How one Diocese Improved Interaction with its Leaders

We recently spoke with Derek McDonald, who works in the Diocese of Manchester. He supports the faith formation of families across the diocese.

“We were looking for a tool for the directors to be able to communicate directly with group leaders at the parish level,” Derek said. “We needed a tool to communicate with them in a more dynamic way. Flocknote filled that need for us.”

“Folks here at the diocese are really excited about what we’re doing,” said Derek.

Using the Survey Feature to Gauge Interest

Recently Derek’s department sent an email via Flocknote to their catechetical leaders at the parish level to gauge interest in a potential workshop they wanted to host for them this summer. They sent an email with a few details about the workshop and the potential dates for the workshop, asking their leaders to give feedback on (a) if they would be interested in this and (b) if so, if the dates would work.

Excerpt from Derek’s Flocknote email asking for interest in the potential workshop.

Immediately they received a stream of comments from their catechetical leaders expressing their opinion.

“The good news is we found out there was a ton of interest and it was helpful to find out the dates we had picked would not work,” Derek said. “Based on the cross-section of feedback we got in the comments section, we decided to pencil in a different date for the workshop.”

Derek said this is exactly the kind of dynamic interaction they are looking for with their church leaders across the diocese. He said moving forward they may try to encourage people to communicate with each other through the comments.

“What I think is most exciting about the texts [from Flocknote] is the URL [at the end of the text] people can click on to comment and communicate with each other.”

Using Flocknote to Communicate with Staff

Derek said the use of Flocknote has also increased the communication within his department at the Diocese.

“Using Flocknote has helped our department to communicate regularly to get information out about upcoming events.”

What they enjoy most about Flocknote is the flexibility it offers the group admins. Recently a coworker of his used Flocknote to send important information regarding the diocesan celebration of the Rite of Election to all the catechetical leaders and pastors. The department was really pleased to see the analytics showing the percentage of people that opened their Flocknote email, due to the time sensitive and important information their email contained.

Derek also used Flocknote at the parish level in the past.

“It empowers group leaders to play an active role in development of ministries,” said Derek. “I think it is such a valuable tool if people are intentional and use it well.”

Have you or your church done something really creative through Flocknote? If so, send us an email at help@flocknote.com and tell us more! You might just be the subject of our next “Flocknotable.”