Heart of America LTC Blog

Each of these volunteers has a Heart of America Board Member that will be a liaison to support any questions that may arise during the execution of these tasks. The highlights of the roles are described below to let you know the types of activities a volunteer can expect to perform. More detail will be provided to those interested and especially to the individuals that commit to supporting the HOALTC organization in the upcoming year. Unless specifically stated, the volunteer can be located anywhere within the country, even Texas.

Participant Registration Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an individual who would be interested in coordinating the Participant Registration. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Support church coordinators during all steps of the participant and volunteer registration process
  
  • Receive submission of Church Coordinator Packet
    
  • Answer questions about Participant Registration Portal module
    
  • Answer questions about Volunteer Registration Portal module
    
  • Answer questions about Registration Portal Reports module
    
  • Support changes from church coordinators as convention approaches
    
• Create reports of the participant/team registration data
  
• Be at LTC Central throughout most of the convention to check-in church coordinators (especially all day Friday), answer questions about participants/teams and volunteers

This position requires excellent computer, verbal and written communication skills and access to the internet and e-mail on a daily basis. Previous experience with the with the Heart of America LTC convention as a church coordinator would be a great benefit. Time commitment for this position is mainly January until the convention. The average commitment is usually < 1 hour a day, and at key registration times could be more.

Please direct any questions about this position to Andy Beck [andybeck@hoaltc.org].

Hotel Registration Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an individual who would be interested in coordinating the Hotel Registration. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Support church coordinators during all steps of the hotel registration process
  
  • Answer questions about Hotel Registration Portal module
    
  • Support changes from church coordinators as convention approaches
  
  
• Create reports of the congregation hotel data to be submitted to the hotel
  
• Communicate with the hotel to ensure rooms are allocated and assigned
  
• Be at LTC Central throughout most of the convention to check-in church coordinators (especially all day Friday) and approve any last minute changes

This position requires excellent computer, verbal and written communication skills and access to the internet and e-mail on a daily basis. Previous experience with the with the Heart of America LTC convention as a church coordinator would be a great benefit. Time commitment for this position starts mainly at the Hotel Registration Deadline and until the end of the convention. The average commitment is usually < 30 minutes a day, and at key registration times could be more.

Please direct any questions about this position to Rick Karsten [rickkarsten@hoaltc.org].

Scholarship Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an individual who would be interested in coordinating the College Scholarship Program. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Contact Church of Christ affiliated college and universities to request scholarships on their institutions behalf.
  
• Assemble a panel of 6-8 judges to review scholarship applications.
  
• Oversee all communication with universities, scholarship applicants and church coordinators on the scholarship process.
  
• Develop criteria, review application scores, and oversee selections of scholarship awards.

Qualified applicants should have previous experience with the Heart of America LTC convention and volunteered as a judge, church coordinator, or as a teacher or educator of children. Time commitment for this position is approximately 40 hours and requires excellent verbal and written communication skills and access to the internet and e-mail.

Please direct any questions about this position to Jim Baumann [jimbaumann@hoaltc.org].

Hotel Event Room / A/V Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an additional individual who would be interested in coordinating the Hotel Event Room and A/V supplier at the convention. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Review the contracts and detailed specification with the hotel and A/V supplier
  
• Working with the hotel and A/V supplier to ensure that all items are correctly setup. This includes previewing ALL event rooms before the events begin to verify proper setup per the event rules. Then during the events, checking to make sure there are no problems.
  
• Quickly determine if requests made by anyone involved with the convention, down to parents and participants, is covered by the contract, and what to do if it is not.

This position requires a local Kansas City resident to meet with the hotel representative and the hotel board member during the convention prep work. This person should be very detail oriented and willing to work with the hotel and A/V staff to quickly resolve problems. Previous experience in convention coordination is preferred. No computer or technical skills are required.
Time commitment for this position is approximately 40 hours during the 6 weeks before the convention and all during the convention, starting Friday morning and ending Saturday after closing ceremony.

Please direct any questions about this position to Rick Karsten [rickkarsten@hoaltc.org].

Judging Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an additional individual who would be interested in coordinating the Judging at the convention. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Pickup box of rubrics and participant room lists from a local Kinko’s and assemble them appropriately per event. This task needs to be completed a week before the convention, or as soon as it is ready, so if there are any issues in the paperwork, they can be resolved before the convention.
  
• Deliver to the inventory / supplies person at the convention to include in materials to the Event Coordinators.
  
• Be available for questions and changes at the convention when church coordinators check-in.
  
• Provide overall training to judges at each judge training session (Friday and Saturday).
  
• Answer questions from Event Coordinator and judges.

This person should be very detail oriented and willing to shuffle and sort paperwork. Previous experience in convention coordination is preferred. No computer or technical skills are required.
Time commitment for this position is approximately 40 hours during the 2 weeks before the convention and occasionally at the convention, starting Friday morning and ending Saturday after closing ceremony.

Please direct any questions about this position to Rick Karsten [rickkarsten@hoaltc.org].

Ambassador Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an additional individual who would be interested in coordinating the Ambassadors at the convention. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Be available for questions and changes at the convention when church coordinators check-in.
  
• Provide overall training to ambassadors at each ambassador training session (Friday and Saturday).
  
• Answer questions from Event Coordinator and ambassadors.

Previous experience in convention coordination is preferred. No computer or technical skills are required. Time commitment for this position is infrequently at the convention, focusing on the training session.

Please direct any questions about this position to Rick Karsten [rickkarsten@hoaltc.org].

Pre-Convention Co-Coordinators (2)

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for additional individuals who would be interested in co-coordinating the Pre-convention events prior to convention. Duties of the co-coordinator positions would be following:

• Be available for questions and changes prior to and after the pre-convention deadline.
  
• Answer questions from church coordinators and/or congregation coaches.
  
• Organize event coordinators and/or judges for pre-convention events.
  
• Provide event coordinators and/or judges with rubrics and event participant reports.
  
• Report event awards to the awards coordinator no later than convention.

Previous experience in pre-convention coordination is preferred. Some computer or technical skills are required. Time commitment for this position is primarily prior to convention, focusing on the 4 to 6-month duration prior to convention.

Please direct any questions about these positions to Terri Leroy [terrileroy@hoaltc.org].

Display Event Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an additional individual who would be interested in coordinating the Display Event at the convention. Duties of this coordinator position would be following:

• Working with the hotel coordinator to design the layout of all registered display event material before the convention
  
• Organizing materials for church coordinators at the convention before check-in begins Friday. This normally is an all morning task to be prepared by around noon for individuals to start arriving.
  
• Support training judges and volunteers on Friday evening as judging begins
  
• Support assigning awards to participants based on the rubric feedback from the judges

Qualified applicants should have previous experience with the Heart of America LTC convention. Time commitment for this position is approximately 40 hours and requires excellent verbal and written communication skills and access to the internet and e-mail.

Please direct any questions about this position to Bret Battles [bretbattles@hoaltc.org].

Live Christian Drama Event Coordinator

Heart of America Leadership Training for Christ is looking for an additional individual who would be interested in coordinating the Live Christian Drama event at the convention. Primary duties of this coordinator position would be following:
Support training judges and volunteers on Friday evening as judging begins

Support assigning awards to participants based on the rubric feedback from the judges
Qualified applicants should have previous experience with the Heart of America LTC convention. Time commitment for this position is approximately 10 hours and requires excellent verbal and written communication skills and access to the internet and e-mail.

Please direct any questions about this position to Laura Light [lauralight@hoaltc.org].

This date topic has been discussed by different LTC conventions and for many different reasons, one of which the overlap with Easter. As an LTC organization, our statement of purpose (http://www.hoaltc.org/general.html) is "to stimulate and encourage spiritual, mental, and social growth among young men and women in grades three through twelve. Its mission is to achieve this growth by developing skills in leadership, Bible knowledge, and Christian servanthood." Jesus made an important sacrifice to put himself on that cross so he could be raised and we might have life. Before that day, he served those around him every day he was on Earth. I do not want Christians to solely focus on 1 weekend of the year with our activities but rather every day of their lives. Thus LTC is a one aspect of training that can develop this servanthood.

With our convention in Kansas City, many of our congregations do not attend schools that provide a holiday on Good Friday. They purposely remove their children from school such that they can come and glorify God with thousands of others that they may never have seen before. When the convention wraps up on Saturday, most congregations travel home and worship with their local congregations. In fact, some of our board members you copied are responsible for some part of sunrise (or SonRise) services that occur Easter Sunday.

The Heart of America LTC board has investigated moving this away from Easter 3-4 years ago as we prepared to sign our last hotel contract. What we found was that hotel rates almost doubled when this was away from the Easter weekend. This increased financial cost would be a significant burden for our constituents that it would negatively impact those that would normally participate in LTC.

The Heart of America LTC will be studying the books Romans and James for the 2011 Bible Bowl / Bible Quiz. The theme will be "More Than Conquerors" referencing Romans 8:37. This set of books will be a deviation from North Texas LTC and others that will be studying Revelation.

Here is some background on our decision: As a board we communicated with other church coordinators and others in our LTC groups (including our study guide authors) concerning this decision. As you can imagine, we had some supporters and some that were adamantly opposed. As a collective group, many recognized that this would be a difficult book to teach to all ages served by LTC. There is value in such a book but even adults have a difficult time really grasping the symbolism and meaning. How can we teach kids when we ourselves struggle with this part of the Bible? With this, we chose to study other NT books, specifically Romans/James, this next year and then proceed with the 10-year rotation (beginning again with Genesis next year).

The 2010 LTC shirt design is now announced. Many of you have always waited in suspense in the past. Now we have received the design before the ordering deadlines. Here it is:



Please share this with your congregations to let them know what the shirts will look like before they arrive at convention. We will still not order many extras and thus you will want to get all pre-orders in before the event correction deadline.

Karl McDonald, the EC for PowerPoint and Web Design, has relayed a message that those interested may submit their events via email to the computerevents@hoaltc.org email inbox, in lieu of mailing them to his home address. If you want to take advantage of this cost free (no postage) option, please submit 1 entry per email and be sure to include the team sheet in the email. This will ensure Karl is properly awarding all participants on the team for the entry submitted. For any questions on this, email Karl at computerevents@hoaltc.org.

I hope your new year has started off well and your LTC practices are now in full swing. Remember that the Registration Deadline is Friday, February 5. Please have all information entered into the Registration Portal and your check mailed by this date. All participants and volunteers need to be entered so we can assess the numbers for LTC 2010.

For volunteers, they MUST be assigned to an event. It is NOT good enough to just add the names. YOU must assign the names to one or more events because I don't see them otherwise in my reports. Every congregation must provide volunteer names for event or else we cannot have the judges and ambassadors necessary to have a successful LTC convention.

If you have been in the Registration Portal, you have probably been wondering how you could register your hotel rooms. Well...I forgot to add the hotel and room types within the Portal. HOALTC is organizing the hotel rooms again within the Portal. You can now go in and submit your hotel room reservations.

Remember that date of payment (earlier the better) will solidify your guarantee for a hotel suite, in case of a conflict with the hotel. Also, please specify which double or king rooms should be attached to the suite parlors within the room notes. If you do not specify this, I will chose for you.

The year is quickly coming to an end and I know that for many of you LTC is speeding up. Hope all goes well and let me know if you have any questions.

Are you already started for 2010? If so, you have probably already found the 2010 Manual. If not, you can go to the website and find it (http://www.hoaltc.org/manual.html).

For those that may have downloaded version 1.0, there are a few modifications that have been made to 1.1. You can find those changes on the change log page within the entire manual. They are mainly focused around use of the special consideration form now found on the website and required by the Registration Deadline. You can find the question that prompted the change on the blog (http://blog.hoaltc.org).

Also, this email is announcing the 2 Samuel Study Guides are now available online as well. We apologize for the delay this year. You can find the Study Guides for Bible Bowl and Bible quiz on the website at http://www.hoaltc.org/studyguides.html.

Last, but not least, you should be aware that we have modified email addresses to reduce the increased spam over the last few months. Please note the changes and start to use the new addresses for any communication with myself or other LTC individuals.

This was a topic with which we prayerfully struggled when we launched HOALTC. Most of us had participated in another LTC convention that did not permit males in the room when females were involved in several events. While we appreciated the rationale behind this, we also knew that often the fathers, youth ministers, and others who had trained those young women had a legitimate desire and/or need to support them through the judging process. It seemed to put our young women at a disadvantage when our boys were provided that full opportunity for support from their coaches and family members, while the girls were not.

That, coupled with the difficulty we face in finding women who feel qualified to judge this event, led us to have a more open stance for these events. We are ever mindful that these experiences are intended to be training opportunities and are not actual worship services.

If you do have some young women who would opt not to participate in any of these events because of this issue, please let us know by submitting a Special Consideration Form at the time of registration and we will see what can be done to accommodate them.

Hope all is well and you are getting ready for convention. I wanted to take a minute to remind you of 2 upcoming deadlines.

The Hotel Correction Deadline is this Friday, March 13, another dreaded Friday the 13th. Please have all your hotel rooms ordered and names of occupants assigned. After this date, no refunds for hotel rooms can be granted. I will be providing the list to the hotel next week based on the data you have entered.

The Event Correction Deadline is the following Friday, March 20. After this date, the convention schedule will be finalized and the events organized and communicated. You will not be allowed to add additional teams or participants to invidividual events. You may add individuals to team events by contacting me. Please also have all volunteers scheduled for events. The event schedules (volunteers and partipants) will be posted to the website before the convention for sharing with your congregations.

We still have the need for additional volunteers. Here is the current list of open positions. Without your support, your kids may not get the proper feedback they deserve.

Friday Christian Art Drawing 3 - 12
Saturday 08:00 - 09:30 Puppets 10 - 12
Saturday 08:00 - 09:30 Signing 7 - 9
Saturday 08:00 - 09:30 Song Leading 7 - 9
Saturday 11:00 - 12:30 Signing 3 - 6
Saturday 11:00 - 12:30 Song Leading 3 - 6
Saturday 02:30 - 04:00 Live Christian Drama 3 - 6
Saturday 02:30 - 04:00 Small Chorus 10 - 12
Saturday 04:00 - 05:30 Large Chorus 3 - 6
Saturday 04:00 - 05:30 Live Christian Drama 10 - 12
Saturday 04:00 - 05:30 Small Chorus 7 - 9