Top ten memories that made 2011

In no particular order....

1. Colour conference with Mum, Emma, Baby-C and friends.

2. Sadly leaving my role as conductor/accompanist at the Australian Youth Choir.

3. Meeting my Darren. ("You're the Green Team chick, right?")

4. Moving house.

5. Three funerals :(

6. Increased hours at Encounter Youth and the launch of Hindley St Project

7. Community times at schoolies.

8. Two Immerse events - YITS in February and Perth in July.

9. Gospo choir

10. Most successful schoolies (Green Team) yet.

Thanks to everyone who made these memories what they are to me. My friends and family are in and through each of life's experiences and nothing would be the same without you.

I wonder what 2012 has in store?

Happy New Year all.

J xo

Unpretty emails.

I assume that most of you who read this will know that I work in the area of Volunteer Coordination. My organisation is on the brink of launching a new project that would see our volunteers mobilised into a dark area of our city with the long-term view of making it a safer environment for the community.

It’s a big project, and it’s not pretty. And this week I was presented with the first of many challenges: how to distribute the information to the team in a way to get the ‘best’ response. This is not easy! So here's what I did...

I stressed over it, and spent ages fiddling around with email templates, searching for the perfect picture to illustrate the content, wrote draft after draft…. All because you only get one shot to launch an idea. One chance to pitch a sale. You can't make a second first impression.

But then I thought...

I am not presenting a PRODUCT.

I am presenting a MISSION.

Whatever sales tactics I was trying to employ are not welcome here. (I don’t even have a marketing degree, so who am I fooling anyway??)

Before I go on, let me also say this: Professional marketing is required in the world we live in. And I do believe there is a place for it in our churches and ministry fields as well. But in this instance I said NO to the flashy colours, funky logos and hyperlinks and decided to keep it real. And unpretty.

The content was real. The purpose and the need behind the project is black and white. So I decided my email would be too. It wasn’t pretty, but neither was what I was writing about.

So while it may not have been very appealing to those who prefer the pretty emails with the visual effects, I am sure that those who truly want the information would be happy to get it in whatever format it was delivered.

Keeping it real. And unpretty.
Jess xx


(If you'd like to find out more about what I do, this project I'm talking about, or anything else, email me at jessica@encounteryouth.com.au or visit our website.)