One of the challenges of small churches is the ability to collaborate due to budget. In the small stages, most church staff are composed of volunteer leaders whose daily time is consumed with work and family. Google has some great tools that can be utilized to creatively help a small staff become more productive and united. These are great internet resources any church can use at any stage of development. Also ministries that may be challenged budgetly, could effectively utilize these tools as well.
Gmail - Free email that gives you more flexibility than some others. It is a great pop3 that can I personally use through my Microsoft Office Outlook program at home...or log in on the web where ever there is web access.
Google Calendar - An online calender where all your events can be posted and shared through your staff.
Notebook - A great way to store and create notes. You can also download an app that works through your web browser to even copy items off the web as you are reading. One way I use it is to pre-write blog posts, log in message and series ideas, and copy ideas for church. And with the ability to share between users...sky's the limit.
Documents - A web based alternative for your document, spreadsheet, and presentation needs. Great thing is you can link others to it and both create together. For example, a friend of mine and I are collaborating on a book and writing it through document.
Google Business Solutions - Simply put...all your web-based needs can be interfaced and connected through this tool. From email, to shared documents, to instant messaging...all of google's tools can come together to give a church staff or volunteer staff powerful communication and collaboration tools that will help bring their productivity to the next level.
All that and a bag of chips...and that is just the tip of the iceburg. See http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ for a list of all of google's products.
4 comments:
I am a good nut and fan as well...I would also recommend that you try their 411 Google for your phone, and their mobile apps for most of their applications, way cool.
And for a little fun visit:
http://www.55fun.com/
for a free ebook entitled, 55 ways to have fun with Google.
I use every one of those, and I can tell you they have come in extremely handy in the area of collaborating. Our church is going to use Google spreadsheet to keep track of the library we are setting up, to encourage people to develop on their own. I also use docs for all kinds of things, including working with some other leaders in planning our upcoming trip to Mexico.
I'm a goog fanatic!
Anybody think there is a googleholics anonymous
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