Budget, Budget, Budget 2008

Well, it's that time of the year again.  Today wrapped up round 1 of the budget.  I am trying to get some fresh ideas and insights from God about what we need to do and what we can wait to do this year.

In that vein, what's the coolest idea everyone has for 2008-2009.  I realize some of you may have already done your budgets back in January, but we run from July-June, so we are heavy into the Budget right now!

2008 will be a year of simplifying for us.  We are looking at a lot of projects on how we can further use technology to simplify the many process around here.  Our Sharepoint Calendar Project, is one of these.  We are moving away from 12 calendars and moving (very quickly) towards 1 master calendar with lots of views.

This is just one of the projects.  If you want, share your coolest project...

The NEEKO Project

About a month and half ago my wife and I did what we said we would never do...Get a pet.

 

So everyone was totally surprised when I wanted to get this little guy.  This is Neeko - the name came because my darling wife thought he looked like a Nicholas, but the Greek (not geek) in me wanted something more fun...Thus NEEKO!

 

We have been busy the last 6 weeks with potty training and general training, but as of this moment he has learned the following:

• Sit
• Lay Down
• Paw (our version of shake hands)
• Rollover
• Come

Maybe not as exciting as a new server, but he has definitely changed our world. Neeko has been a huge hit at the office.  He loves to visit the server room and chew (DOH) on Cat 5 cables.  My staff loves him, so do I.

 

More to come this new endeavor in our lives.

Taking Sharepoint Calendars to the Web

There are many times in my career that I have ideas, and this is no exception. About a year and half ago, I had an idea... An IT guy idea. Lets get the data in one place, and then connect everything to that. As a truly lazy computer person, I hate, abhor the idea of repetitive tasks...That's why I like computers.

About a year ago, I shared an idea with my programmer about publishing a Sharepoint calendar to our website live...embedded in the page with no visible links back to Sharepoint.

About a month ago, my programmer, Richie, came back to me and wanted to tackle the project. About two weeks our beta went online, and last week we went live with a new breed of calendar.

http://www.calvaryccm.com/community/eventscalendar.aspx

This link takes you to a Flash Calendar that is reading it's data from Sharepoint WebServices on our back end Sharepoint site (our Intranet), and pumping in to the Flash App as an XML Document.

What is so totally cool about this is that it allows all of our ministries to publish their calendar information through standard methods (ie Sharepoint), and not have to learn something new. We are working on expanding this idea to include Categories (Each Ministry) and some of our larger venues as locations. We are also incorporating some really cool filtering so that each ministry can have their own calendars still based off the original idea.

When I found out that there were 12 calendars that all needed to be kept current...Well that blew my mind.

Thanks Microsoft, Thanks Sharepoint, Thanks Richie.... My hat is off to you for making this happen.

More to come on the Publishing Sharepoint Idea.

Windows Live Writer

Per a suggestion from another blog, I am posting my first time using Windows Live Writer. So here goes.

I have officially begun using Windows Live Writer. WOW... We are using a CMS called SiteFinity, and I have been reading on thier Forums that they will begin supporting Windows Live Writer and other API driven apps later this year... I can't wait... How totally cool.

You can download Windows Live Writer for free from:

http://get.live.com/writer/overview

Definitely a Cool Tool... I have to give props to Jason Powell from Granger Community Church. I first read about Window Live Writer on his Blog... Check him out to: http://jpowell.blogs.com/

Anyway... Back to Live Writing!

Exponential 08 Conference

I am at the Exponential 08 Church Planter's conference with 4 other guys from the Church. My home is looking to launch our second multi-site church, and I am here with a team that would be responsible for launch the second multi-site.

Yesterday Andy Stanley gave a great session on establishing and communicating clear vision. This morning I am in a session mostly geared towards more traditional planting, and not so much in the multi-site.

I will say that this is my first ministry (not technology) church conference. I am amazed at how much and many people are productizing (my new word) the works of God. I am not knocking people needing and wanting help in launching new churches, but we must all remember that it isn't our job to get people to church... That is the work and responsibility of the Holy Spirit. It is our job to introduce people to the Truth!

Anyway enough of my ranting about all this. There is a lot of good material here also... Like one of my mentors told me... Eat the meat, spit out the bones!

Clearing Flash Cache

Sometimes it seems we empty everything we can but still that little flash item won't refresh. This has bugged me for years whenever I've done web development, but sometimes it's just good to know you can flush the "Flash" cache.

My web guy emailed me this today:

If you’re viewing a website, and are having problems with any flash application, use this web page below from Adobe to clear saved flash content on your machine.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

Go to the website storage settings tab and select “delete all sites”.

This will effective allow you to flush all Flash stuff from your computer. I was surprised how much there was!