It is hard to think about summing up the World Tour, perhaps because the flood of other pressing work here in PresbyLand has overtaken me. The paperwork we’re doing on the new Mission Work Plan is particularly delightful, I can tell you. To put it bluntly, a good chunk of us staff are consumed with writing reports about what we do and how it relates to the Plan, so that our ministries don’t go the way of Marie Antoinette. This, my friends, is why we have to have the annual “Please Don’t Quit Your Jobs” staff picnic every summer. But I will say no more on that subject, lest those of you who count yourselves enthusiastic Presbies don’t become too jaded right out of the gate.

No, I have more exciting news to announce. Thanks to the work of our heroic web designer, Amy Tuttle (round of cyber-applause), Network Notes is now syndicated!! This means that you can download this blog to your newsreader or website, and it will automatically update when we post! Just look for the tiny icon under the PC(USA) cross on the sidebar. No more checking back obsessively to see if we’ve posted!

We’re syndicating in preparation for an even bigger launch. In fact, NNPCW hasn’t done anything like this since we started Network Notes to begin with. Within the next month or so, NNPCW hopes to start a vlog on this site, hosted by Brianne, me, and Sophia the Sock Puppet. CoCo member Hillary Mohaupt spent long hours at the General Assembly Council meeting constructing Sophia, and she’s now ready to go.

What will the vlog be about, you ask? Well, right now we’re thinking that this will give you an opportunity to meet all these random people I talk about in Network Notes, and find out more about what they do here in PresbyLand. Imagine Wayne’s World meets Gloria Steinem, with a little bit of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood thrown in the mix (he was a good Presbyterian minister, you know—can’t say the same about Gloria). We’ll do short segments, stopping by the offices of folks like Mary Elva or Curtis Kearns to have them show us around and tell us a bit about their jobs. We’ll end with some sort of service announcement by Sophia about upcoming events or news you should know. Now, the Coordinating Committee specifically requested that we have Sophia interview Clifton Kirkpatrick, PC(USA) Stated Clerk, but I don’t know how comfortable Cliff would be talking to a sock puppet.

The vlog won’t replace Network Notes, and it won’t be every day—in fact, we’re only going to do a trial run right now to see if this is even feasible. But if it is, the Coordinating Committee has budgeted for us to get our own digital camera and editing software. This could mean that, just as you’re able to read all about the World Tour now, in the future you’ll be able to watch clips from the Leadership Event, experience some of General Assembly, and visit other church conferences, too, with NNPCW. You’ll hopefully be able to download the vlog onto iTunes, giving you your own little window into PresbyLand. And that’s enough to make any Presbyterian geek smile.

So if you have suggestions, I’m all ears. Party on, Presbyterians!!

“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” --Isaiah 66:13

Kelsey

This is AMAZING! I love it!
-Jen Ross

Dare I suggest that the interviews be conducted along the lines of Stephen Colbert and "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central?

Rebecca Morrison

Way to go Amy! Thanks Kelsey for all you do.

- Dianna Ott, PC(USA) Office of Communication, Internet Services