Tag Archives: OTM Portfolio

Discernment Doctor Workshop

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

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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

Tis the gift to be simple

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

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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  Some individual diocesan websites appear out of date.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.

Are Search Committees Using the OTM System?

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

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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?

Discernment Doctor Workshop

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

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Dear readers,

Sorry to be away from the blog for a while, but we have been dealing with a terribly sad and unnecessary tragedy at Old North in the last few weeks that led to the untimely death of one of my colleagues.  I cannot comment publicly on the situation other than to say do not believe what you read in the press.   I can also commend my congregation as a wonderful, caring group of Episcopalians who are pastoring to each other and to me in the kindest and most creative ways imaginable.

The Massachusetts Episcopal Clergy Association is sponsoring a day long workshop, featuring your truly, at Christ Church, Plymouth, MA, on Thursday, December 13 from 9:00 until 3:00.   The workshop is entitled, “Preparing your Portfolio; a workshop to help you navigate your way through the “new” discernment process”  The fee, including lunch, is $25.  I am sure clergy from other dioceses will be welcome.  For more information contact: the Rev. Robert Hensley, Grace Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 1197, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.

I am available, from time to time, to lead workshops like this for travel expenses and a small honorarium.  If you would like to bring me to your diocese or seminary, please e-mail me at: stephentayres@gmail.com.

I am trying to find the time to write a blog in honor of the Red Sox by asking the question, “If you were to blow up the discernment process and start afresh, what parts would you trade to Los Angeles, what parts would you keep, and what new players would your seek?”  Your comments are welcome.

OTM 2.0

06 Monday Aug 2012

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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.

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

08 Friday Jun 2012

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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.

Tweaking the OTM – Version 1.5 and Beyond

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Episcopal clergy should have received an e-mail in April of 2012 noting that the OTM Portfolio database was shutting down for a couple of days to upgrade to version 1.5.  This was at least the second upgrade to the new OTM system, as the OTM staff tries to address perceived flaws in the software.

The April 2012 e-mail highlighted two changes, one to the way languages are listed and one limiting how primary gifts and skills are entered into the Work History section.   Both changes are efforts to make the search function of the software that matches clergy to community portfolios work better.

Foreign language capacity is now identified by checking specifically defined boxes.  In earlier iterations, a simple typo could throw off the computer search.  For example, if someone entered Spanesh, instead of Spanish, the computer could not make the match.  Pre-defined check off boxes solves that problem.

The old CDO system provided clergy and search committees a common list of pre-defined skills to use on their profiles which could be matched by the computer software.  The new OTM system has moved away from pre-defined skills.  Clergy and search committees are invited to use their own words.   Early reports indicate the skill matching component of the OTM portfolio is not yet working well. There are just too many ways to define the same skill and the computer program is not sophisticated enough to read the slight variations.  Not only do typos throw it off, but the computer can read “pastoring” and “pastoral” as distinct skills.

I suspect more changes will be necessary beyond OTM 1.5 before the matching program works reliably.  Until then, the best matching program can be found not on the computer, but in the networks of Diocesan Transition Officers (DTM), who regularly communicate with each other trying to find appropriate candidates for open positions.  Human to human contact still outperforms the computer.

Another upgrade, OTM 2.0, is in the works.  That upgrade may expand on the part of the OTM system that has been well received, the”Narrative” section.   A DTM recently reported to me that search committees like having answers to set questions ready to review early in the search.  The “Narrative” saves the time spent on sending questionnaires to clergy and awaiting their response.  From the clergy perspective, having a standard set of questions saves the time spent answering slightly different questions for every search.  OTM 2.0 may add a few new questions, to cover areas like stewardship, that are not covered in the current “ Narrative” section.

Clergy should take the time to carefully respond to all the questions in the “Narrative” section.  Several DTM’s have emphasized the importance of filling out the section completely, as search committees like to compare candidates’ responses on all the questions.  The OTM guidelines suggest clergy answer at least five questions.  I recommend you answer them all.

As the OTM continues to evolve, I hope to see a much more detailed “Tips and Guidelines” section.  Computer systems need educated users to function well. (Hence this blog.) The first law of computing is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out.  The OTM Portfolio is fairly complex.  Seemingly innocuous typos can throw it off.  The more precise guidance we are given in using it, the better the OTM may operate.

ARE TRADITIONAL SEARCHES SPEEDING UP?

31 Thursday May 2012

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Conversations with a several clergy over the past few weeks make me wonder whether technological changes are shortening the time required for traditional searches.  My evidence is anecdotal, so I welcome hearing your perceptions.

Four changes have been mentioned as helping speed up the search process:

  1. The shift from snail mail to e-mail has sped up communication among all participants in a search process, candidates, search committee members, Diocesan Transition Ministers (DTMs), and bishops.
  2. The addition of the “Narrative” section in the new OTM Portfolio is being used by search committees as a substitute for the lengthier process of sending questionnaires to candidates and waiting for their replies.  The “Connections” section of the OTM can also provide search committees with ready access to additional background material and online sermons.
  3. Clergy can easily send audios or videos of recent sermons.  Many sermons are posted on clergy’s current parish websites.
  4. Skype interviews approximate the feel of a face to face interview and are sometimes used as a substitute for a visit by a subset of the search committee to the candidates ‘current parish.

One clergy person recently told me that they had submitted their name, resume and OTM to a parish and within a week been invited to participate in a Skype interview.  An invitation to visit the parish as a final candidate was expected within a month of the first contact.  This may be an abnormally fast process, but the period between first contact and final interview used to routinely take six to nine months.

Clergy seeking a new call, or even thinking about exploring a call within the foreseeable future, should take a few steps to be prepared for shorter search processes.

  1. Make sure your OTM Portfolio is filled out and up to date.  Answer all the “Narrative” questions, and liberally use the “Connections” section to steer search committees to sermons and other useful information.
  2. Maintain a “ready to go” electronic portfolio on their own computers with additional information to send to search committees.
  3. Watch the OTM “Search Community Portfolios” list of open positions and be ready to respond quickly to positions of interest.  Be careful to respond to the right party – some dioceses allow applications directly to the search committee, others require applications be sent to the DTM.
  4. Be prepared for a Skype interview.

Reflections on the eve of a clergy career development seminar

21 Monday May 2012

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I am preparing to lead a clergy career development seminar this week with Rob Voyle and have been reviewing my notes, which form the basis of the Theologies for the Vocational Journey and Five Steps in the Search Process series in the archives of this blog.  I have been leading longer or shorter versions of this seminar over the past ten years and am always interested to see where my thinking is changing as the deployment/transition ministry system evolves.  Might you be interested as well? Some of these thoughts have been expressed in more recent blogs.  Here is a summary of them as I prepare for a three-day seminar.

On call and discernment theologies:  Traditional longer searches are far more comfortable with a discernment theology that encourages clergy to self nominate, in part because the mechanisms to support a call theology, particularly the OTM Portfolio matching program, do not yield many good results.  On the other hand, the growth of short searches for PiC’s or rectors in smaller parishes leans toward a call theology, as candidates are nominated by TMO’s or bishops.

On personal discernment portfolios (where you put answers to the questions: Who am I? and What do I want to do with my gifts?) I am adding a third question:  How can my gifts help the church in the future?  God knows the church needs help now, so we need to be clear on how we can use our skills to strengthen the gospel, if not the church.

The OTM portfolio is no longer a significant factor in getting you name before a search committee, because the program for matching clergy gifts and skills to parish desired gifts and skills is widely perceived to be ineffective.  However, the narrative section of the OTM portfolio is valued as a brief writing sample that covers a number of topics relevant to most church searches.

Search committees are experimenting with emerging internet technologies.  I’ve been solicited for a job via a LinkedIn search and recently saw an ad for a rector’s job on my Facebook page.  Skype interviews are replacing phone interviews, though I am not sure how much additional information participants get from trying to read the body language of images that are three inches high on a computer screen.

Interviewing skills are best learned through practice.  You can read all sorts of tips for interviewing, but every bit of that advice will flee your brain when you are seated before a panel of fifteen to thirty interviewers.

Next post I’ll share with you what I learned from participants in the seminar.

The Discernment Doctor is in May 6, 2012

07 Monday May 2012

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A reader asks: I recently came across a person who had a WordPress site which included her whole resume and pdf download of OTM portfolio. What do you think about this? What are the pluses and minuses of doing such a thing? A lot of musicians and artists do this but I’ve never seen a priest do it. I am working on a website to showcase some writing samples and MP3’s of sermons and I also want to showcase that I am capable of making a website (I’m also thinking of looking for Non Profit positions outside church with web proficiency expectations.)
Thoughts??

The Discernment Doctor replies: I encourage clergy to experiment with all the new forms of social media.  I like the idea of using WordPress, and have put my resume and OTM Portfolio on the About page of this blog.

For years I have kept the basic documents for applying for a new position in a folder on my computer, ready to send out with a few clicks of a button and a new letter of interest.  Posting the material on a WordPress blog is a logical extension.  If you are new to blogging, I’d recommend Blogging for Dummies, or Professional Blogging for Dummies as easy to follow guides.  I’d recommend linking the blog to other, more searchable social media, particularly Linkedin.

Your suggestion raises an interesting question for the national church in this age of budget cutting, decentralizing, and restructuring.  Why do we need a centralized computer system like the OTM to manage job transitions, when plenty of free tools like Linkedin and the Episcopal Digital Network’s jobs bulletin board are available?

There are a couple of minuses to be aware of.  Setting up a blog site has some minor costs, like registering your own domain name.  When posting sermons or other theological material, do not forget the experience of the former nominee for bishop of Northern Michigan.  His sermons and blog postings became fodder for a political fight over approving his election.  We can all be (and should all be) heretics on occasion in the privacy of our own pulpits, but we work in an institution that is risk averse.  Which is sad, given current trends in institutional vitality.

As for looking for non-profit positions outside the church, you raise a big discernment question I will address at length shortly.  Given the church’s current decline, and more importantly, given the lack of a clear and workable strategy to address the problem, clergy need to constantly pray whether they can be faithful to our God, their families, and themselves, while seeking to earn a living in the church.