Here is a common scenario! You walk into a meeting with a dozen neat little stacks of collated documents with a paper clip at the top and three hole-punched! You waited until the last minute to prepare for the meeting and you ended up doing it all yourself. Printing, copying, collating, paper clips, hole punched, color coordinated and you look like an attorney showing up to defend a client. Can you relate?
I am an Administrator and that is the norm for many of us! I come prepared ok and many times overly prepared with so much stuff on paper. I realize that it can be overwhelming to the people in the meeting and actually cumbersome for me! But how do you get around all those paper docs that we need for meetings? I figured the more you have the better the communication and meeting attendees know more what is going on.
Recently I tried something way out there for me and tried thinking outside the box for a change. At our staff meetings, the Youth Minister usually shows up with a cell phone and his laptop. How dare he show up so unprepared ! Where are his note pad, pen, and copies for the others on what the Youth Ministry has been doing? I commented on his lack of preparation once but he simply stated that all he needed was right in front of him on the laptop and that he was as prepared as anyone else was. I pondered!
Recently I upgraded from a Nokia flip phone to a Motorola Android Back Flip. This new phone had amazing technology with endless opportunities for better communication and incredibly quicker response via text, email, and Internet. So I decided to pull a fast one on the others one day and show up to the meeting….paperless!
I attempted to run the meeting on my cell phone and still accomplish my goal and get the same if not more information out that I did with all that paper. I was about 90% successful due to the fact I could not get a few documents scanned and downloaded in time. This week I am fully loaded and ready to try again to go paperless.
- Monthly calendar – paperless
- Outreach reports – paperless
- Sunday service assignments – paperless
- Memory verse for the week – paperless (Bible on the cell phone)
- Article on how to achieve excellence- paperless
- Proposed Budget Preparation Schedule – paperless
- Items for discussion from Administration – paperless (notepad on cell phone)
- Game to play while the others talk – (Paper toss game on cell phone) LOL
There you have it! I am trying this for fun but it seems to be actually working and may become the norm for me. What I like is having all that info at my hands instantly to call up at any time anywhere.
your comments? Are you paperless? Discussions?
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Way to go….
Thanks Phill! I have been having fun learning all this new stuff and i have just touched the tip of the iceberg.