TESTIMONIALS

I have been coming to the Church Office Professional’s Conference for nearly 20 years.  It is a chance to learn about how other churches do things.  It’s a solitary job and this conference offers support, networking and renewal.  The people who attend build both professional and personal relationships that extend long after the conference is over.  These connections have made a difference.  It’s the people who keep me coming back!

The Church Office Professional (COPS) conference is invaluable to me!  Over the last 12 years, I have learned so much by attending the conference.  Each year, the speakers focus on a specific topic to help make our jobs easier.  The Networking session focuses on specific issues that any attendee can bring up with the other COPS offering suggestions and/or solutions.  This willingness of all to help each other creates a bond that has not been broken!  By attending, we are able to network through email all year long as well as share documents or policies that can be adapted to your church.  The intimate setting of the Craigville Retreat Center is conducive to conversing and getting to know each other.  I look forward to seeing and working with my friends each year…and maybe even meet some new friends! – Nadine

This is my second year.  What brought me back was the connection and kindness with other Church Office Professionals.  I immediately felt part of the group when I started last year, especially when I found that most church office professionals in attendance started off with other jobs within the church like Sexton or Teacher.  I was welcomed from the first minute of arrival like we were all sisters already.  I made new friends that have the same unique job as me and can email and text them with questions that they know right off what I am talking about or having trouble with and can give me suggestions or guide me to learn something new or improve on what we already know.  At the end of my 1st year conference, I volunteered for the next year’s planning committee which allowed us to work together as a team, using our gifted skills, to create, build on our ideas/needs, and then attend the conference we planned for our unique jobs! – Deb

In 2012, when I started working at the Second Church of Plymouth, I was lacking any kind of reference for questions pertaining to my job.  In 2014, I attended my first church secretaries conference and automatically had access to over 40 references.  Over the past 10 years, we have had speakers for mental health, time management, dealing with elderly parishioners and technology, among other topics.  Networking with the other office professionals is my favorite part of the conference.  No one else has a job like we do.  Every church secretary should do this! – Debra Sue