Planning for National Alpha Initiative September 2003
7:30 p.m.Thursday January 30/03 – Trinity Presbyterian Church
Attendees: Tony Copple
Bob and Pat Horsey
Eric Angel
Dave and Carol Atkins
Liba Straznicky
Heather Kirkpatrick
Henry Troup
Ken McDonald
Les Johnson
Celine Weitzel
Helen Lenthall
Tim Parris (part time)
Prepared by: Recorded by Carol Atkins and prepared by Dave Atkins
The previous meeting had been: March 24, 2002
1. The meeting was opened in prayer. Tony Copple welcomed everyone to the meeting and had people introduce themselves.
2. Tony gave a brief update on the National Initiative, noting the results of a recent Central Canada Alpha Advisors Retreat. He also mentioned the August 1,2 Toronto Alpha Conference at Agincourt Pentecostal Church where Nicky Gumbel will be in attendance. People are advised to apply early if interested.
3. There was brief discussion on the need for an Intercessory Prayer Committee
Chairperson for our work on the National Initiative (NI). Atha Kelly will be asked
to fulfill this role.
ACTION: Tony
4. The NI was outlined as involving a major national advertising campaign to invite Canadians to an Alpha Dinner in the 3rd week of September. Alpha Canada is the main driving force and it hopes to raise $1M through donations from financially blessed Canadian Christians. We are seeking Brand Name recognition. In the UK, where a number of similar initiatives have been done, about 15% of people recognize the Alpha Course.
5. Although the National office will be the main driving force there will still be a need
for local involvement eg. Advertising on bus shelters, special local events, etc..
6. The steps in the process were described as being:
a) Alpha Advisors to receive NI promotion video in early February.
b) In Feb. 10,000 churches will receive the video, preceded by an e-mail.
c) The recipients will be invited to participate and order a promotional kit.
d) The kit will cost under $200 and will have a banner, lawn signs etc.
e) The participants are expected to be involved in the Sept. 15-21 Invitational Dinner or join another participating church(es) to put on a dinner. Courses will start shortly after the event.
7. There was brief discussion of having few large dinner events or a large number of
small ones. In the UK a number of large dinners have been held.
8. Tony described one possible way to develop the infrastructure to plan and implement
the NI locally would be to follow the Alpha Conference idea we had used in the past.
Therefore, we would need 3 Committees with 3 Chairpersons. The first one would be
the Intercessory Prayer Committee headed by Atha Kelly (subject to confirmation).
The second one would be the Organizing Committee, which would include church
liason, fund raising events, etc.. The third one is the Communications Committee
which would contact the media, find and implement effective ways to obtain
advertizing/marketing. All 3 committees would have to work closely with one
another. It was decided that Eric Angel would be the Organizing Committee
(OC) Chair and that a Co-Chair would be sought in Ottawa since Eric is in
Perth.
It was decided that Helen Lenthall would be the Chair of the Communications
Committee (CC) because of her extensive media background.
9. There was some discussion led by Helen about Foreground Programming
which essentially entails the provision at no cost of Public Service Announcements
by Radio and TV stations. This will be looked into for the NI.
10. It was noted that the plan is to have national billboard advertising launched Aug. 20th.
11. Discussion was held on how the OC would raise the funds to be expended by the CC.
12. Helen mentioned that she may have some technical help contacts that the OC could use.
13. Helen also noted she may have some people she may ask to help.
14. Eric noted he will give some thought as to whom will be on his OC.
15. Dave commented that people wishing to help out on any of the 3 new committees
should contact the respective committee chairs. The Chairs will then pick the members.
16. It was noted that the OC will likely have its own group of sub-committees – Tony
will provide Eric with a list of names. Eric has his own contacts as well.
ACTION: Tony.
17. Helen mentioned that she may be able to get some press through the Ottawa Citizen’s
Dave Brown, whom she knows. Also, for Bob Harvey, Religion Editor, we would
have to present this as newsworthy. (Dave A. has developed a good relationship with
Bob in the past).
18. Ken asked if the various Dioceses are aware that the promo videos are coming.
Tony will check with Karla Mercaldo.
ACTION: Tony.
19. The Alpha Advisors will be informed as to which churches in their area will be
getting the video.
20. There are approximately 700 churches within the Eastern Ontario and Western
Quebec area that we are encompassing locally.
21. Some ideas bounced around for publicity included: Meet and Greet Breakfast;
bus shelter ads (Beth Fellinger from London Ontario is a resource); Christian Current
monthly newspaper; Christian Business Men’s Fellowship – fundraising and
advertising opportunities; secular – Rotary/Kinsman; Alpha Sunday at churches –
Celine noted this went well recently at All Saints Lutheran.
22. We may need to identify churches to host “Training Events” for churches who don’t
yet run Alpha but need training – idea floated that could have a “Rent an Alpha
leader” to help new course venues. It was noted that it is better for churches to send
their people to an existing course to take it and then bring it back to their church.
23. Another method for training is to attend an Alpha Conference.
24. It was noted for radio a 30 second announcement will be available from Alpha
Canada. For TV and other presentation purposes we will have the promo video in two
versions, a 12 minute one and a 6 minute one (without the testimonies).
This could be for community TV. People wondered about the size of the viewing
audience for community TV.
25. Tony noted that we need to give churches the message that there is good follow up to
the Alpha Course, ie. Life Worth Living, Marriage Course, etc.
26. The NI calls for Banners and Lawn signs to be up in July, followed by the billboard
campaign in August.
27. Bumper stickers were noted as being effective for the Billy Graham 1998 Ottawa
Mission and should be explored (Note: according to Karla Mercaldo the Publicity
Kits will not contain bumper stickers but we could do them if we wanted).
28. Other ideas included fridge magnets, bus shelters near the Queensway at Pinecrest.
29. Ken enquired how the youth will be involved in this to capitalize on the World Youth
Day involvement this past year. A Christian festival/concert was mentioned. As it
happens there will be a major “Soul Festival” with upwards of 50 Christian groups in
Ottawa this coming June 27-29 where there will likely be thousands of attendees,
many of them youth. This could be a major source of visibility for the NI.
ACTION: Helen.
30. It was noted that we need to address how to we can consider the many smaller
country churches – possibly a number of them could band together to do the
Invitational Meal.
31. Helen noted we need to establish the core of our NI - ie. reach, zone/boundaries
need to be set. Establish priorities with respect to our local communications.
32. For example, the Ottawa Anglican Diocese of about 160 churches is broken down
into Deaneries of about 10 parishes each. We should be able to approach the various
area Ministerials and Pastoral Committees. As for the Roman Catholic community
we may be able to influence the material that gets onto the Archbishop’s agenda
that in turn gets sent to the constituent parishes.
33. As for schools and youth there may be opportunity to tap into them – wrist bands etc.
34. Consider having different types of dinners for Youth, Executive, Women.
35. Ken noted we need a master schedule/time line. This will be done with coordination
between the OC and CC Chairs. Dave mentioned that the overall governing timeline
will be available soon from Alpha Canada and shared with the teams.
36. Tony noted that the future committee meetings dates will be set as needed – the
meetings will be limited to two hours in duration as a rule.
37. As for the Sub-committee structure, meetings will be set up closer to the event.
38. We need sufficient lead time to reach the media before the summer.
39. Tony thanked the attendees for coming out this evening. Pat Horsey closed the
meeting with prayer.