The Gamaliel Foundation an organizing institute

COLLECT AND COMMUNICATE

This list should give you some idea of the kind of data we need to collect during this stage of the process.

First of all, we need to collect contact information for the staff and leaders of the Gamaliel Network. Our policy is to publish only already public contact information. We will not publish cell phone numbers, home phone or fax numbers, or home addresses.

Because we are developing a new database for the Gamaliel foundation we will be asking this and for other information that will facilitate our work. Our policy is that the new database information will be made available only to those who need it.

In particular we are looking for e-mail addresses. We are asking that all Gamaliel staff collect E-mail addresses at every gathering of the network. Just fax the list to me at 262.639.2654. We will also be redesigning Gamaliel forms to collect the data we need.

E-mail addresses will help us make this site very useful. You may see evidence of that by clicking on “Our National and International Affiliates” or on the GNCC board. There you will soon see how you can use this site to communicate with your peers.

To the best of our knowledge all information was correct the day we was published. If you find an error in your contact information or your address changes, please use the form provided on the affiliates page to correct this information.

YOUR OWN “gamaliel.org” e-mail address

Our web host gives us the ability to give free e-mail to any one we choose. The e-mail address is free but the memory in on Gamaliel mailbox is not. We hope to give free e-mail to anyone who has attended a Gamaliel training and who is active in his or her local organization.

Before we can begin, there are a few technical questions that must be resolved. If these are resolved to my satisfaction, we will start with the central staff and then during October, November and December rest of the staff of the Gamaliel network. We will also offer e-mail to our leaders at NLA in December.

The e-mail address will be “yourName@gamaliel.org” for example, “GregoryGalluzzo@gamaliel.org” or “MCU@gamaliel.org”. This e-mail address can be provided in one of three modes:

Re-direction.

“organizer@gamaliel.org” is directed to the mailbox provided you by your current ISP (internet service provider… e.g., aol.com, execpc.com, AT&T. net, etc. The advantage of this method is that you have to make few changes to your mail box set up. Your “gamaliel.org” e-mail will simply show up in your current mailbox.

POP3

This is the kind of e-mail that is provided an ISP. You can use it with an email program like Eudora, Outlook Express, and Outlook, etc. While any person who has a computer with a modem will be able to receive e-mail without an ISP, it will work best if you have an ISP. Organizers and other leaders who travel would do well by being connected to a service like CompuServe or AOL where there are local access numbers in many different cities. Gamaliel.org e-mail will be very good e-mail that allows long documents, multiple attachments, etc.

WEB-email

This will be similar to the e-mail provided by Microsoft, colleges and Universities, etc. This e-mail will work for people who are traveling and are good at finding computers wherever they are. This will also work for people who do not own computers, but who can access them at the public library or school. A link to a service that helps people find free or low cost computer access.

The more we all use the Gamaliel.org e-mail addresses the more people will understand that Gamaliel is a large nation-wide organization.

Online Registration and online printable pre-event materials

This Website is now set up to provide for online registration. We will need content from those who are planning our events.

The method employed is “post to e-mail”. When this site is used to register for a Gamaliel Event, The Gamaliel National Office receives the information as an e-mail. We need this kind of a step because not all those who register for events will be able to use the WEB. Registrations will continue to come via snail mail, fax, and phone. A registrant folder can be kept in the Gamaliel Office for each Gamaliel event. Email registrations will be printed and added to the folder. E-mail registrations will be forwarded to the organization to which the person belongs so that lists can be kept in sync.

When a person has completed their online registration, a confirmation page allows them to down load the pre-event materials the event planners wish them to receive. They will also be able to down load directions and learn something about the city in which the event is held.

It will take a year before we can evaluate e-mail registration. The only thing we know about this for sure is that we will save more than a dollar for every person who registers on line. We also know 25% of the pastors who attended the Wisdom retreat registered via e-mail the first year.

There are three events yet this year. If we had the prevent registration material on-line registration is available.

List serves

During November, and December, we will begin to use list serves to facilitate communication between groups. A list serve is an e-mail mail list. There are two kinds of list-serves: “select group” (Greg’s report, central staff, senior staff, Gamaliel board, etc) and “subscription lists” You will be able to can subscribe on the Web… I am a Gamaliel Pastor I would like to receive the “Doing Justice” Newsletter, I would like to subscribe to the immigration updates.

It is an e-mail version of broadcast fax. It is less expensive because there are no long-distance charges. This kind of service is also available to regional and local organizations. There will be instructions about how to set up list serves by the end of the year at TechNet on “gamaliel.org”.

Communicating the Breath of the Gamaliel Network

Collecting Useful Information

We are building a library of papers, speeches, and other documents that support the building of regional and local organizations. These documents will be published for now in consultation with Greg. We are beginning a conversation about how to protect our model and what belongs in the public domain and what is only for our network.

We also hope that our strategic partners will allow us to publish the papers given at programs. We need to begin a conversation with them in the next few months.

It would be very helpful, if those who plan events would have a clear contract with all speakers to provide their materials to us so that they could be published at Gamaliel.org. It would be very helpful to get these materials in text form. They can be published by simply cutting and pasting them into our website. We will do what we can to protect this material via clear copyrights and definitions of fair use.

I believe that we should become a repository for congregational development materials as well as links to other tools for ministry. We are also looking for good materials from clergy have appled the model to congregational life. We are also looking for links to ministry sites that you have found useful.

We are also collecting links to sites that provide research on the issues being developed in this organization. Some will come from organizations; others will be from the web at large.

Organizational Websites:

Each organization in the Gamaliel Network has been provided with a 15-page Web Page template ready to receive its content. The pages are already online. All sights should be linked by the end of September. That means that you can navigate from page to page easily. Clicking on the organization’s name in the affiliates directory accesses these sites.

Organizations who intend to use these sites we need to do the following:

Begin collecting information and graphics to be posted to their site.
Designate a web-master for their organization.
have the web-master complete the on-line web registration form.
There will be phone conversation with the director of communication to confirm that the webmaster understand the rules and the process.
The web-master will then receive the password necessary to access their site.
There will be instructions online.
purchase and install MS FrontPage 2000 and the latest version of MS explorer.

Those whose wish to produce their own graphics may wish to purchase a scanner and/or a digital camera. It is estimated that this equipment will cost between $150.00 and $600.00.

Any person who is familiar with word processing and Microsoft Internet Explorer can fill an organizational site with content and keep a local site up to date.

Collect and Communicate is about gathering materials that may be useful to us and gathering as much contact information as possible. Collect and Communication will give us an experience of working together on the WEB.

There will be a search page for this Website. As the content of this site grows you will be able to find pages by using key words.

There will also threaded discussion group sub web. The first will be a discussion on suburban recruiting. There will be leaders for these discussions. Other discussions can be added.

The Library.

We need help with two things. Suggestions for content and scanning. We would welcome help from clergy with pastors or pastor’s secretaries with scanners to turn printed files into text files. We have ten years of materials to complete.

The parish resources section of the web needs content from the clergy caucus members. Papers, which demonstrate how the model builds strong congregations, would be most welcome. This section of the Web could become these useful parts of Gamaliel.org.

By the first of the year we hope to add “In the World but not of the world content to our site.” What will this mean? When you click on search, you will be able to search Gamaliel.org but you will also be presented with a directory of Internet search engines that will help you do research. When you click on news, not only will you get news releases from Gamaliel and its affiliates, but you will also be able to connect to the most used news services on the WEB. The page that identifies congregational members by denomination will also have links to the denominational websites.

We are in the middle of propositioning a number of our people who can translate Spanish into to helping us publish a shorter Hispanic version of these site.

It now appears that we will be able to update the clergy mailing list online this fall. We will be testing this next week. It is not an online data base, but will test the willingness of the organizations to update lists online. This will be done for the clergy newsletter to be mailed in November.

This site has been designed to integrate with Microsoft Outlook. An organizer can manager their calendars, to do lists, e-mail, with a palm pilot expense records, one-on-one records, specialized mail-lists, etc. while at the same time being connected to the web.

Return to Webmaster