Global Adventist Communicators meet in Dubai UAE

[Gordon1]

Why not?

SDAs gather with Ted Wilson, May 15th - 19th.

http://gain.adventist.org/

[Woody]

Must be nice.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Why not?

SDAs gather with Ted Wilson, May 15th - 19th.

http://gain.adventist.org/

HUH??? And who is paying for this soirée????

[Gordon1]

Your tax dollars at work.

[cricket]

"GAiN is a community of Seventh-day Adventist technologists and communicators who are connecting to discuss the creative use of Internet technology in their work and in the lives of whom they serve."

Proprietary Voice over IP services, live-streaming, forums, social-networking, conference calling and wikipages, while not inventions of Seventh-day Adventists, are certainly creative uses of Internet technology.

[Tom Wetmore]

To set your mind at ease, the hotel is a Holiday Inn. The room rate is less than you would pay at a Holiday Inn here in the US. The costs are mostly covered by the employing entity of the person attending. When people are coming from all over the globe for such meetings, airfare is a big part of the cost and quite variable. Dubai is far closer, and thus cheaper, than flying them all here for most who will be attending. And having meetings at different locations around the world help those in closer proximity bear the cost and longer travel time. And eventually everyone has a meeting nearer to them at some point and gets that break, and are more likely to be able to attend. Overall the costs for everyone collectively are very likely less than if they had all come here.

[Gail]

It's easy to read something and right away come to a conclusion by assuming the worst...

Thanks for clarifying, Tom.

[phkrause]

What tax dollars???? Mine go to the federal and state governments, and when I lived in NY, the city.

[Gordon1]

So how many are booked for the conference?

[Arwen]

What tax dollars????

I guess

Tax dollars = A euphemism for God’s tithe

[phkrause]

Originally Posted By: pkrause

What tax dollars????

I guess

Tax dollars = A euphemism for God’s tithe

Sad when we start to think that God taxes us!

[Tom Wetmore]

As I recall, this is not a huge gathering. I am guessing somewhere between 100 and 150 attendees.

[Arwen]

To set your mind at ease, the hotel is a Holiday Inn. The room rate is less than you would pay at a Holiday Inn here in the US. The costs are mostly covered by the employing entity of the person attending. When people are coming from all over the globe for such meetings, air fair is a big part of the cost and quite variable. Dubai is far closer, and thus cheaper, than flying them all here for most who will be attending. And having meetings at different locations around the world help those in closer proximity bear the cost and longer travel time. And eventually everyone has a meeting nearer to them at some point and gets that break, and are more likely to be able to attend. Overall the costs for everyone collectively are very likely less than if they had all come here.

There is some great web conferencing software available these days.

Perhaps that would be a more creative and a lot less costly way to have a conference.

[Neil D]

Sad when we start to think that God taxes us!

or that this money is ours in the first place....

It is God who generously allows us to have 90% of all that we generate...and only requires 10% back to fund his church....the rest is offerings....

and yet, some of us insist that WE control where God's money goes......

[Arwen]

HUH??? And who is paying for this soirée????

[Arwen]

Hey Gordon1, to clarify:

When you said

Your tax dollars at work.

Did you mean God’s tithe?

[cricket]

There is some great web conferencing software available these days.

Perhaps that would be a more creative and a lot less costly way to have a conference.

[Gordon1]

As I recall, this is not a huge gathering. I am guessing somewhere between 100 and 150 attendees.

Thanks Tom.

[Gordon1]

Did you mean God’s tithe?

Member contributions?

Bill & Melinda Gates?

[Tom Wetmore]

OK, let me first say that I am a strong proponent of the use of less costly technology to conduct Church business and to avoid unnecessary time consuming and costly travel. And the church does have and use much of this technology. But it does have its limitations. Video conferencing works well for smaller groups and limited agenda and duration. Sometimes there is no substitute for meeting face to face.

Meetings like this have multiple presenters, all day long over a number of days. And there is a synergy that comes from face to face meetings that is nearly impossible to achieve using even the best video conferencing or other forms of technology for communicating. Networking and getting personally acquainted with people doing the same or similar things really does enhance follow-up and future work. Think the difference between going to Church to worship together vs. watching a video of the service. Or taking a class in school vs. taking a class by some distance learning means.

Take the value of this forum for communicating ideas and interaction among Church members. But don't forget all the complaints and frustrations we all experience over it's limitations. If we all got together periodically in person, communication is greatly improved and it even enhances the effectiveness of communication right here, because you know the person and can visualize them speaking to you with their tone and mannerisms.

If the only goal is to economize, you don't even go high tech. You just have the experts write papers and send them to everyone you think should have that info. Why do we even need church buildings, just video conference worshiping together? Why build any office buildings, just let everyone work from home on their computers? Why have school buildings? let everyone teach themselves. Think of all the money we could save!

[Woody]

Quote:

Take the value of this forum for communicating ideas and interaction among Church members. But don't forget all the complaints and frustrations we all experience over it's limitations. If we all got together periodically in person, communication is greatly improved and it even enhances the effectiveness of communication right here, because you know the person and can visualize them speaking to you with their tone and mannerisms.

Good Point Tom

[cricket]

If the only goal is to economize...

Global Adventist internet Network

They are getting together to discuss the creative use of Internet technology in their work and in their service. This is the primary goal. It seems logical to me to actually use the technology they are hoping to get others to use more creatively.

[Tom Wetmore]

They do, they did, and they will continue to do so. One global in-person meeting isn't the sum totally of their interaction and efforts.