Technology Team

St. John's Lutheran Church

April 19, 2012

Present:  Pastor Gary, Kay Michaelson, Todd Lang, Layne Macek, Keith Westhoff, Larry Brangwin, Kim Lang

1. As an official team of St. John's, we discussed the need to have a monthly meeting scheduled.  It was decided to meet the 3^rd Thursday of the month, at 7:00 pm. 

2. Denny Hill had been our chairperson, but has requested to step down from that title and will continue to help with the more hands on detailing and needs of the team.  We will need to find a chairperson for the team.  Also, we will continue to take direction from the council linking person in regards to technology needs from other teams.

3. We have been having some difficulties with the office computers.  Due to the age of the equipment it was decided it is time to replace them.  We will be looking at 2 desktops and 1 laptop.  Todd, Kim and Layne will look at possibilities.  It was suggested by Layne to invest in the extended warranties and also battery backups.  We did not plan on replacing these items this year, so the cost will exceed what was in the budget this year.  We will contact the council for approval on expenditures.

4. The church's website is run on a program that will no longer be supported by Microsoft.  It was suggested to look into the different program - Dreamweaver.  We discussed having another company create/host our site.  We felt cost would be an issue and we would not be able to maintain the level of information we now have on our current site.  Kim will look into taking a class on running Dreamweaver.

The next meeting will be held May 24^th, at 7:00 pm.  (Note the date change due to Ascension Day service on the 17^th.)

Respectfully submitted,

Kim Lang

Technology Team

St. John's Lutheran Church

January 12, 2012

Present:  Pastor Gary, Denny Hill, Kay Michaelson, Todd Lang, Layne Macek, Keith Westhoff, Larry Brangwin

The meeting opened at 6:30 PM January 12^th, 2012.

A list of possible audio and video technical projects for 2012 and into 2013 was presented to the committee by Dennis Hill. He indicated that he wanted to set some benchmarks which would be defined as goals for the committee to accomplish over the ensuing year. A short discussion was given for each project which included the reasoning behind the projects and in some cases the cost estimates and options for those projects.

1.  The major items on the list included streaming the church services live over the internet.

2.  The moving of the camera in from the front of the church to another location or moving the flag that is currently blocking the camera. Options for moving the flag will be looked into.

3.   In an effort to improve the sound coverage in the front of the church and in the congregational areas, we presented the possibility of purchasing additional microphones.

4. The possibility of purchasing a DVD duplicator was discussed which would make copies of the single DVD that was recorded during the Sunday morning services. The copies then could be distributed to care facilities or the cable television system for later playback.

5. We also discussed how the Christmas program went by using the cameras and sound system in the auditorium. Over all it appeared that it went well. We did discuss installing permanently a spare older sound system that the church has in the auditorium so overflow crowd could be handled at short notice.

6. Additionally a flat panel display in the lobby could be an option to support additional smaller groups of people.

7. Some general maintenance and clean up of the audio video system would be advisable and to relocate some equipment to a better location in the balcony.

8. The file cabinet that was proposed at the last meeting to keep manuals and devices necessary to operate the audio video equipment has been installed in the balcony. 

After the discussion it was decided that the committee was not in a position to approve the plan until after the annual meeting as it was not a committee that has authority to commit to the expenditures involved.

The meeting was closed at approximately 7:30 pm.

Technology Team

St. John's Lutheran Church

November 17, 2011

Present:  Pastor Gary, Denny Hill, Nancy Isebrand, Kim Lang, Todd Lang, Layne Macek, Tony Chihak, Keith Westhoff, Larry Brangwin

Forward Planning:  Tony spoke to us about "Loving Relationships" and "Empowering" Leadership.  He encouraged improvement in these areas and to support other groups within the church.  Pastor Gary gave some examples.

Camera Placement:  We discussed the concern over the location of the camera at the front of the church.  We currently have a limited view because of the banner on the north side of the chancel.

Phone/Internet Service:  Our contract with Frontier has expired.  Denny did a comparison of Frontier and Premier in regards to phone services and internet speeds.  Changing carriers will involve a change of e-mail addresses.  Nancy made a motion to change from Frontier to Premier.  Larry seconded.  All agreed.  We discussed possibly housing the server at church.  We would like the switch to occur by January 1^st. 

Improvements to Sound System:  Pastor Gary had received some quotes on possible improvements to the Sound System in the Sanctuary.  These are items that we have found needed some attention since we have begun recording the services to DVD.   These include sound issues and not being able to hear individuals because of inadequate microphones. The quotes included were for microphone equipment, headphones, tv, and cd/dvd duplicator

Budget for 2012:  We developed a budget for the next year.  The three areas in our budget will be maintenance, equipment upgrade and miscellaneous.

Sound System:  We have had some noise during the services coming from the sound system.  We suspect it has to do with the wireless microphones.  We will look to see if we can put them on another frequency to see if this helps.  Also, we discussed working to set up the proper placement and hook-up of the speakers and microphones used by People of Praise and other guests.  Denny continues to study the sound board to fully understand the workings of all buttons and will continue to share this info with the rest of the technology and sound volunteers.

New Computer:  A new computer was purchased this fall to work with the sound system.  It is working well.

New Purchases:  A permanent Video/Audio Connector has been purchased, so the cabinet will not need to be moved in order to hook up additional connections.  We will be looking for headphones to be used while recording.  Also, we will need to get a small cabinet or stand, to hold the miscellaneous items that are currently setting on top of the sound equipment.

Facebook:  A Facebook page for St. John's has been approved by this team.  Layne will help set up.

Next meeting will be held on January 12^th at 7:00 pm.

K. Lang