First Quarter 2007 Update
The Education team continues to provide high demand classes. The basic class has a waiting list already for the Fall,
and the intermediate class surveys show that the students value the new material we are teaching. Both of these classes
will be scheduled in the Fall starting sometime in September. We still face the need to recruit and train additional
volunteers to teach and chime for all classes due to this demand. A second focus will be to expand and strengthen our
curriculum committee which develops class plans and materials.
The Refurbishing team had doubled their productivity in creating computers from donated systems. The Research and
Development team consisting of John Lewis and Earl Phillips developed a new process that allowes the Refurbishing team
to be this productive. This means that we can create twice as many computers per week. The opposite effect is supplying
necessary parts for these donated computers and I have authorized the purchase of these parts so we may keep up this
productivity. Ken Smith has come up with a plan to address the surplus of computer monitors. We will take these computers
to Surplus Exchange so they may recycle these into the Kansas City community. Finally, the Refurbishing team will continue
to replace or replenish the the computer labs at Grandview Park Presbyterian Church and the Front Porch Alliance with
Windows 2000 computers from the new process the Research and Development team made for us.
Submitted by Tony Liu
Second Quarter 2007 Update
The Education Team continues to impress us with the quality of the computer classes they teach, the number of students
they help, and the new student materials they provide. The synergy of this team working with Christine Tarne is worth
noting. The second quarter focused on the Intermediate class taught to 46 students. This is a significant number of
students that confirms the value so many adults want in an intermediate class. Also, this Fall of 2007 marks the seventh
year the Computer Ministry has taught classes. The Education team has evolved which developed computer classes to meet
the needs of their students these past seven years. This demonstrates a long standing and valuable contribution to the
Church and the Computer Ministry.
The Refurbishing team is maintaining their productivity by building computers using the new process I reported last quarter.
They are still producing twice as many computers per week. They are so productive that we have accelerated our delivery to
the Front Porch Alliance and Grandview Park Presbyterian Church to replace in July their class room computers. Therefore,
we are ahead of schedule in helping these key partners with these refurbished computers.
The Computer Ministry leadership needs to find new partners for our refurbished computers but still meet the requirements
from our software supplier in the Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers (MAR) program. The Front Porch Alliance (FPA) and
Grandview Park Presbyterian Church are excellent partner examples. For instance, the FPA use the classroom materials
developed by the Education Team that operate on the MAR furnished computers from the Refurbishing Team. We need to find
more partners that fit this model, though this is a challenge due to restrictions from the Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers
(MAR) program. The Computer Ministry leadership will focus on this by identifying what flexibility we have providing
computers due to the terms and conditions of the MAR program that will help us find new partners.
Submitted by Tony Liu
Third Quarter 2007 Update
The Third Quarter of 2007 demonstrated the success of the changes we made earlier this year. The Education Team
taught the Very Basic Computer class with the new lesson handout revised with the MS Word topic. Jan Dexter authored
this new topic and Christine Tarne provided invaluable help by reformatting it.
The Refurbishing team is in full swing producing computers. We had given 52 computers out this past quarter. We discovered
that we can help more partners with a larger inventory of computers due to this productivity.
The combination of the Refurbishing team's computers with the materials produced by the Education Team makes a more
valuable package. We can provide a complete package of computers and materials to make our partners productive.
For example, the City Church is a new partner that received this package for their computer lab.
I realize the members of the Computer Ministry are becoming productive in new ways. We have a reach a higher level that
gives us a broader capability of what we can do. The leadership team can be innovative now. It is time to challenge the
leadership team to use this broader expertise to articulate our direction in 2008. With this challenge leads new
opportunities for leadership within the Computer Ministry, which I will fulfill with qualified talent.
Submitted by Tony Liu
Fourth Quarter 2007 Update
The fourth quarter of 2007 finished a wonderful year for the Computer Ministry. We introduced a new process to refurbish
computers quicker which allows more computers to help our partners. The Education team continues to excel with the class
they teach. Overall we have a ministry ready for 2008.
We do have a major change with the leadership of the Education team. I wish to thank Tom Housh and Gene Davis for the
outstanding leadership they gave to the Computer Ministry and the Education Team these past six years. Both Tom and Gene
developed an outstanding team of teachers and chimes. Their team is organized as a model of excellence with the efficiency
to match. And the feedback has always been positive and constructive from the students that benefited from their efforts.
With mixed feelings, I will report that Tom and Gene have decided to pursue other life opportunities and their role will
change on the Education team. Their role will be passed to a new team of leaders. I sought Tom and Gene's advise and
council on candidates to replace them. We are blessed that Tom and Gene developed a depth of talent of qualified candidates.
I am pleased to announce that Richard Pryor will be the new leader of the , with Jan Dexter,
Tom McIntire, and Mike Holdgraf as part of his leadership team. Jan, Tom, and Mike will work with Richard as they continue
the Education program and develop new offerings. We have discussed our goals in 2008 and plan for 2009. I am confident the
Education team has the leadership the teachers and chimes deserve.
The Refurbishing team delivered fourteen computers in the fourth quarter of 2007. They also developed a new partnership
with Harvesters Community Food Network. I am excited about this partnership with Harvesters. Harvesters needed to eliminate
the costly paper based food ordering process. They implemented an online ordering system for their not-for-profit
agencies over the internet. But some of these agencies did not have the budget to buy a computer, therefore they could
not participate in this new ordering system. The Refurbishing team provided refurbished computers to these agencies to
they could continue their operations with Harvesters. This opened a new offering from the Refurbishing team as part of
a solution for Harvesters and its agencies to save money, cut costs, and provide food for people in need. I am pleased
with this innovative idea implemented by the Refurbishing team.
Submitted by Tony Liu