Holston Leader’s Quarterly
The cover photo shows a lone cross country skier trekking through the wilderness. If you look closely, you can see that this person appears to be following some sort of trail. If you look even more closely, you can see that this person is leaving behind two tracks made by his or her skis. This person is truly blazing a trail for others to follow. If enough people come along behind and place their skis in the tracks left by the person in front of them, it should become easier and easier for each successive person to follow the trail. It is the person that is first in line that has the hard task...blazing the trail.
A Word from the Editor
Packing down the snow and setting the tracks can be difficult. Leading a group of people can also be difficult, especially at the conference level.
At the local church level, there is a good chance that everyone will know everyone else on a leadership group. There is a very good chance that everyone will be able to easily be physically present for any meeting that the leadership group might call. When you move that meeting to a conference level group then dynamics will change. People will most likely not know each other. People will most likely not be in geographic proximity to allow an easy gathering in person for all of the members of the team.
As the leader of a conference level team, you will need to think about how to build the team so that people can get to know each other and how to gather the team...will it be ZOOM or will it be in person.
In addition, there is the element of knowledge needed to lead and serve on a conference level team. The subject area may be more involved and may not be something for which you have an immediate knowledge. That means that you and the team members will need to have some training as to the reason the team exists and what is the knowledge base necessary to help this group succeed.
It is the hope of the Nominations Team of the Conference, that this quarterly magazine will begin to supply you with the answers to some of these questions and equip you to lead and to serve on a conference level leadership group. Please read through this document carefully and if you have ideas or questions, then share them with me so that I can address them in future volumes of this magazine.
Rev. Terry Goodman Vice-Chair, Conference Nominations Team
Why am I getting this Publication?
You have been identified as either a leader or a member of one or more of our conference leadership teams and this quarterly publication has been designed to provide training for leaders and team members.
The Nominations Team is tasked with more than just picking people to fill positions. We are also tasked with providing training, knowledge, and guidance to help those persons that have been chosen and that have agreed to serve to help them make better decisions.
This is the first of our quarterly publications designed to achieve that goal. In future publications, we will be going into more depth and involving more leadership aspects of our conference. This particular edition is just some basics. So if you think, “ I wished they had gone more in depth…” then you can rest assured that there will be more depth in future editions.
Since this is designed to offer a broad approach to leadership and service, I want you to have the opportunity to provide more focus. Are there specific things that you as a leader or a team member would like to see discussed in future publications? I anticipate some standing columns from our Conference Leaders such as the Bishop and our Lay Leader, Becky Hall. We will probably hear from Tim Jones (Communication), Susan Arnold (Congregational Development), Mike Sluder (Connectional Ministries), Leah Burns (Multicultural Ministries), Susan Groseclose (Discipleship), and Mary Thompson (Camping and Recreational Ministries).
I would also like to hear from some of you. Some of you work in the corporate world. Some of you are educators. Most of you have probably served on one or more committees in your local church or district. There is knowledge there that can be tapped as well. Share your ideas. Share your successes. Share your failures. (Yes. We can learn from those as well.) We have an electronic format and it won’t cost me more to put together 20 pages than it will to create 5 pages.
Share ideas of what you need to be better equipped to lead and to serve and I will try and find a way to talk about it or point you in the direction to get more information.
Rev. Terry Goodman
Vice-Chair, Conference Nominations Team
Three Spiritual Leadership, Inc. Principles
By Rev. Terry Goodman
Our conference is using the Spiritual Leadership, Inc. (SLI) principles and are asking our leadership groups to also use this process. At its very basic level, there are three elements associated with each meeting: Loving, Learning, Leading.
Loving means that at the beginning of a meeting time should be spent Loving or Worshiping God. This can be done through a devotional from a team member, through sharing of prayer concerns, through lifting up Glory sightings (ways in which team members have seen God at work in their life, their church or the world).
After Loving, there is a time for Learning. This is going to be the discussion of the items that were placed on the agenda. This may involve reports from various persons. It may involve videos of conference activities. It can encompass a wide variety of items. The goal is to help the team interact with those issues and ideas for which the team is designed.
After Learning comes Leading. These are the take away points from the meeting. If the team gathered and nothing came of the gathering, then most people are going to go away feeling that their time has been wasted. As we learn. As we discuss. As we decide. This points us toward those things with which the team now leads. It might be a report to the conference. It might be a decision to engage in a certain activity. It might be an assignment for team members to come back with more information at the next meeting. But it has to be something. There needs to be some output from the meeting that propels the team forward and gives opportunities for the team and its members to celebrate how God is using or will be using this team for the greater benefit of the kingdom.
I am not going to reinvent the wheel and try to come up with a list of qualities a leader needs. Instead let’s look at the following list of items by which a leader can be measured.
• Communication: Good leaders communicate clearly, listen actively, and adapt their communication style to their audience.
• Integrity: Good leaders are honest and lead with integrity.
• Empathy: Good leaders are respectful and compassionate.
• Vision: Good leaders have a vision and are proactive problem solvers.
• Adaptability: Good leaders are able to adapt to change.
• Balance: Good leaders promote a healthy work-life balance.
• Guidance: Good leaders guide their group, not dominate it.
• Preparation: Good leaders are prepared and know what they are going to cover.
• Respect: Good leaders treat their group members as equals and respect their values.
• Focus: Good leaders focus on what they can control and anticipate future challenges.
Other characteristics of good leaders include:
Self-awareness, Humility, Empowerment, Authenticity, Consistency, Role modeling, Learning agility, Collaboration, Influence, and Courage.
Qualities of a Group Member
(Article is AI Generated)
A Group Leader needs Group Members and here are some AI generated qualities of a good Group Member: Key points about a positive group member:
• Communication: Clearly expressing ideas, actively listening to others, and providing constructive feedback.
• Reliability: Being dependable, meeting deadlines, and following through on commitments.
• Positive attitude: Approaching challenges with optimism and supporting team morale.
• Adaptability: Being flexible and willing to adjust to changing circumstances.
• Collaboration: Working well with others, sharing ideas, and contributing to the team effort.
• Accountability: Taking responsibility for one's own work and actions.
• Problem-solving: Identifying issues, analyzing options, and finding solutions.
• Empathy: Understanding and considering the perspectives of others.
• Initiative: Taking action without being prompted and proposing new ideas
• A good group member should possess qualities like: effective communication, active listening, reliability, positive attitude, adaptability, collaboration skills, accountability, problem-solving abilities, openness to feedback, initiative, empathy, and the ability to respect diverse perspectives; essentially, they should be able to work well with others towards a shared goal while contributing their own skills and ideas
Basics 101: Creating an Agenda
(This article is AI Generated)
Every meeting needs an agenda and our friendly neighborhood AI suggests the following.
Here are some tips for creating a meeting agenda:
• Define the meeting's purpose: State the meeting's objective at the top of the agenda. For example, the meeting's purpose could be to brainstorm solutions, make decisions, or review progress.
• Involve your team: Encourage your team to suggest topics they want to cover. This can help ensure that the meeting is productive for everyone.
• Prioritize items: Prioritize action items and include a desired outcome for each. This will help participants know which topics are most important.
• Assign roles: Assign clear roles and responsibilities for each topic.
• Include a time allocation: Allot time for each topic of discussion.
• Share the agenda: Share the agenda with all participants well in advance of the meeting.
• Reserve time for check-in: Reserve a few minutes at the end of the meeting to check that you've met all the objectives.
You can also include the following information in your agenda:
• The date, time, and location of the meeting
• A list of attendees
• Any notes, documentation, or takeaways from previous meetings
• Assignments or preparation notes for attendees
•
Meeting Location Considerations
by Rev. Terry Goodman
A few years back, meetings would always have been in person at a middle ground location or at the conference office. These in-person meetings took a lot of travel time for a lot of people. Then COVID came along and a little company called ZOOM came to the rescue of all those folks that needed to go to meetings. Now, that platform is advanced to the degree that it provides a significant advantage for its use.
Let’s think about a meeting. There is a reason to have it. An agenda is created and distributed, preferably ahead of time. At the allotted time, the meeting begins. Now if that is a ZOOM meeting, everyone signs in at the appropriate time and an hour later (maybe even sooner) the meeting is over and everyone is back on the way doing the things that need to do on that day.
Now consider if that same meeting were held in person at the conference office in Alcoa. For those coming up from Chattanooga area, it would take a couple of hours. For those coming from Radford, it would take four hours. So that one hour meeting has taken five hours of the Chattanooga person’s time and 9 hours of the Radford person’s time.
So now we have a balancing scale to consider.
• Is it important that we see each other face to face for the meeting? If so, then we need to call an in person meeting.
• Does it have to be in Alcoa? No. It does not. Each team should examine the geographic diversity of its members and plan in-person meetings accordingly.
• Could it be a hybrid meeting? Yes. It could. If there is a nucleus of people that can easily get together and a few that cannot, then you could call a hybrid meeting allowing those to gather that could and letting those that could not attend via ZOOM.
Each Leadership Group should have met by sometime prior to or during the month of January for its first meeting.
Submissions for Petitions and Resolutions open Alcoa Center (Hybrid): 200-400 pm
Conference Nominations Team meets to fill vacancies. If your team has persons that have withdrawn, please let Rev. Terry Goodman know so that he can have that person replaced by the
Deadline for submission of Petitions and Resolutions
Deadline for submission of materials for Book of By this day, each team should have created a report to be included in the Book of Reports for the Annual Conference. The report should highlight the activities and goals of the coming annual conference year (July 1, 2025June 30, 2026) and/or celebrate some accomplishments of the current year (July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025)
Book of Reports will be available online in pdf format.
Holston Annual Conference: June 1-4 at Lake Junaluska Assembly Grounds Pentecost Sunday In future installments, I would like to be able to include the dates that each team has scheduled a meeting. The chairperson should end that information to Rev. Terry Goodman so that he can include it. terrygoodman@holston.org