Thursday, March 5, 2009

volunteers...

over the last month i have had the privilege of working with diane adamec. diane is the definition of a high capacity volunteer. she spent her professional life as an organizing genus and has been "floating" around the student union giving me much needed feedback about our systems.

she asked me a question today that has rattled around in my brain. "are you able to identify and fully utilize your quality volunteers?" i like to think that i am, but as i think more about it... i'm not so sure.

in the church world (or any organization that utilizes volunteers) we are afraid to ask people to do "more" because we don't want to overload them or burn them out... but, i also have a hunch that if we simply asked we may find that people are ready and willing to give more.

more important, there are probably people that serve at the student union that have the professional capacity and know how to take neglected areas and make them great. may people don't feel passionate about their "day job" because they don't feel like they are changing the world... that is one of the reasons they serve in the first place. perhaps it's my fault for not giving them the chance to make a greater impact.

just to push the conversation a little further... why can't a paid staff member of a church have a volunteer as their boss? there are people out there who can manage an entire staff with a one hour meeting.

milthaler

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

bye, bye credit cards...

yesterday was a great day for the milthaler family. we paid off our last credit card and are on our way to paying off all our debts.

a few months ago we took a short vacation to the cabin our friends (scott and julie mcmiller) own in the hocking hills region. we both were totally consumed with the idea of purchasing our own cabin... and so the journey to put ourselves in a firm financial position to achieve this goal.

it's staggering to say, but over the past five months we have eliminated tens of thousands of dollars in debt... it's really amazing. i am embarrassed in one sense to share that we were so "out of control" but, on the other hand i want to provide hope and freedom to those of you that are stuck in this negative debt behavior. the actions that got us in the position we found ourselves weren't that untypical. we weren't gambling or living a lavish lifestyle... we just weren't living our wadge.

the sucky part is that i would like to redo our kitchen, update our furniture and start aggressively saving for college and the cabin, but we can't. the following statement is true... "debt steals from the future".

so how did we do it? the simple answer is that we spent less than we made and put what was left over on our debts... but there were some more keys:

1. we sat down and added up ALL of our debt. not just the high interest, or the stuff we thought we could never pay off... all of it went into excel.

2. we started dave ramsey's financial peace university. ramsey never said anything i didn't already know, but he gave tough fatherly advice that stuck in my brain.

3. we started to account for every penny that came in and out of our wallets. when we started our budget we were shocked at how little things add up.

4. we gave ourselves a fair amount of blow money. we didn't budget for eating out or simple stuff like that. no envelopes, just a monthly or weekly allowance. it was a decent amount, so it gave us freedom. i think this was a big key to our success.

5. whenever we got free money, like royalties or supplementals we put them toward the debt. we started paying on the smallest and then rolling the money to the next smallest when it was paid off.

then something awesome happened, god started to bless us like never before. in a way, i think he was waiting for us to get our act together so we wouldn't misuse the resources that are ultimately his.

we still have a long way to go, but i am more confident than ever that we will get there.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

twitter (contd)...

bshawise said...
twitter (to me) just seems extremely vain. i have a hard time understanding why people want to alert everyone that they just ate chicken and watched a movie. help me understand the merits of this "communication tool."

it is vain to think that people actually care about what you are having for dinner... but, the same argument could be made about publishing one's ideas in a blog. but, that is the beauty of both... they are unforced communication.

in the 80's it was your money... but, today our most valuable currency is time. how you spend your time shows your priorities. this is what gives twitter value, being able to communicate your values.

comings and goings don't contribute to the "conversation" and if that is all you do, you won't have many "followers". but, commentary with the occasional status update is engaging. for instance, joe boyd is able to communicate reset information while personalizing it with the fact he is at a coffee shop working on his talk. personally, i have found updates to be micro blogs. chances are i won't read anyones complete blog entries, but the limit of 140 characters challenges the communicator to get to the point quick.

mega stars are able to use this communication to "connect" with their fans. shaq recently "tweeted" that he had two tickets to that nights game for anyone who could meet him at a specific location first. it's a cheep gimic... but, undeniably interesting.

for the church world, we should learn something from the obama campaign. we live in a new communication world. twitter gives you the chance to communicate in an authentic and personal way. twitter is not a social networking site (the distinguishing factor between twitter and facebook). people have to look for you to "follow" your communication. this is important because you are attracting people who want to hear from you... again, it's the beauty of unforced communication. and, adapting early to communication gives you the opportunity to communicate with early adaptors who tend to be influencers.

that's way more than 2 cents so i'll stop. feel free to follow me on twitter.

milthaler