and social media.

Before Covid, we went to meetings – now we Zoom.  Before, we printed pew bulletins – now we have an email list and Facebook groups.  Before, we did audio recordings – now we Livestream on YouTube.  Before, we had church notice boards, now we use websites.

Ok, so I’ve allowed myself a smidgeon of hyperbole here.  While all of these were around to a certain extent before the pandemic to a greater or lesser extent, but there is no denying that communication technologies have made substantial inroads into the mind of our society in the last 2 years and we have all come to terms with dealing with “new-to-us” technology and processes in our daily lives.  Wherever you are in your communications journey, it is fair to say that a 1950’s line drawing that has been circulating in a giveaway clip-art collection for the last 50-years stuck next to some typescript probably isn’t going to cut it anymore, not at least for anything with a digital presence.

As webmasters and Social Media authors for churches on a budget, one of the new essential skills we have been expected to acquire is the ability to quickly create good quality graphics for our websites and social media endeavours.  The effectiveness of digital communication is increasingly being driven by the graphics used rather than the content.  In fact, in saying that, I am at risk of showing my age – arguably today’s media is being measured by millenniums and younger by its use of video, even more than by graphic elements.  Coupled with a drive to produce content responsively quickly and (of course) cheaply, a number of graphics authoring tools have appeared and established themselves in the market.  Some of these tools are now also branching into basic video creation as well. So, how do we create graphics for websites and social media? (Not to mention, cheaply)!

Advantages of Graphics

These tools are quick to learn and easy to use, come with copy-right cleared templates and images to get you started quickly and produce output in sizes and colour palettes optimised for various websites and social media platforms.  There are some very good image production programs around now, but they are expensive, are complex and difficult to use (so you have to be trained to use them well) and can take hours to produce one image even if you know what you are doing.  Fundamentally these tools I’m sharing today are about saving time. 

One of the main time-consuming tasks for any comprehensive social media strategy, even if you have an image to start with, is changing the size of the image to suit the different requirements of different media platforms.  A Facebook post is optimised for images of 1200 x 630 pixels, but on LinkedIn, a post is optimised for an image of 1200 x 1200 pixels, and different requirements for other platforms.  Most platforms will do their best to adjust for non-optimal images, but you may lose information or legibility in the process.  The upshot is if you are using any sort of multi-platform media strategy, you spend half your time adjusting the sizes of your images for different platforms.

Finally, a few last notable features.  Most of these tools are built for collaboration, so you can invite others to contribute to your artistry.  Whether this is a couple of arty friends to get down and dirty with you in the design process, or just sharing the final version with Parish Council for approval, this is a key capability for many people.  Also, have links to internet just-in-time printing services, so you can order tee-shirts, coffee mugs, carry-bags and many more merchandise items to be printed with your design (for an additional cost, of course).  But an easy way to organise youth group tee-shirts, posters and similar items.

Graphics Programs

So here are descriptions of 3 examples of this type of solution.  There are many, many more but I’ve chosen these as being reasonably representative of the ones I’ve come across. 

Canva – In graphic design circles, Canva is generally considered the gold standard for others to aspire to.  It is reasonably priced and has a great selection of images to choose from.  Perhaps the best feature for the readers of this article, it has a non-profit program accessible to NZ Charities, offering free use of their Pro paid version if you register your organisation with them.  I use Canva a fair bit for website work – some of which is on the NZ Lay Preachers website (nzlpa.wordpress.com) e.g. the “Don’t Miss Out” badge on the front page at the moment.  Canva is particularly good at taking a graphic and then allowing you to quickly go through the process of re-sizing and adjusting for different Social Media platforms.

Visme – this is the tool I’ve used least of these three.  It has a growing presence in relevant discussion groups and is a leader in that it is promoting itself directly as a video tool with graphics capability rather than the other way round.  While Visme feels a little different to use than the other options, it is by no means difficult – especially if you come to it with no history of the alternatives.  They have a good selection of useful articles in their knowledgebase, including the most comprehensive listing of what image sizes you need to use for which social media platform I have ever come across.

Snappa – I have used Snappa largely for YouTube work (video thumbnails, channel headers etc) because it has some very intentional features to support YouTubes requirements.  Otherwise, it is quite similar to Canva.  One area I haven’t had a chance to use much as yet is the capability to automate your social media posts (paid version only).  Once you complete your graphic, you can ask Snappa to post to each platform you use at a specific time and date.

Comparison Summary

 CanvaVismeSnappa
Websitehttps://www.canva.com/https://visme.cohttps://snappa.com/
Preset Social Media dimensions for posts and imagesYesIs aware – templates are pre-sized correctlyYes
Free Version limitations5GB storage; selected templates100GB storage; selected templates; Visme logo on outputsLimited to 3 downloads per month
Cheapest pay-monthly planNZ$19.99 per mth~NZ$17.90 per mth; (USD12.25)~NZ$14.60 per mth; (USD10.00)
Video capabilityYesShort videos & Animations 
Non-profit programPro Free for NPs listed on NZ Charities Commission Register25% discount; no info on eligibility 
Remove Image Background toolOn paid plansNoYes
Free copyright-cleared stock photosYesYesYes
Automated Social Media postingOn paid plansImmediate Post only, on paid plansOn paid plans

I hope this article helps you find a way to quickly create graphics for websites and social media. I encourage you to share your results as a comment to this blog for the inspiration of us all.

Author - Peter Lane

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30-years’ experience with Technology systems.  We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles.  Submit these either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz.  We also operate a website focused on building a community of people interested in improving how we can use technology in churches, located at www.dct.org.nz. 

Church & Clouds
Peter Lane

In the Cloud, or on the ground?  A short History of Cloud Computing.

Posted on by Peter Lane

One hears the term “Cloud Computing” and related phrases a lot these days.  Probably too much – as with a lot of catchy phrases, the marketing machine has picked the phrase up and boldly applied it where no phrase was meant to go.  Quite frankly, “cloud” is now one of the most used and abused terms in the Technology space – much of what is claimed as cloud quite simply isn’t.

So, what is Cloud Computing supposed to be?

The answer is wrapped up in the history of computing development.  Initially, computers were standalone devices without connection to other computing devices – any application you needed had to be physically installed on the computer.  Then in the seventies and eighties, the computer network flourished.  Applications from other computers could now be accessed, at least at the Local Area scale.  A whole generation of special computers were developed – called servers – whose main function was to make applications and data available to other computers- client computers – on a local network.  In the meantime, the Internet developed and became widely accessible.  The basis of the internet was that it was a network that connected local networks according to a set of relatively immutable rules (inexplicably called Request for Comments or RFCs for short).

Consequently, Network Engineers became increasingly focused on what needed to happen at the local part of the equation, so in diagrams of network systems, it became accepted practice to draw the Internet part as a cloud.  The engineers needed to document that the internet existed but didn’t need to concern themselves with the details of how it happened.  Rule of thumb for good system architecture became to provide a good Local Area Network with all the resources it needed – application servers, storage etc.  These could communicate with other Local Networks if needed for coordination and some degree of sharing, but basically, all networks provided all their own resources

However, over time the capabilities of computers, networks, communication links and servers have increased exponentially.  One day, some bright young spark said: “Instead of duplicating all this Application stuff in every local network, why don’t we move it to the cloud and share it between local networks?”  And so, cloud computing was born.

There is one further piece to the puzzle though.  This cloud way of operating was fine if you were a large, enterprise scale entity and could afford the up-front investment in physical infrastructure and make sure that the infrastructure was properly maintained.  If not, you probably still had to do things the old way.  The other piece of the puzzle is a business model initiative rather than a technology change.  Software vendors started making software available in the cloud on a “rental” basis instead of a lump-sum, lifetime license.  In essence, they started renting you the software bundled with the cloud-based server to run it on, the technical support and physical support to keep the server running.  All you needed to do was provide a device and the communication services to access the server.  This model is called Software as a Service (SaaS).  Today, the phrase “cloud computing” usually means some form of software or application delivery from cloud-located servers on a SaaS model.  And it is not limited to commercial software offerings – the church nationally could commission custom applications that use this model.  The recently announced Methodist App is an example of this approach.

Enough History; What does this mean for the church?

There are several important benefits of this approach, but for me, one of the best benefits for a geographically distributed organisation like the church is that it the advantages of large-scale information systems and communication systems can now be relatively easily applied at a congregation level, without needing to rely on locally-based skilled support persons.  While there are still some issues that need consideration, there is now no reason why a congregation of 10 should have any different facilities that a congregation of 1000.  So, get thinking about the innovative things we can do with this resource!

Peter Lane

Office 365 for non-profits

Posted on by Peter Lane

Those of you that have anything to do with the Methodist Church of NZ may have seen in the March eMessenger an article encouraging parishes to use Microsoft Office 365 for free instead paying for Microsoft Office. “Free” is always an attractive price-point for churches and other charities, so let’s look at this offer a bit more closely.

This is not a Methodist specific offer. Microsoft has a global philanthropic program where they donate licences to their own products to qualified charities around the world, administered by a global charity called TechSoup Global. The criteria for eligibility is “Non-profit and non-governmental organizations that are recognized as charitable organizations in their respective countries. Eligible organizations must also operate on a not-for-profit basis and have a mission to benefit the local community […]”. Microsoft has an Eligibility webpage with detailed explanation of eligibility criteria and links to country specific eligibility criteria.

Because the licencing is essentially a donation from Microsoft, there are some conditions attached. Firstly, the donated software must be used to further the charitable purpose of the done organisation and cannot be primarily for personal use. Reasonable ancillary use is accepted, but organisations should endeavour to ensure that the software doesn’t become a volunteer’s primary [personal] e-mail address, for example. Microsoft has a specific guideline on whether volunteer’s are eligible for Nonprofit licences; the volunteer is accountable for specific activities and results, the volunteer’s role is year-round on-going (or seasonal recurring annually) and the volunteer will not use the software for activities related to personal gain. Use by employee’s should be governed by a “reasonable use” policy. Secondly, I understand that as a donated item, charities should be recording the full commercial value of the software as a “donation in-kind”. (If there is someone reading this who can clarify this, I’d appreciate hearing from you.)

So what can one get for free? In the context of Office 365 services, the answer is 2 specific plans, “Nonprofit Business Essentials” and “Nonprofit E1”. The equivalent commercial versions of these plans are currently worth $9.00 per user per month and $11.90 per user per month (plus GST), so the magnitude of the donation is quite significant. The 2 plans are functionally quite similar – the “Business” plans have limitations in the number of users, migration options and some back-of-house functions that make it more suitable for smaller organisations.

The key components included in each license are as follows;

  • Email service with 50GB mailbox, calendar and contacts
  • OneDrive file-sharing with 1TB storage (which means capability to access anywhere from any device)
  • Unlimited online meetings with HD video, web-conferencing and messaging
  • Organisation Intranet (Sharepoint)
  • Team workspace and collaboration tools (Teams)

So, if you are at all familiar with traditional Office, you will be wondering where Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher have gone. Well, they are there – sort of. The free plans only include the Online version of these applications. There is nothing wrong with this – while you wouldn’t want to write your thesis paper with the online versions, they are quite capable, though a little different in some usability respects. But, at the risk of some over-simplification, you may need to be online while you edit. To my mind, ideally you would want your main computer to have Desktop Office program versions installed and just use the online versions for a quick review or last minute tweaks when you are away from your computer.

In the final analysis, the Desktop Office programs are also available through Microsoft’s non-profit program, heavily discounted compared to commercial pricing, but not free. They are available either as a DVD that you can install, or as a different Office365 plan (probably the Nonprofit E3 plan for most) where a monthly per user fee gives access to the desktop versions as well as the online. This decision can be made on a user by user basis – licence plans can generally be mixed and matched to match individual requirements. For example, you can have one user on E1 with no desktop office, another on E1 with desktop office from another source and another on E3 with desktop office available from the cloud. Almost all software products are transitioning to cloud based licenses, so I suspect it is only a matter of time before this becomes the only option available.

As always, happy to address any questions you may have. Contact me at dct@dct.org.nz or via the editor. This article is published at www.dct.org.nz (and all the links are clickable there?).

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Author - Peter Lane

Peter Lane is Principal Consultant at System Design & Communication Services and has over 30-years’ experience with Technology systems.  We invite your questions, suggestions and ideas for articles.  These can be submitted either through the editor or by email to dct@dct.org.nz.  We also operate a website focused on building a community of people who are interested in improving the way we can use technology located at www.dct.org.nz.