Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

In High School my friends and I would sometimes say “Thanks for sharing!” in a tone that only high schoolers can truly pull off: sarcastic and sing-songy at the same time. Directed at a friend, it became both a loving tease and dismissal, as she rambled on about irrelevant or inappropriate things.

But now I say to you, our readers, in a voice of genuine gratitude and interest: Thanks for sharing! In December we invited you take a short survey to tell us what you like and want from ECF Vital Practices. You responded.

Here’s what we learned:

About 40% of you visit the site every week or two. Thanks! (Whew, our work is not in vain!)

The areas you visited most and find most valuable: 

• Featured articles (As we’d hoped.)
• Vestry Papers archives (Also as expected. But now there’s more pressure on us to finish uploading all the prior issues! Ten years worth of articles is a lot of content. ) 
• Tools (We had a hunch you’d like this…but now you’ve confirmed it. We’ll work hard to bring you more.)

Let me digress a second to mention Your Turn: it’s the section where you can add your tools! We don’t know everything that’s working around the church, so please help share the best resources you’ve encountered. Or email us ones you think should be an “Editor’s Pick” and appear in the Tools section. Now back to the survey results….

You’ve acted! 44% said you’ve done something new, or done it in a new way, because of what you’ve seen on this website. I’m so glad to know we’ve helped you turn ideas into practice. Here’s some examples:

• “The most recent article about "amping up" hospitality will very much be a feature of our upcoming vestry retreat.” 
• “We made changes to the appeal letter for the 2010/2011 stewardship campaign.”
• “Developed leadership training programs using Vestry Papers primarily.”
• “Used the Mad Lib idea for Giving Campaign.”

Let me respond to a couple questions about printing and sharing. Some of you wish you had a print version to read on the train or the couch. I agree, especially after spending so much of my day in front of the computer. Don’t worry: every issue of Vestry Papers, with all its articles, is available as a PDF to print. Go to the Vestry Papers webpage and click on the Issue you want to read. When its name appears in the big blue Title banner, click on the arrow icon to the right of the title saying “download issue pdf”.

Some of you want to share articles, tools, or blog posts with others. How? On the upper right of each webpage, between two gray lines, it says in blue “Share This Page.” Clicking here will give you options to email the link or post directly to Facebook or Twitter.

You also suggested improvements: make it easier to comment, simplify the RSS feed for the blog, and send more email notices about new content. A few asked for longer articles with more in depth details and theological grounding. Thanks for your clear and helpful feedback. We’ll work on these adjustments and keep you posted.

The main message we heard throughout the survey was “keep up the good work!”

No, we’re not just patting ourselves on the back. And I know enough about surveys to know that some people, often those with the biggest critiques, don’t want to spend their time responding. Yet, I’m humbled and encouraged by the positive response in this first initial survey. Thank you. And yes, we will keep it up.

If you have more feedback, now or in the future, we’re happy to hear it. Honestly, thanks for sharing!