A Thank You Entry to a Great Office Staff

No, this isn't one of my pastors running away because I asked about apportionment payout. But it does remind me of our absolutely marvelous office staff in the Heartland Districts office. There are three of us d.s.s who office together---Cody Collier, the Heartland South d.s.; Steve Campbell, the Heartland Central d.s.; and moi. And we have three office staff persons--Barbara, Tracy and Coni. All three of these women have all three of us as supervisors...we do have a lead d.s. that changes every few months, but somehow, this arrangement is working. Barbara is the Administrative Secretary; Tracy does our communications; and Coni is our bookkeeper. And sometimes the biggest hurdles they have to jump are the d.s.s--not that we TRY to get in their way, but we often all need something at the same time and we all have different temperaments and, well, you get the picture. Right now, despite any written job descriptions these three have, they are all data input people because they are feverishly (well, at least dedicatedly) inputting year-end report info from each of the churches in the three districts, as well as charge conference info. We have a really good conference database system, but it takes real diligence to keep up with it. In two weeks, we d.s.s will go to what is called Assessment Week when for 5 days we begin the appointment making process. We listen to each other review each of the full time churches and their pastors. And we need to have current info for them all---thus the deadline for inputting.

And now, a love song to our office staff. These three women are not only good at their jobs, but kindly, supportive of us, gentle, and all three churched as United Methodists and yet they still enjoy working in our office--where sometimes you hear the good, the bad and the pretty ugly about what happens in churches and with pastors, unfortunately. However, two examples of incidents today that made me again realize why I am so very thankful for them. #1) This morning, I called Barbara to ask her to make a hotel reservation in a town some distance away, for a night next week, since I needed to attend a meeting early one morning and I needed to go the night before. She checked prices, compared distances, and made a good suggestion, gave that suggestion to me, and then made the reservation. Just after that, I received a phone call telling me that I need not go to the meeting after all, and so, I had to tell Barbara that even though I appreciated her work, well, in short, we needed to cancel the reservation. Fine. She did it with a smile. THEN I received an email that rescinded the "you don't have to go" phone call, and yes, you guessed it, she had to re-book the room. And she laughed. Despite the fact that she had not taken a lunch break this week, which I hate, and she as well as all of us in the office are under a deadline, she laughed. Thank you, Barbara. #2) Coni, our bookkeeper is so terrific. We (I) have needed to get a grip on keeping better records, receipts, etc, and she is so kind in the way she reminds me. Today, she came in and asked me what account she should charge my "emergent" expense to---and I rather convolutedly gave her an answer. And she sat down and talked to be about emergent for a bit...what a delight. It wasn't a long conversation, but it made me realize as she, and Barbara and Tracy do all the time, that they really care about what I am doing in ministry, and listen and laugh and are concerned and often say words of affirmation.

I do need to say that the only reason I don't have a Tracy example today is that she was secreted away in a room piled with forms that she input all day long. When I saw her about 4, she did look a little blurry-eyed, but that great smile was still there!