Brainstorm how we can collaborate with Minnesota Council of Churches

[Derkscholtz]

I've been in touch with Rev. Morey who is the Program & Communications Director for the MN Council of Churches. He is available to have a phone call between 2-5 on Wednesday. Things to weigh in on: 1) Who wants/should be part of the conference call? 2) Not knowing how they work yet, what scenarios can we see working with them? 3) What would we need? 4) Any other discussion points in advance of the call?

[stpaultim]

Quick question: Is this a new development or have we talked about this before?

I don't recall talking about this particular angle before, however I do see how it could be a very valuable connection. Churches are very common neighborhood meeting locations AND potentially church groups might also be consumers of the data - looking for alternative places to meet, when their own facilities are not available or not suitable for a particular meeting.

Rev. Morey might be able to provide some insight into the appropriateness of listing churches as public meeting places - and what kind of approval we should have before listing them (if any)? Or if there is any kind of database that we can tap into?

We could use Google API to acquire lots of church names and addresses, but I think that the data would not be very valuable.

Scenarios for collaboration:

1) Do they see themselves as providers of space or consumers of space (or both)? 2) They might simple publicize the tool to member churches as an opportunity to make their space available - or for church groups to use the tool to find alternative spaces. 3) They might be able to provide bulk data for inclusion in our public space database? 4) They might act as an intermediary in identifying churches that would like to be listed and providing that data to us?

I don't need to be on this call, but I would be willing to be on the call - if it's helpful. I'm curious about the context of the call - how it came to be and what he has been told so far?

[Derkscholtz]

I think we only mentioned this venue a few times in passing, so no: we haven't really talked much about this.

The back-story: Last week I attended the MN Council of Non-Profits Tech Conference and had a conversation with a developer who does work for several Churches. Recently they had to consolidate due to "excessive overhead"--i.e. they had too much space for their budget. They tried to rent it out, but had difficulty finding an audience--so three churches became one. My first thought was, "That's unlikely in the era of booming co-working spaces!!??"

He put me in touch with Deb at Spring House Ministry Center. I dropped by and asked questions.

My take-away: 1) She's pretty sure most churches have shrinking congregations as well as reduced demands for space during the week-would consider something like Myfavorite...com 2) Most do make the space available, but she couldn't say what kinds of criteria they apply 3) Their renters/users are things like the "Tibetan Dance Group" and "Thai Club": i.e. Non-faith-based events. 4) As part of their consolidation, 5% of her time has been dedicated to marketing/managing the space. 5) They are at about 60% capacity for available programing. 6) She said she would use it for sure, if she felt it would save her time and find audience 7) There are significant problems with rental revenue as a non-profit organization. 8) Suggested I speak with Rev. Morey at the MN Council of Churches to reach more churches quickly.

--and the rest you already know. If anyone thinks this is worth pursuing, it would be good to have someone tech-savvy on the conversation to guide the follow-up strategy if there's receptivity/green lights from the program & communications people.

In my opinion, if we get buy-in from communities of faith, it would be a total market-differentiation for Myfavoritemeetingplace.com. No on else even comes close to reaching that deep into a community resource.

BTW: anyone seen www.liquidspace.com?

[Derkscholtz]

Good news from Jared Morey: As soon as we include a type category called "Faith Community" or "Church/Faith Community", he will announce it on their monthly state-wide newsletter as well as their Facebook page and website. He wanted to make sure that information would never be sold etc. I told him that, at this point, we are all volunteers from the GeoCode 2.0 Hackathon last month and agreed that we should put some assurance to that effect on our landing page.

He also suggested three more leads who might be interested and that might fall outside of their communication circle:

• Jewish Community Relations council -Transform Minnesota -Minnesota Catholic Conference (which might lead us to the diocese)

[stpaultim]

Just updating some issues.

I believe that did add the correct category and the Minnesota Council of Churches sent out a notification in a newsletter inviting Churches to add their facilities. We got at least location from that notification.

http://myfavoritemeetingplace.com/location/minnesota-church-center

I think it would not hurt for us to check back with the Minnesota Council of Churches and see if they might want to do a follow-up in conjunction with any potential "relaunch" we might schedule, maybe around the time we add a new design.

[stpaultim]

I just updated the title of this task to reflect progress we made last April.