Did you know that the U.S. donates almost $1.4 trillion dollars to charity every year? Or that the charity that has the highest revenue is Lutheran Services in America at $16.6 billion? I didn’t either.
All this is according to Mint.com, which I found over at Adam McLane’s blog. Go there for lots of more interesting statistics.
So, I thought this would be easy. I’m looking for a church email list management solution that I thought would be pretty simple. But apparently the features I want aren’t that easy to find. Here’s what I’m looking for:
With all the advanced email marketing solutions out there, I figured this would be no problem. In fact, I don’t really even need a fancy HTML newsletter. I just want to get information out to the appropriate groups. I’ve researched the following options and they don’t work for whatever reason:
I feel like I’m looking in all the wrong places. Surely there’s a way to do what I want to do for a reasonable price. For the amount of functionality a service like MailChimp offers at a great price, I really don’t want to pay through the nose for the simple features I’m looking for.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
I’m not feeling too creative today, so here’s a pretty amazing video that probably took way too much time to make.
Come back next week for a series on a trinitarian model of youth ministry.
I’ve noticed since joining an ELCA church three years ago that the groups in the ELCA do not seem compelled like other Christian groups to come up with cool names for their organizations. You know, some might call their older groups something catchy like “Prime Time.” In the ELCA, it seems like we use only functional, descriptive names. Some are almost comical:
This isn’t an indictment or anything, but an observation. All groups have their quirks. This might be one of ours.
What groups did I leave out?
In case you didn’t know, I’m a subscriber (though not necessarily a hardcore enthusiastic legalist) to David Allen’s personal productivity system for Getting Things Done (for an introduction to this system, go here). Over the past couple of years, I’ve played with different ways to implement the system, from an all-paper system to a hybrid electronic/digital system, to where I am now which is almost 100% digital.
However, there are times when you just have to capture an idea on-the-spot, and the most convenient way to do it at that particular time is by writing it down. To do this, you are supposed to use your “Ubiquitous Capture Device,” something you always have with you so you can never miss recording a thought. I’ve tried different ways of doing this, from carrying around note cards to scrap paper to moleskin notebooks. None of my solutions thus far has been satisfactory.
Recently, I came across the new Moleskine Volant (Extra Small) notebook and think this might be the ultimate solution. They are extremely thin and only two and a half by four inches, which means they will slip unnoticeably right into your back pocket. And they also have perforated pages, which is perfect for those times you need a loose sheet of paper. Learn more from the company website.
You can get two of these notebooks for $6, making them a bit pricey, but they might be worth it if they are fun to use. And, hopefully, they will stand up well to wear and tear. I’m going to see how I like using them over the next few weeks. Anyone else have a great solution for a ubiquitous capture device?
This is a really short video from TED.com (under 4 minutes) on the implications of people always being connected with their phone. Packed into this short talk are some profound topics and assertions:
[RSS & email readers may have trouble viewing the video.]
I don’t live in the boundaries of DISD, but it is by far the largest school district in our metroplex area, so it gets all of the media coverage. And for good reason. They are clueless. I have lived in the area for less than three years, and in that amount of time, these stories have come to light:
Believe it or not, there is more, but I’m tired of trying to hunt down the links and stories right now. Education, the future of America.
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