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Discernment Doctor

~ Navigating clergy career transitions

Discernment Doctor

Category Archives: Practical Advice

Skype Interviews Redux

14 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Episcopal, Interviews, search committee practices, Skype

Check out this current reflection on Skype interviews over at Episcopal Café which borrows heavily from The Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein aka Peace Bang of Beauty Tips for Ministers

http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/clergy/interviewing_by_skype.html#more

I have only experienced on Skype interview, having by and large gotten out of the looking for a new call stage of life.  My only observation is that it is a technologically one-sided process.  The interviewing committee will get an up close and personal image of the clergy person, necessitating attention to nose hairs among other things.  The clergy person, on the other hand, gets to see a large committee sitting around one camera.  They appear as dots on the interviewee’s screen. Its hard to read their body language, let alone see any stray hairs.

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Discernment Doctor Workshop

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

discernment, Episcopal, OTM Portfolio, workshop

The Massachusetts Episcopal Clergy Association is sponsoring a Discernment Doctor Workshop on May 1 at Trinity Church in Stoughton, MA, a suburb southwest of Boston, easily accessible from I-95 and Route 24. See the attached flyer for registration information. Clergy from outside of the Diocese of Massachusetts are welcome.

The workshop is entitled, “Preparing your Portfolio” and will delve into the mysteries of the OTM Portfolio. My question for you, good readers, is what other topics would you like to see covered in a discernment workshop that runs five hours, including lunch and coffee breaks? I cannot cover all the topics covered in this blog in that period. What parts of the discernment process would you like help with?

workshop-flyer-6.pdf

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Tis the gift to be simple

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Episcopal, OTM Portfolio, transition ministry

I have had several conversations recently with followers of this blog from around the country that all touched on the same theme: the maddeningly complicated nature of the church’s transition ministry process.

A priest in Province 2 called to ask whether there was a simple way to determine what parish positions are actually open and receiving names.  He complained that many that are listed as receiving names on the OTM have already closed to new applications.  Did he have to go to every diocesan website to find out what was open, when?

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to track openings.  The neither the OTM nor the Transition Ministry Newsletter are kept up to date by all participating dioceses.  Some individual diocesan websites appear out of date.  In my own diocese, the DioMass.org website lists eleven openings.  Only six are listed on the OTM Portfolio.  One is listed as “receiving names” on one site and “developing self study” on the other.  (BTW, Massachusetts has five rector searches in program or resource size congregations plus a search for a new diocesan. Come join us and get a Red Sox clergy pass to boot.)

A local priest asked to get some help with her OTM Portfolio.  She can’t sort out what goes where in an eight-section document.  As the resident expert, I thought I could handily walk her through the process.  After filling out about half the form, we tried to save our work, only to get an error message indicating that a “province” did not match a “country” and that the error was highlighted in red.  After spending fifteen minutes looking for the error, we chucked the work and started from the beginning, this time saving the data every few minutes.  I can see how clergy get frustrated by the mere process of filling out the OTM form.  Much of my time leading workshops is spent answering mundane technical questions about the form.  Must it be so complicated?

Several clergy have told me that they have sent applications into positions listed as “Receiving Names” on the OTM, only to discover that the position has already been filled.  The OTM Portfolio lists ten classifications for a parish in search: Search Complete, Receiving Names, No Longer Receiving Names, Developing Profile, Beginning Search, Interim in Place, Developing Self-study, Profile Complete, Seeking Interim,  Re-opened.  The Episcopal Digital Network Job Listings cuts through that complexity by asking a simple question, When is the application due?

The Clergy Deployment Office was established by the national church in the 1970s as “a proposed reorganization of Church practices in the deployment of its professional leadership”.  See full text here.  The name of the office has been changed twice, first to the Church Deployment Office, and then to the Office of Transition Ministries.  Each name change denotes added responsibilities and added complexity for the office.  The change from “clergy” to church” represents the addition of lay leadership deployment to the office’s remit.

The change to Office of Transition Ministries reflects a larger expansion of the office’s purview.  The OTM’s 2012-2015 Strategic Plan states: “The Vision/Purpose of the Board and Office for Transition Ministry is to facilitate transitions for effective mission and transformational ministry in the Church.”  The original focus on the deployment of professional leadership has expanded to providing guidance over all elements of a transition from one pastoral leader to another – leave taking, use of interims or priests-in charge, profile development, search processes, congregational development, etc.

The original CDO was “designed to house a modern “data bank” of up-to-date personnel records of all clergy,”.  Its purpose was to help clergy who ” don’t know where to turn” when they want to move.”  This original purpose seems to be lost in the current strategic plan.  The OTM 2012-2015 Strategic Plan mentions the current iteration of the data bank, the OTM Portfolio, only once.  The OTM Portfolio is one of twenty-five bullet points in the ministry section of the document.  Are we losing focus here?

What would happen if we tried to simplify the transition process and the OTM Portfolio? I welcome your comments and will add a few of my own in a future blog.

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Are Search Committees Using the OTM System?

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

clergy, Episcopal, OTM Portfolio, search committee practices, transition ministry

A blog follower recently wrote: I have been looking over the OTM…What a mess, how do clergy actually search for positions?  Is there a listing anywhere of positions or do you have to wade thru everything?  What is interesting is that most of the profiles that I looked at were barely completed.

That question called for a bit of statistical analysis, so I recently sat down and looked through the OTM Ministry Portfolio, specifically, the “receiving names” list of the “search community ministry portfolios” section.  The “receiving names” list in theory contains listings of searches that have completed their profile and are actively compiling an initial list of candidates. I looked at the first six pages of the list, which included fifty-eight individual portfolios.  The results were disheartening.

Seventeen portfolios were completely filled out, including compensation, work history, and narrative sections.  Twenty-two were partially filled out, but did not have enough information for the OTM matching program to match the positions with potential applicants.  The matching program within the OTM system matches openings to clergy portfolios.  The matching program compares basic compensation information and basic skills found in the narrative section. Some of the partially filled out forms lacked compensation information.  Some lacked work history or narrative sections.  Nineteen lacked any information beyond a position being open.

This quick survey indicates less than a third of searches using the OTM system for anything beyond a positions open bulletin board.  It does not show how many searches are not using the OTM system at all.  Nor does it show how many clergy have completely filled out their portfolios.  My suspicion is that clergy completion rates are still fairly low, as clergy tend not to fill out these forms unless they are in active search.

Shouldn’t we be concerned that a program introduced two years ago has such low utilization rates?  I’d suggest a couple of changes in direction to increase utilization rates.  1.  Vastly simplify the program, understanding that end users seem to want a jobs bulletin board, rather than a computer matching program.  2.  Sponsor field training around the country to teach clergy and search consultants how to use the program to its fullest.

In the meantime, how should clergy search for positions?

  1. Fill out the OTM profile to the best of your ability, particularly the entire narrative essay question section.
  2. Use the “search community ministry portfolios” section as one of several jobs bulletin boards to identify where openings are.  The left side of this blog has a comprehensive selection of national, regional, and diocesan jobs listings.
  3. Work with your diocesan transition ministry officer.  Their networks with other TMOs are one of the more effective ways of getting your named placed in front of a search committee.
  4. Feel free to apply for an open position to the diocesan TMO or a search committee (depending on diocesan policy).
  5. Do not wait for search committee to call you. This is an increasingly rare occurrence.
  6. Network by being engaged in the life of your diocese and by attending continuing education programs where you can meet clergy and laity from around the country.
  7. Help your brother and sister clergy.  Let them know about the helpful information on this blog.  Urge your local clergy associations to work toward making the transition ministry system work better.

I would love to hear how you are experiencing the TMO system.  Has it helped you in your vocational discernment and searches?  If so, what components help?  What would you suggest for improving the system?

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Chocolate and discernment

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

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Tags

career counseling, clergy, discernment, Episcopal

I am blogging from the annual meeting of the Colonial Chocolate Society in Williamsburg this week.  As much as some of us believe that chocolate should be another sacrament that is not why I am here.  This is one of the fun events I attend as the overseer of an historic site.  Several colonial members of Old North were in the chocolate business and we are expanding our interpretive program on the topic.

The conference, sponsored by Mars Chocolate, is focused on brand marketing this year.  One of our speakers, from the advertising giant, BBDO, asserted that marketing had three basic goals.  What she said about historic sites and chocolate, applies well to our marketing task in the discernment process.  What then are the three goals of presenting ourselves to search committees according to this speaker?

  1. Get noticed – We need to stand out among the many candidates for a specific opening.  What is the unique blend of skills and values that makes us stand out among all candidates?  For example, M&M’s are colorful, fun chocolates.  Ms. Brown and Ms. Red are the cartoon characters that reinforce colorful and fun.  What makes you special?  How can you communicate that quickly?
  2. Be remembered – We need to make an emotional connection with search committees.  The intellectual connection, i.e. these are my skills and successes, will only get us so far.  Ultimately, the decision to call a specific priest is emotional (and often irrational in the best sense).  Search committee members are asking, do I want the next number of years of my spiritual journey with this person?
  3. Be understood – We need to communicate a sense of purpose and a sense of personality.  Search committees want to know what makes us tick.  Another speaker asserted that understanding is a two-way form of communication.  Her example was a dinner table companion who spent the evening talking about themselves.  At the end of such a one-way conversation, the listener is reduced to saying “uh huh” and “yes” while their mind has gone someplace else.  True understanding requires dialog, which is often hard for us as candidates to remember when in an interview.

The other point the marketing experts made several times was the importance of stories for conveying meaning.  Stories are easier for our minds to capture and retain than, for example, lists of facts.  Try this biblical exercise: remember these two biblical passages: the Beatitudes and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  Which image is clearer and more expansive in your mind?  Can you cite all the Beatitudes from memory?  Do they evoke emotion?  Can you envision the characters in the Parable of the Prodigal Son?  Do they evoke an emotional response?

What are the stories that will help you get noticed, be remembered and be understood?  Are those the stories you tell in your essays and interviews?

Chocolate is a food that evokes a strong emotional response, which is why historic sites are including chocolate stories in their educational programs.  Given its power, I wonder if we could find the stories to justify making chocolate into a sacracment?

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The Discernment Doctor Conducts a Search

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

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Tags

cover letters, Interviews, resume, search committee practices, secular searches

I have been rather quiet on this blog for the past month as I have been busy conducting a search for an assistant.  Now that we have successfully completed that task, let me share with you our process and my observations about the responses to the process.

The Old North Foundation was seeking an Assistant Director for Education.  This is a secular, museum position, requiring a masters in history or museum studies.  It is the equivalent of a full-time assistant rector position.  I learned of the vacancy on August 3, when the previous incumbent announced he had accepted an offer to lead a historical agency in Wellesley.  We hired a new assistant on September 10.

My first step was to secure interim coverage of essential parts of the job.  We promoted our lead tour guide from part-time to full-time and I assumed grants administration on a temporary basis.

The second step was to design the search process.  Our process was simple.  Advertise the position, screen resumes, conduct initial interviews to further screen the list, present final candidates to a small committee of the board, and make a final decision.  Only four people were involved in the process, which shortened the timeline considerably.  I led the effort, assisted by the Foundations other senior assistant, and two board members.

We wrote the job description, modifying previous job descriptions to reflect the evolution of the position.  We fill the job every three to five years, so the old descriptions did no need much tweaking.

The position was posted on a job site maintained by the Massachusetts Cultural Council called HireCulture.org.  It was also circulated to other history museums and societies in Boston.  Within two weeks we had received almost forty resumes from as far away as Florida.  Almost all met our minimum requirements for education and experience.

The gift shop manager and I selected seven candidates to invite for an interview.  Six responded.  After those interviews, we turned down two who did not have the requisite skills our experience.

The four finalists were invited back for second interviews with two board members ( a third had to back out due to a family illness), the gift shop manager, and myself.  One board member conducted phone interviews.  The other participated in half hour interviews with the gift shop manager and myself.

At the end of the interviews, I asked each interviewer to rank the candidates and comment on the skills and values they discerned in each candidate.  The interviewers felt that all four candidates were strong and could fulfill our expectations.  Two candidates seemed a bit stronger than the others.  I was left with the final decision.

The decisive factor in the final decision was that our chosen candidate was an internal candidate, already teaching our history program to elementary school students.  Both the gift shop manager and I were pleasantly surprised by our decision.  We began the process fully expecting to hire outside.  As this was a secular position, there was no prohibition against hiring from within.  We debated briefly how the decision might impact the rest of the guide staff, and concluded that the impact would be minimal and mostly positive.

When we issued the first invitations to interview, I informed all other candidates by e-mail that we would not be able to offer them an interview.  I received several responses thanking me for getting back to them, noting how often they applied a job and never heard anything.  One said, “That is the nicest turn down letter I have ever received.”   Clergy, please note, the widespread lack of communication we experience in church searches is endemic of a widespread rudeness in secular culture.

One of our board members asked a great question of each candidate that was new to me.  “How do you manage up?”  This is the perfect question to ask potential subordinates as it recognizes that those of us with final authority may not always be right.  I wonder when interviewing candidates for rector or bishop, whether we should ask them, “How do you encourage subordinates to manage up to you?”

I dreaded having to call the unsuccessful final candidates, having been through that a number of times.  It is not easy to say no to someone who has impressed you.  The conversations were all very short.  I could hear the disappointment in their voices.  One candidate e-mailed me shortly after our conversation asking for feedback.  I could honestly tell her that she had been very impressive, but that the final decision was made on a factor out of her control, as we chose an internal candidate.  Clergy note: in my experience, final decisions are often made on factors outside of our control.  The decision is not that we are not good enough, but that someone else possesses a set of skills and values that fit better than ours do.

Why were we able to move so quickly?

  1. This was a secular process, where short searches are the norm.
  2. This was an assistant, not an executive position.
  3. Only four people participated.  Our church’s proclivity to appoint large committees is inefficient.
  4.  We used a secular jobs bulletin board that is closely watched by professionals in the field.  We were not worried about call vs. discernment theology.
  5. We were confident enough to make our first cut based on the resume and cover letter.  We did not require additional writing samples.
  6. We did not reference check until the end of the process.  Reference checks do not generally yield much useful information for decision makers.  All candidates provide positive references and in the secular world, references rarely will make a derogatory comment for fear of being sued.  References can help affirm a decision that has pretty much been made.
  7. We were not trying to find the one, preordained, perfect match.  Rather we were trying to find a candidate who would exceed our expectations.  As Voltaire said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Throughout the search process, we tried to treat all candidates with respect.  Responses to communications from candidates were prompt.  The timeline was made clear.  Interviewees were told when they would learn of a decision.  No candidate spent more than a few weeks of psychic energy thinking about this job.  We never contacted any of the candidates’ current workplaces.

Now some may say, “As a church, we must do things differently when it comes to clergy searches.”  To which I would respond, “Must that always be the case?”

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OTM 2.0

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

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Tags

career counseling, clergy, Episcopal, OTM Portfolio

In late June, clergy should have received the following correspondence from the Office for Transition Ministry:

Version 2.0 of the OTM Portfolio will roll out the first week of July with many upgrades including requests from users, a newly enhanced search functionality, and three new Narrative questions.  Logging in to your account at www.otmportfolio.org will lead you to find:

  • The ability to add a new degree in education or position in work history with ease
  • The opportunity to review many of your recent Ministry Portfolio revisions and revert to any one of them yourself
  • An option to view a list of positions identified as ‘Currently Receiving Names’ on the home page of the website before even logging in
  • The ability to identify a worshipping community and search the database for ‘More Like This’
  • The ability to now create and organize lists of your search results
  • The opportunity to refine your gifts & skills according to the help text provided

Upon deployment of Version 2.0 you may want to log-in and answer the three new Narrative questions:

  • What is your personal practice of stewardship and how do you utilize it to influence your ministry in your worshipping community?
  • What is your experience of conflict involving the church? And what is your experience in addressing it?
  • What is your experience leading/addressing change in the church? When has it gone well? When has it gone poorly? And what did you learn?

The Board and Office for Transition Ministry want to make the experience of engaging with the Ministry Portfolio both smooth and satisfying. We are also striving to use this tool to elicit and communicate to the wider Episcopal Church the profound gifts and talents, and calls to ministry of our worshipping communities, clergy and lay leaders. Please know that you are invited to communicate directly with us about your experience with the Ministry Portfolio or ideas for future enhancements at: support@otmportfolio.org.

How do these changes impact clergy using the OTM Portfolio?  Here is a review of each of the changes outlined above.  The most significant change is the addition of three new narrative questions.  Clergy should fill those out asap.  Other changes don’t work as promised or may have unintended consequences.

The ability to add a new degree in education or position in work history with ease

There are new orange buttons on the Education/Continuing Education and Work History pages that make adding new information much easier.

The opportunity to review many of your recent Ministry Portfolio revisions and revert to any one of them yourself

There is a third tab at the top of the Update My Portfolio page entitled “Revisions” that brings up the history of all changes made to your OTM Portfolio.

The “Revisions” tab also appears on top of parish Community Portfolio pages, enabling clergy to view the editing process of parish profiles.  I am not sure that this is intentional, and I hope that search committees or DTMs cannot view the editing history of clergy profiles.

An option to view a list of positions identified as ‘Currently Receiving Names’ on the home page of the website before even logging in

This list is in “pdf” form and is not updated daily, so it is not very useful.  Clergy should continue to log in and go to the “Search Community Ministry Portfolios” section for up to date information.

The ability to identify a worshipping community and search the database for ‘More Like This’

This feature does not work.  On the Search Results page under each parish listing is an orange line “Show More Results Like This”.   A sample I clicked on for a rural Southern parish offering a salary of $65,000 with an asa of 100 yielded a list including parishes offering salaries from $15,000 to $140,000 from small rural to major urban settings.  Many of the parishes in the list were not currently searching for rectors.

The ability to now create and organize lists of your search results

When perusing the Search Results page, you can create a list of Community Portfolios for further investigation by clicking on “Add to list”.  You also have the option of creating multiple lists of you own definition.

The opportunity to refine your gifts & skills according to the help text provided

This refers to the boxes entitled “Primary Gifts/Skills Engaged:” found on the Work History & Skills page.  This feature does not work.  The text below the box instructs clergy to “Enter no more than four descriptions made up of one or two-words each.”  When I began typing a skill into the box, a list of supposedly similar skills used on parish portfolios popped up.  The words were not that similar, the phrases were longer than two words, and did not fit into the pop-up box.  Clergy should ignore the pop-up box for now and just enter four one or two word skills.

The “Primary Gifts/Skills Engaged:” box is designed to be compared to a similar list of desired skills on parish portfolios.  Given the problems with this feature, clergy and parish search committees cannot rely on the OTM system to generate meaningful matches.

Upon deployment of Version 2.0 you may want to log-in and answer the three new Narrative questions:

The Narrative section of the OTM Portfolio is probably the most popular and successful feature on the system. Search committees expect clergy to answer all the questions.  The three new questions were added to cover areas not covered in the original set of questions: stewardship, conflict management, and change.

One of the basic principles of Appreciative Inquiry is that questions shape our social construction of reality.  Are we asking the right questions to shape a better future for the church?  For example, by looking for conflict resolution skills, are we anticipating that conflict management will continue to be a central occupation of the church?  If that is the case, how are we ever going to reverse current declines?  Perhaps I’ll blog further on this topic and welcome your thoughts.

In sum, I hope that the TMO staff can quickly correct the problems noted above and wonder why OTM 2.0 was released without anyone detecting these issues.

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Interim Ministry in Transition

02 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

discernment, Interim ministry, transition ministry

The Alban Institute’s Dan Hotchkiss just published an article on the evolution of interim ministry theory and practice.  Given that the Alban Institute wrote the book on interim ministry, it is interesting to hear a senior staff member reflect on increasing criticism of the practice.

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9964

Hotchkiss writes:  Over the last decade, the consensus in support of interim ministry has softened somewhat. 

 Carolyn Weese and Russell Crabtree, in The Elephant in the Boardroom (Jossey-Bass 2004), complain that the “prevailing stream of thinking about leadership transitions tends to be illness- based. A pastoral transition is treated like a terminal diagnosis….” (p. 19) Ouch!  

Hotchkiss cites a recent article by Norman Bendroth, a long time interim ministry practitioner who surveyed current thinking about the interim system:

http://macucc.s3.amazonaws.com/71BBE2C7B9B049B0883D51809D9A1E82_Rethinking%20Transitional%20Ministry.pdf

Bendroth writes: Anthony B. Robinson, a seasoned United Church of Christ pastor, author and consultant has recommended that “Tall Steeple” churches, in particular, might consider a “succession” model where the newly called pastor overlaps the outgoing pastor so the church does not lose momentum.

How effective is transitional ministry? There is a crying need for longitudinal studies to be done across denominational lines that will provide quantitative results. To date that has not been done,

Here in the Diocese of Massachusetts, a recent transition in our transition ministry office led to a lively discussion among our bishop and area deans about the future of transition ministry.  Bishop Shaw cited statistics that show that interims often slow down a congregation’s momentum, that attendance and pledges often drop during the interim period.  He noted that, given the unpredictability of many transitions, it is difficult to find good interim ministers in a timely fashion.  He expressed openness to trying the planned succession model mentioned by Weese and Crabtree and Anthony Robinson.  Our largest inner city church used the succession model several years ago and is flourishing.  The deans noted that another model – appointment of a priest in charge as a prelude to calling that priest as rector, was increasingly popular.

Here at Old North, we are developing a long-range plan focused on our three hundredth birthday in eleven years.  The wardens approached me about including succession planning as I will probably retire within that timeframe.  They are intrigued with the idea of bringing an associate on who would be eligible to become rector.

The practice of interim ministry will continue to evolve as the church restructures herself for effective ministry in the 21st century.  The articles cited above are useful introductory reflections.  I agree with Norman Bendroth that we need some serious independent studies on what has or has not worked well in the church as well as studies of best practices in other business and non-profit organizations.

 

 

 

 

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Tips for Skype Interviews

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Episcopal, Interviews, Skype

Many, if not most search committees now employ Skype interviews in their screening process.  Skype interviews have replaced phone interviews and often replace site visits to the candidates current congregation.  Skype technology offers a good approximation of a face to face interview without the cost of travel for a candidate or a search committee delegation.

Skype interviews have become ubiquitous in the secular world and a number of major publications and websites have published useful tips.  Several of the best are listed below my summary of the most useful suggestions.

I have very limited personal experience to draw on, having participated in only one Skype interview.  In that interview I discovered that it is very difficult for a candidate to read the body language of search committee members.  When you spread a full search committee in a semicircle around one video camera, each member appears quite small on the candidate’s computer screen, making it very difficult for a candidate to read and respond to the body language of search committee members.  The candidate, on the other hand, will appear as a head and shoulders shot on the search committee’s computer screen, where his/her facial expressions and hand gesture can be more easily read.  This phenomena makes non-verbal communication rather one sided.  I’d prefer to have a one to one conversation with a single search committee member that other search committee members could view.

According to the Skype tips links below, technical preparation is key.

  • Make sure you computer connection is glitch free – hardwire is better than Wifi.
  • Choose a good background for the camera shot – somewhere between too cluttered and a blank white wall.
  • Check the lighting beforehand – you may want to add some lamps off camera to light your face, without shadows.
  • Dress well in monochrome colors – black clergy shirts are fine, patterns are bad.
  • Buy or borrow a higher quality video camera than the little one on the top of your laptop.
  • Place the camera in front of the screen so you are looking into the camera while you are looking at the screen.  Looking into the camera is the most important single tip.
  • Place the camera and computer at eye level.
  • Choose a location with no distractions – no other people, barking dogs, or background noise.
  • I’m not sure about the makeup recommendations – that seems overkill to me.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahsweeney/2011/08/15/4-tips-for-skype-interview-success/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-47541444/ace-your-skype-job-interview-14-smart-tips/

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2667-Interviewing-8-important-tips-for-Skype-interviews/

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobinterviewtypes/a/skypevideo.htm

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/04/26/how-to-ace-a-skype-interview-tips-for-making-a-good-impression-on-job-interviews-video/

Godspeed to all who will Skype interview.  Let me know what other tips we might share with each other.

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A Lutheran Perspective on Social Media in the Discernment/Call Process

08 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by Discernment Doctor in Practical Advice

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

clergy, Episcopal, OTM Portfolio, Social media, transition ministry

Lutheran Pastor Keith Anderson recently posted this blog advocating that all clergy maintain a personal blog or website.  He says:

Tip: if you don’t already have personal blog or website, start one. Share some sermons, video, your ideas, reflections, and pictures. Give people a way to get to know you and your work. Just as we expect churches to have website, we increasingly expect leaders themselves to have some kind of online platform. Tumblr.com or WordPress.com are both good options.

The Episcopal OTM Portfolio, particularly the Connections page, gives Episcopal clergy a platform for posting all the material Anderson advocates we publish, without the hassle of developing our own website or blog.  That said, a personal blog gives clergy more freedom to structure their digitized information in a more compelling and attractive way.  Moreover, maintaining a personal blog shows search committees that you have a skill that parishes increasingly seek in the clergy, the ability to use social media.  If you are not that internet savvy, taking a social media course should be high on your list of continuing education projects.

If you do chose to set up a personal blog or website, do more than create an elaborate online resume.  Design a platform that expresses your core values and purpose.  Anderson’s recommendation, “Tip: It’s best avoid controversial posts,” makes me uneasy.  If you value controversy, and if shaking things up is part of your core purpose, don’t hide that in order to find a job.  You may be called to a parish that abhors controversy and find yourself suppressing what is near and dear to your ministry.

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