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“Weekly Webinars” offer training and professional development opportunities for Parish Staff

Parish Staff and Parish Office Volunteers, 

The Communications Office for the Diocese of Jefferson City invites you to join us in our upcoming “Weekly Webinar” training calls for parish staff professional development in the areas of communications and database management.  

We understand our role to be one of support to you, empowering you to build up your communications efforts that grow your parish’s ministries wider and deeper for the faithful members of your parish, and the community you serve. To that end, we hope that this weekly webinar series will better equip you to confidently manage projects our office oversees including the parish website project, the Blackbaud database management project, and online giving through Blackbaud’s Merchant Services program. 

Beginning May 13th, and continuing throughout the year, we will host a webinar on Thursdays from 12:15 PM to 1:00 PM. We will plan thirty minutes of training content and hold fifteen minutes at the end for practical questions or examples. We hope that this hour provides a “best fit” for parish staff, and appreciate feedback to make this more available if needed. We will record each session and provide a copy of that recording on the diocesan website for reference later, or to share with other staffers who are unable to attend live. 

We have attached at the end of this memo a calendar of training sessions for you to review. We hope this calendar allows you to choose topics you find relevant and focus your time and schedule accordingly. We are also very open to accepting new topics from you for consideration in the future! 


How to Join our Weekly Webinars

Join Zoom Meeting 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89825586859?pwd=aUJnTGIrOW9OekgrWTJuZXUwQjZzQT09

Meeting ID: 898 2558 6859 
Passcode: 001956 

One tap mobile* 
+16465588656,,89825586859#,,,,*001956# US
+13017158592,,89825586859#,,,,*001956# US

*While you are welcome to join by phone, these training webinars will consist of screen-sharing,  presenting slides, and collecting questions and answers via the chat and polling functions of  Zoom. Joining by computer with a good internet connection is highly encouraged.

Weekly Webinar Calendar

DateTopicHost
5/13 Parish Website Project Overview: Why parishes need websites, the vision in our diocese to minister digitally to the faithful, how the project works, and how your parish can join.Ashley Wiskirchen
5/20 Using the Blackbaud Builder Tool I: Adding, engaging content around your site,  interactive modules, user-friendly editingAshley Wiskirchen
5/27 Using the Blackbaud Builder Tool II: Using global modules across the site, working  from and saving templates, customization optionsAshley Wiskirchen
6/3 The “Blackbaud Universe” Explained: Programs and offerings from Blackbaud  to build the capacity of parish officesHelen Osman
6/10 RENXT for Parishes: an overview of the Blackbaud RENXT parish database  system that can make your data actionableDenise Barnes
6/17 The WordPress Dashboard tour, tips & tricks: an overview of the “back end” of  the website, with extra time for Q&AAshley Wiskirchen
6/24 Managing Events & Posts: using these dashboard features to drive content to  your site in a more “automated” fashionAshley Wiskirchen
7/1 Online Giving I: Using Blackbaud merchant services to set up online tithing and  giving at your parishHelen Osman
7/8 Gravity Forms I: Using online forms to streamline collecting information for  your ministriesAshley Wiskirchen
7/15 Gravity Forms II: Diving deeper into customized settings that expand your use  of forms for ministry and data collection + setting up an online payment form if your parish is using Merchant ServicesAshley Wiskirchen
7/22 RENXT Record Management I: “Business Rules” that keep our data clean and  usable, practical applications of record managementDenise Barnes
7/29Bringing your parish and school together in one website: why doing so can knit  your parish families together, how to practically carry that out, and examples  of successful combinationsAshley Wiskirchen
8/5 User Roles and Sample Workflows for Users: How many hands can make light  work of keeping your parish website up-to-date without stepping on each  other’s toesAshley Wiskirchen
8/12RENXT Record Management II: The how-to’s on creating, updating, organizing, and handling special cases in the database, with a few common pitfalls to avoidDenise Barnes
8/19 Online Giving II: Practicals of online giving, a tour of Merchant Services, and an overview of batching in RE NXT.Ashley Wiskirchen and Denise Barnes
8/26 General Copyright Permissions: Using imagery, video, and audio in parish communications + resources for you!Helen Osman
9/2 RENXT: Basics of a Query; Calling up parishioner information in reports using queries, examples, and practical applicationsDenise Barnes
9/9 Updating parish information to the Diocese: Using the Communications Office  forms and tools to update parishioner, priest or parish information for  diocesan recordsHelen Osman
9/23 Common workflows for Parish Websites: How to post bulletins, keep  announcements fresh, link livestream videos, keeping calendars tidy using  categories, posting content to social mediaAshley Wiskirchen
9/30School website Best Practices: school administrators weigh in with insight into what content is most practical and most helpful on school websites.Ashley Wiskirchen
10/7 RENXT Security + Best Practices: keeping our data safe, training users adequately, and other concerns about sensitive informationDenise Barnes
10/14 Social Media for Parishes I: an overview of Facebook pages/groups, Twitter,  Instagram, and YouTubeAshley Wiskirchen and Katie Richards
10/21 Social Media for Parishes II: Deeper dive into Facebook for parishes (using  groups, pages, events)Ashley Wiskirchen
and Katie Richards
10/28 Parish Branding: Why developing a brand is helpful to parishes, understanding  the investment, refreshing or refining your current brand, exploring new  branding options for parishes that do not currently have “brands”Ashley Wiskirchen
11/4 Parish Website Calendars: Importing/Exporting events to batch your work and  have a copy to print for bulletinsAshley Wiskirchen
11/11 The Catholic Missourian Q&A: answering questions about what gets into the paper, how articles are submitted, how to get your parish’s events and parishioners featured, etc.Kelly Martin and Ashley Wiskirchen
11/18 No webinar
11/21 Thanksgiving week, no webinars!
12/2  RENXT: Practical considerations on preparing your parish data to come into the project Denise Barnes and Helen Osman
12/9 Parish Website Showcase: Top 5 features parishes have implemented on their  parish websites that you may consider for yoursAshley Wiskirchen
and Katie Richards
12/16 , 12/23, 12/30: Preparing for Christmas, no webinars!

I always welcome your feedback, and look forward to seeing many of you at our new “Weekly Webinars!”

Warmly,



Ashley Wiskirchen
Director of Parish Communications
Diocese of Jefferson City
Office: 573.635.9127
Email: communication@diojeffcity.org