What is the Church IT RoundTable

{This is definitely a work-in-progress.  Most infomation here was extracted from posts found elsewhere.  Expecting this will end up on citrt.org.  Suggestions welcomed!}

Summary
The Church IT Roundtable (CITRT) is an informal organization of Church (and ministry) IT people from churches all across the country, and potentially even internationally.  Very much like NACBA, MinistryCOM, and other organizations that involve church administration and church technology, there has been a growing interest among Church IT people to find ways to connect with each other.

CITRT Vision

• To encourage and have fellowship with one another (because feeling isolated and discouraged can be a real de-motivator and just the opposite happens when we come together at the Church IT RoundTable: spirits are lifted, people are encouraged, and that gives your emotional and spiritual capital to put back to work in your Church IT job)
• To create people networks of Church IT professionals (Church staff, consultants, companies, even volunteers) to assist and support Church IT
• To seek out and publish Best of Class Solutions for Church IT
• To provide regular Church IT RoundTable discussions, live, or via technology, to network in person and to encourage each other.
• To provide an online forum to express ideas, ask questions,  work out solutions to current challenges, and document best of class solutions to Church IT.

DEFINITION OF A ROUNDTABLE (as adapted from Mark Stephenson, then Jason Powell)
A roundtable is a peer-learning event where the participants are both teachers and learners. A roundtable is:

o Small enough to emphasize interactive learning
o Led by a facilitator and peer
o Includes participants who have an affinity with each other
o Does not include a strong agenda beyond sharing knowledge

Roundtable members are selectively invited with less than 25 per group. The participants set the agenda and interaction among participants takes precedent over presentation by “experts.” In fact, in one-way or another, most of the roundtable participants are already experts.
PURPOSE OF THIS (Sept. 2006) ROUNDTABLE
1. To meet other innovators
·       Encouragement - "I am not alone." "Here I am understood."
·       Confidence - "I'm not so crazy after all."
·       Relationship - Develop on-going friendships

2. To advance the diffusion of innovation in a given topic area
·       Sharing knowledge, lessons learned, and experiences
·       Sorting out the big picture. How does it all fit? Where are we= going?
·       Synergy of new ideas, new perspectives, and new dreams

3. To facilitate collaboration
·       Explore opportunities for teaming up to accomplish common goals
·       "Network" - Learn who knows what and who is doing what

See also Clif's post on Unconference

Comments

[Jeffrey Thompson]

On the CITRT Vision I would also add something like: "To encourage and have fellowship with one another" because feeling isolated and discouraged can be a real de-motivator and just the opposite happens when we come together at the Church IT RoundTable: spirits are lifted, people are encourage, and that gives your emotional and spiritual capital to put back to work in your Church IT job. :)