Ackley: We have a number of things to be passed out here, in true United Church of Christ style...

 What I am passing out to you is basically a brief history of UCCHRISTNET. Houston will say that he did it all on one page but he used real tiny type! You are getting a brief history of UCCHRISTNET. You are also getting some creative uses of UCCHRISTNET - which are actually happening all across the Ecunet conferences on NWI. While we began our work on UNISON, we moved with the other Ecunet groups; a bit of that chronology is listed here.
 
 

Support of Computer Networks

I would particularly like to address the issue of support of these networks, because that is a very important piece. Those of you who may be thinking about starting a network for your denomination where there isn't one may be interested to know that the United Church of Christ took a different approach - we did it on more of a shoestring budget.

 Rather than buying a lot of prepaid accounts on a system, we paid the "System Operators'" charges. We have two of us, Donel McClellan and myself, who are systems operators on the United Church of Christ Network. Our online charges are paid, and there is a telephone which has been put into my home - because I am also a pastor and my people like to talk to me from time to time.

 By providing that kind of support, Donel [McClellan] and I were in a position to volunteer our time. The result is that we came up with an awful lot of "bang for the buck".

 The price tag for what we are doing is in the vicinity of $5,000 per year, when it comes to telecommunications - that covers all of the expenses plus the expenses of moving us to some important meetings such as our General Synod (our biannual meeting of our Church), or to other important national events at which we offer online "color" and news reporting.

 Most of our work as support people entails greeting new users as they come on board with the system. We'll show you the conferences which are there. You as UC Christ persons will have our phone numbers. We will do what we can to try to get you "up to speed".

 We are pursuing ways of increasing that support - we would like to do workshops in different areas. I am now doing some consulting work with our national instrumentalities and with our conferences in order to help people learn what they need to know to get onto the system.

 You need to know that the first time you logon it is a bit of an overwhelming and scary experience! That is true for all of us, everyone of us. It is not just you! And I think a lot of the feeling is: "I've done this, and what have I got myself into?" It's scary.

 So, Gene Schneider of our Office of Communication has put together this yellow sheet - hopefully a step-by-step walk through to help you to get onto the system. This talks about it in terms of getting onto UCCHRISTNET. If you are a member of one of the other denominations all you have to do is change the password from UCCHRISTNET to PRESBYNET or UCHUG, and you get the same benefits of the Ecunet contract.
 
 

Arrangements with NWI

The arrangement we have with NWI for all the Church groups has some very important benefits. the usual $50 registration fee is waived, and there are a certain number of hours (based on the number of hours used by that denomination's network in any given month) which are sold to the network at a significantly reduced rate. These are used by the Systems Operators. That's the reason we can get so far with the bucks that we put into it; we don't have to pay full rates for the Systems Operators because of this arrangement.

In order to use that contract to its best effect - if you are a member of the United Church of Christ we would very much like it if you would logon as an United Church of Christ person. If you are a member of Presbynet, the Presby's would very much like it if you would logon as a Presbyterian person, so that they are credited with those hours, and in turn, your "Sysops" get credited with their correct number of discount- priced hours.
 
 

Importance of People Support

I think the People Support is really important. Houston Hodges is extremely good at this. He can make your computer screen "hug you"! [laugher] I have never seen anyone able to do that as Houston does it - in fact, I have never felt so "hugged" by my screen as when I read a note from Houston Hodges.

 The ecumenical group is very supportive of one another as we try to help each other along the way. We support the networks individually and collectively. It is nice to have that support so we can all learn what Houston does and try to do it almost as well ourselves. Another example - if you are supporting a denominational network, take that sheet that we've developed, and change it enough to make it useful for yourself or your network.

 The suggestions as to how the system has been used I also commend to you. I think there are some exciting things going on, and I would be happy to answer any questions.
 
 

Questions for Curt Ackley

Laird: I have some comments, because we have not done this before. We have never heard these speeches before. so, we spend $21,000 and you spend $5,000. Some things I want to say. You spend $5,000 US we spend $21,000 Canadian. That's about $16,000 in US dollars.

 Secondly we pay much higher rates for everything. It is not just the exchange on the Canadian dollar. From Canada everything is much more expensive. What do you pay for an hour of non-prime time?

 Ackley: $6 per hour

 Laird: we pay about $15 per hour, which is about the same as $10 per hour in US dollars.

 But the second difference is that we have a Committee whereas you have two people. There is a difference in approach and both would have its merit. It is not just David's and my time which is being supported but $50 a month to about 12 other people across the country. This has historical and geographical reasons. But I think yours is quite an unique situation and very applicable to certain congregational needs. But, more questions?

 Question (Canadian Anglican): is it appropriate for each denomination to have its own network and then link that to Ecunet

 Laird: That's what we have...

 Ackley: There are some reasons for that. On UCCHRISTNET itself we exchange information which is specific to the needs and interests of United Church of Christ people. But we strongly urge participation in all the Ecunet conferences for areas of more general interest. The other nets do the same kind of thing. And many of our folks will start conferences in the Ecunet area, simply because they are of interest to more than just UCChrist people. It's another example of how we all support one another.

 For instance, for those interested in Lectionary Bible Study, there are actually TWO conferences in the Ecunet area. The United Church of Canada has a Lectionary conference; the Presbyterian Church did not like what the United Church of Canada were doing so they started Sermonshop [laugher] No, seriously, folks, I'm kidding. It is really important that we have both.

 They have different purposes, they attack scripture study in some different ways, the one in terms of providing resources, the other in more of a discussion mode. Those are both conferences which study the Lectionary texts for each week - these are both sponsored by individual networks yet are happening in the ecumenical forum so that the United Church of Christ can very easily participate in all that. And that is true for all the general interest conferences. We put them up on the ecumenical root and keep our denominational businesses on the branches. That is pretty much true for you folks as well, isn't it?

 Answer: Yes.

 Question: You say, we. Who is we?

 Ackley: People who have become part of UCCHRISTNET.

 Question: Do your people all know what is included in Ecunet and what goes to UCchristnet?

 Ackley: yes, although there is a housekeeping function which some of us have to play - the Systems Operators handle this. As a new conference is opened on Ecunet and if it looks like it is falling into the area of more private interest it will be moved to that particular area. Still accessible to everybody, you can still get to it. But we do some housekeeping. And also people will often ask me, "Where should this be opened?" and I will make a recommendation. That doesn't mean you HAVE to do it as I suggest, but we try to keep things logical.

Laird: Curt, I think we need a description of how this Participate (c) software works, because it is quite incredible, but let's bracket that and before we are finished we can describe that. Jack can you say a bit about SERMONSHOP? I think we are pretty favoured to have Jack Sharp who started SERMONSHOP here, and it is operating on two networks.
 
 

Lectionary-based Conferences

Sharp: Well, basically SERMONSHOP is different from Lectionary and the Global Sermon notes of the Disciples. We started SERMONSHOP in that experiment which Houston talked about, and at that point I did not know there was a UCHUG and a Lectionary discussion, when we finally ended up together we discovered that we had three different styles.

 The Disciples put out a really neat set of files, called "Global Sermon Notes" and they tend to emphasize in one document, themes for a whole series in a month and illustrations.

 Lectionary tends to put up the scripture for the Common Lectionary and has an online commentary, as if you were all sitting in a room together. "How are you going to develop the sermon next week?" And out of that, some start posting sermons which they did preach.

 The SERMONSHOP concept was to recruit people whom we could find across the country who would prepare a presentation for you on that week's lections and post it, so that when it is operating at its best that means that I don't have to write all four - the Old Testament, the Psalm the Epistle and the Gospel. Four different people can work on a passage - and can take a season. For example during the season of Lent one individual can write all the gospel narratives and exegetical comments to help us with illustrations and notes. So that is basically the difference between the three.

 Laird: What are the three networks?

 Sharp: Sermonshop is on the Ecunet version of Presbynet on NWI, it is on Presbynet and it is on FidoNet which is a "public domain" computer network which operates independent of all denominations.

 Laird: We are still at the time of direct questions to Curt.

Denominations working Ecumencically

Topliffe: I want to just make a comment on the Ecunet announcement and I think it would be helpful if you would just get by the NWI booth. They are probably going to have times when they have it on their TV screen. Take the opportunity to get a sense of what an Inbox might look like, and an ECUNET profile.

 The fact is that once you start signing on and using the network, you'll soon find it doesn't matter where the conference originated - whether it is United Church of Christ, or Disciples or Presbyterian. Once you have joined them, new activity in the conferences you've selected will always be in your INBOX. That's part of the ecumenical nature that lets you go back or forth, anywhere you wish, to get things in your mailbox and to get out of them when you decide you don't want them. You can make it very denominational, you can make it very ecumenical.

 The question I had of Curt, or possibly Gene, is "How have you experience any progress as far as UCCHRISTNET in any kind of a static or growth mode for the effective use by national instrumentalities and conference offices and where do you see the possible struggles in that not happening as fast as you may have hoped?"

 Ackley: I think that is a very important question. What you are getting at is how you bring the whole mix together? The folks that get online tend to mix it up very well, but you have to be very intentional, in our structure, about bringing in the national instrumentalities and the conferences into it.

 We are a year old, as of April 1 and I am really excited about how much has been accomplished in one year. When I was putting this printed material together and listed just what was going on, it was exciting to read. There is a lot of excitement shared by those within the denomination about what is going on. A lot of ownership.

 We had a pre-meeting, here, before Camcon, where we got together representatives from the Conferences and from the national instrumentalities to talk about computerization in general. We spent a lot of time on telecommunications, and there is a lot of interest being shown in the network. But even still, it is slow going.

 It takes a lot of work because it takes training somebody, it takes finding time in incredibly busy schedules to work it in. There is a lot of guilt. I love being in the profession I am in because it is easy to say, "You don't have to feel guilty, that's all been taken care of." [laughter]

 There is a lot of concern about trying to get it going and a lot of hunger for help in how to do it. What we are trying, in the United Church of Christ, is a consultant relationship. One piece of our money is paying some consultant time so I am free to go and work with people. We ask an instrumentality or Conference to pay my transportation, but in order that I can give some time to this, my own personal time is being paid by the project. The result is that I am free to go in and do the hand-holding that is needed to help get people through the steps that are needed to get onboard.

 My hope is that network of people will grow. That as you teach one or two people in a Conference that they can teach twenty or thirty others. That's the process by which it's going to happen. What I have found to be very important when getting to an instrumentality to help them to see the vision, is to look at a specific use that works. And that is where we need each other, because we have a few going here, and they have a few going there. We need to SHARE what works.

 An example: Our office of Church and Society is interested in supporting advocacy work. Letters to Congress people, that sort of thing. From another area of our Church, Gene over here, transmitted a copy of a letter to Congress on an advocacy issue and it came across the network. I was able to grab that letter, make changes in it in my Word Processor, type it out and then put it in an envelope and mail it and get a letter off to Congress when I usually don't do that. When it comes in paper it ends up in my bottom drawer - and that is one of the sources of MY guilt!! Using Gene's idea, the typing was basically done for me, so I had the time to carry out the task.

 Now take that idea, which worked very well, over to the Office of Church and Society, and say, here is something which worked very well- here is a concept which would work here. Then you have a vision of how it can be used. And if you can find the right vision - I am not sure that we have the right one for each instrumentality yet - you get your foot in the door. That's when the eyes start opening to how this can be an effective and useful medium. And then we start spreading that around. You've got to find the hooks, and it is different for each instrumentality, national body, for each Conference.