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Partners In The Mission:
KBC Annual gets high-tech makeover
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| Release Date: 04/29/2008 |
| a message from Dr. Bill Mackey, executive director |
By Robert Reeves, KBC’s director of communications
When the Kentucky Baptist Convention held its first organizational session at the “Baptist meeting house” in Louisville on Oct. 20, 1837, those who attended traveled there by wagon, on horseback or on foot. There were no electric lights in the building. If there was need for any heat that day, it was generated by burning wood. There were no microphones, video reports or live streaming of the session over the Internet. No messengers left the room to answer their cell phones.
But when the meeting was over, something occurred then that has continued consistently to the present day. A set of minutes from the meeting were dutifully written, professionally printed and distributed so there would be a historical record of the deliberations and decisions of Kentucky Baptists.
Over the years, those 19 pages of meeting minutes from 1837 grew into a nearly 700-page Convention Annual that included not only the minutes of the previous year’s meeting, but ministry reports, historical tables, audit documents, address lists, statistical summaries and much more. Denominational workers, associational offices and churches used some copies extensively. But many gathered dust on library shelves or were discarded.
Why the history lesson on the Convention Annual? Because 2008 marks a major departure for this venerable publication made possible by technology never even imagined in 1837. This year’s Convention Annual is being distributed to churches on a CD-ROM that will enable users to access the information easier and faster than ever by using their computers.
The CD-ROMs should be arriving at churches during the first week of May. Simply inserting the disc into the computer will prompt it to open the Internet browser and allow the user to access the various sections of the annual as always—but with the benefit of having the computer do the work of searching for a particular item. In addition, the KBC’s new Services Directory has also been provided on the disc.
The switch from paper to CD-ROM will result in significant cost savings for the KBC. In 2007, production and postage for the Convention Annual used more than $20,000 in Cooperative Program funds. Production and distribution of the CD-ROMs will cost less than half that amount.
Books will still be available for those who need or prefer a printed version at a cost-recovery charge of $15 each. These will only be sent upon request as opposed to being automatically mailed out.
The change to CD-ROM in some ways marks the end of an era. But just as when cars replaced wagons and electric lights replaced lamps, the change should be a good one for Kentucky Baptists as we continue to tell our story.
Robert Reeves is the director for the KBC Communications Department. |
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