The Office Maestro ROGER JOHNSON, BOOKKEEPER & OFFICE COORDINATOR
What we expected to be a short-term need became a long-term experience, as COVID changed the way we operate and deal with the ‘business’ of running the church. We found that it isn’t necessary to be on-site 4 days a week, and so I have reduced my on-site days to Wednesday and Friday, while continuing to work from home in both the bookkeeper and office coordinator capacity. In the first quarter of 2021, we applied for and received a PPP Loan from the Small Business Administration, which was later forgiven by the government’s PPP program. This was a significant financial boost through the pandemic surge. We returned to in-person, modified worship during 2021, and realized that our audio-visual infrastructure was lacking. We continued to do hybrid in-person/online worship services using laptops, cell phones, and directional microphones. Thanks to Jane Shelly’s involvement, the online aspects of worship, I believe, have met the needs of those who have attended in-person during the Delta and Omicron surges plus those who have needed to be safe at home. Because of the hybrid service I now produce an electronic and a paper version of the bulletin each week. Because there have been fewer folks in the sanctuary, we have had difficulty in recruiting volunteers to help with the audio/visual aspects of worship. Need to upgrade our infrastructure to accommodate the hybrid model of worship, we started working with a vendor who will install cameras, improved lighting, and digital audio. Hopefully, once this project is completed, we will have a more professional and seamless worship experience, both in-house and online. We were able to successfully apply for a grant to assist with this upgrade through the 9
