14 Sep 2010,Silver Spring, Maryland, United States…Ansel Oliver/ANN
Top Seventh-day Adventist officers in various countries used conferencing technology last month to meet for prayer while still in their home offices.
Church President Ted N. C. Wilson at world church headquarters led the group in 15 minutes of prayer before outlining plans for a newly formed spiritual revival committee. Each of the nine participating worlddivision presidents then updated other leaders on the denomination’s progress in their territory.
While video links are still needed for more church offices worldwide,Wilson said he plans to hold more such meetings, held through video conferencing, later this year and early next.
Though holding meetings via video isn’t new — church officials have held yearly meetings with denominational intuitions through video for more than five years — capabilities of technology are increasing, whichcan reduce the necessity of face-to-face meetings and the accompanying costs.
Leaders can now meet through high-definition video that is securely encrypted, further protecting sensitive issues or financial matters. Andsince a travel budget reduction at the world headquarters two years ago, the number of such meetings last year increased to 34, up from six the year before. Now there are about two per week from the world headquarters, saving the church some costs on airfare, hotel and car rental.
“We’re saving hundreds of thousands a year,” said Joseph Davis, the church headquarters audio-visual engineer.
Still, he thinks the denomination has the potential to save even more. At issue is the initial cost to outfit employee computers with thesoftware, as well as equipping regional offices worldwide.
While Davis said he doesn’t discourage anyone from using Skype or other online Web chat systems, many don’t allow for multiple users from several regions simultaneously. An advanced system is in place for most of the church in South America, information technology employees in North America, and the video capability exists between headquarters and the Miami-based Inter-America Division, as well as the East-Central Africa Division, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
“We have to expand,” said Mark Lindemann, a 30-year marketing veteranand audio-visual assistant at the church’s headquarters. “There’s no reason every department director and vice president shouldn’t have this capability on their computer.”
Lindemann said he recently bumped into a church officer in the hallway, telling him: “You know, you didn’t have to go to that meeting at Andrews [University] yesterday. It would have been easier for you if you had stayed here and we had done a video conference of your meeting.”
In recent years, the church in South America has equipped most of itsregional church offices and institutions with video meeting technology.The region’s president, Erton Köhler, is known to frequently request use of the video conferencing room while visiting world headquarters so he can hold staff meetings with leaders back home.
Other church executives use Web conferencing to increase familiarity among employees who work on different continents.
Since taking the helm of Adventist Risk Management earlier this year,Robert Kyte has used GoToMeeting in launching monthly staff meetings on, which introduce new employees, outline new initiatives and feature adepartment and its workers via PowerPoint. The meetings, which typically last half an hour, include all 140 employees in Maryland, Southern California, Atlanta, England and Brazil. An English- and Portuguese-speaking employee interprets the meetings for the 14 employees in Brazil.
“Before this, a person in our Brazil office may have never known whatthe head of accounting here looked like or what their interests were,” Kyte said.
Many church leaders anticipate more use of conferencing technology, if and when institutions invest in the initial costs.
“Ithink it’s great that there’s now a wide variety of tools that we’re able to use to work more closely with our colleagues in other parts of the world,” said John Beckett, director of the Office of Global Softwareand Technology. “These kinds of opportunities are only going to increase as our offices around the world become better equipped.”
