Episode 43: What mistakes are we making as tech team leaders? For that matter, what mistakes are we making as volunteers? In this episode, Chris interviews his wife, who has worked in a variety of leadership roles, including the volunteer coordinator at the local hospital where she oversaw 90 volunteers. Gina brings up key areas for retention as well as recruitment and they talk about how understanding personality types goes a long way to helping team members and becoming a better leader.
Resources:
- Personality Test
- Which Animal Are You (Fun Personality Test For the Team)
- Equipping You for Real Life (Gina’s Site)
- Conflict Resolution
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Kenneth L Koehler says
March 7, 2019 at 8:43 pmI’ve been doing the sound at our church for awhile now, from 1200 sq. ft. to a little over 2400 sq. ft. The equipment didn’t really change much because of the person that ran it before always thought more is better and we can always grow into it,. ( we had 8 mic’s before and we still have 8 mic’s years later. ) When we did our expansion we ran a 100′ snake from the back of the room up to the peek of the building all the way to the front of the building then made a right turn to the amp. room. I was not there since I have a full time job and they ran everything the way they thought best. Our whole room is about 110′ long. I don’t understand why they just didn’t put everything in the back by the sound booth so instead of all the walking why not int he back. We are in the process of get up date equipment because of the 600mhz. I would like to run everything from the back in the booth with a amp room built next to the sound booth. I think the shorter snake will help on all the hum’s we have. ( which I think is from bad ground in the new addition where the amp’s are. )
I try to get volunteers but once anyones see’s the sound board and all the knobs no one stay’s I have used some of your suggestions to get the hum out and they work for maybe a week then they are back.
Any thought’s
Chris Huff says
March 11, 2019 at 11:41 amThe hum can be from interference picked up in the line, such as with an unbalanced cable running parallel to a power cable, or that hum might be simple line noise. For example, if a guitarist doesn’t turn their guitar’s volume pot all the way up, then you might get noise from the guitar’s pickups. In this case, the sound of the pickup is loud enough to be heard because the guitar’s volume is too low. WHen they turn that knob all the way up, you are getting max signal which masks line noise. Think signal-to-noise ratio. This can happen with keyboards as well, if they turn down the volume on the keyboard, though I tend to hear it more with guitars.
Wayne ould says
March 7, 2019 at 10:41 amYour podcast for today was one thing I have been struggling with. I as a sound person want to have some kind of control. And in a small church it can be hard . We have a pastor who wants to use his own headset. But when he is not preaching and not at church. He has the secretary give the headset to me 10 minutes before church for special speaker. Which I would want to have it ready in my morning setup. And sometimes I find out what’s happening in the service 5 minutes before service.
I have said that we might need a special speaker headset that would make my job easier and have a page of what is happening in the service.
So when I’m trying to get volunteers I feel bad about all the stuff that they will have to deal with when they are on. And I’m on shift work too. So I have fun trying to train and work at my job. So after my service as sound person on Sunday I’m exhausted . Can there be a happy medium. I know I sound desperate. But I’m the one that hates
confertation . And would rather bow out of the problem. Do you have suggestions. Thanks Wayne
Chris Huff says
March 11, 2019 at 11:48 amWayne, I’d start by documenting everything you do before and after the service, related to the service. From there, see what can be streamlined, what can be improved, and what you need to access as “that’s just the way it is.” As far as the confrontation piece, imagine just one of the things you’d like to change and then imagine the worst outcome when you bring it up to the pastor (or whoever is the point of contact for that thing). Usually a well-thought out request that’s conveyed with the same detail and the benefits of the change are presented, that sort of thing will usually turn out well. If they say no, the odds are they will let you down easy because they see you’ve spent time on it. It’s better to make an appointment during the week to talk about such things than on a Sunday.