Most of you who have worked in an office environment know that much of what happens is day to day management: answering the phones, responding to emails, and directing inquiries. That’s true at the diocesan office as well. As I write this, we remain closed to walk in visitors but someone is always reachable between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm, Tuesday to Friday. Most often it will be Maureen who picks up the phone but if you’re really unfortunate it will be me. These days I’m in the office about half of each day and working from home the other half. I’ve got a 10 month old puppy I like to bring with me as well. His name is Hobbes and he’s slowly learning office etiquette. He’s got a ways to go.
Over the past month we’ve been focused on working with the Synod Planning Committee to plan and prepare for Synod 2021. We’re collecting Synod reports and gathering the pieces we need for the Synod Packet. The distribution day is on March 23rd and it’s coming fast so we’re working hard to get the pieces in place. We are in the process of moving our email and server to a cloud service. This has been a fair bit of work for all of us and has come with a learning curve of its own. We’re starting to see some of the ways this will make communication and data management easier for us. Keep your eyes peeled for more on this.
We’re also working on office expenses. The way we work has changed in the last year and not just because of the pandemic. We’re looking at how we use our equipment and space to determine if we need to make changes that will better suit us and lower our costs.
Maureen is continuing to learn about the Diocese and its people. Every day she is demonstrating her gifts and helping us develop our office practices and efficiencies. I think we’re all looking forward to the day when we can open our office doors again and share some time in person! One of the great joys of the diocesan office has been the sense of community. We miss our shared moments over lunch and the opportunity to welcome you in for coffee.
I’m grateful to Bishop Lynne, Maureen, Teresa, Monty (the Treasurer), and everyone who helps keep our operations running smoothly!
