Hello fellow CCNI Members!
I am Debbie Fawcett, one of your Membership Directors with CCNI. I wanted to share a little about how I got involved with CCNI. I also want to encourage you to take advantage of all your member benefits. We value our members and we believe in coaching.
I first heard about CCNI within a few weeks of starting my coach training classes with PCCI. They were offering special pricing, so I joined right away. The first event I signed up for was Cheryl Scanlan’s coaching demo. Wow! I couldn’t believe the masterful coaching. The debrief time after the coaching demo was so full of information, too. I took four pages of notes! I was blown away that members could participate in events like this. Another favorite event is Gary Wood’s Mastermind. The first time I participated I noticed his humble spirt coming through in how he helped every single person on the call that day. If you have not had the opportunity to participate in these events, I would highly encourage you to sign up. If you are not able to be there for the live event, check out the Library section on our website to listen to past events. (Please note that the monthly mastermind events are not recorded as they may contain personal or confidential information.)
Last summer, I volunteered to help Cathy Lee, the 2017 Membership Director. We called, emailed, or played phone tag with every member in our database. I loved talking one-on-one with coaches across the country. Some coaches were brand new and some had years of coaching experience. Everyone gave us feedback that was so helpful. It was such a great experience for me that I decided to put my name in the hat to join the board on the Membership team. I was excited to be part of helping Christian coaches in this way.
Working with my Membership Co-Director, Paul Olmstead, has been a blessing. We have accomplished quite a bit in the last six months and there is more to come. But I’ll let Paul share more about that. Keep the ideas coming! We love to hear from our members.
I (Paul) joined CCNI in 2013 to learn more about this idea of coaching, and specifically coaching missionaries. I served for almost six years
with Ethnos360 (formerly New Tribes Mission) as their Ministry Partnership Development (MPD) Trainer and Coach. Prior to that, I served for over a year as a Job Coach Supervisor for J P Morgan Chase Bank. In late 2016, Michael Marx asked me to join the 2017 CCNI Board of Directors as the Director of Educational Enrichment; and, in 2018, I moved to Co-Director of Membership.
Debbie and I just finished coordinating the very first CCNI internal membership drive where current members were able to win prizes by referring new members. It was very successful (15 new members)! We have also been updating all the different emails and letters that are sent to members. Another event we hosted was our very first New Member Orientation and Q&A forum over Zoom. It was a lot of fun meeting those members and showing them their benefits. This fall we are looking to hold a public membership drive, utilizing social media and other avenues to attract new coaches to become members. We have a very solid following on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (2100+) and are hoping and praying to encourage more of these folks to join CCNI.
One of the things I have learned as a member of CCNI is that as a member I am also an “owner”. CCNI is a non-profit, member-managed organization. No one person owns CCNI. We do (members)! This means for CCNI to be successful, it requires all of us to be actively involved. As a member, we can be involved in attending the educational opportunities (masterminds, continuing education classes, and other events). Members can be involved on committees or even serve on the Board of Directors. There are also opportunities to write for our newsletter and become a part of networking groups (in the works). I would encourage every member to be involved. You control what you get out of your CCNI membership through active involvement.
In closing, we are seeking members who are willing to serve on the board and committees. There are currently nine board roles: membership, credentialing, strategy, education, secretary, treasurer, president elect, president, and immediate past president. We also need people to help with marketing and technology. If you are interested in serving, please contact Kelly McClelland, CCNI Immediate Past President, as he leads the search committee for these roles. You may contact Kelly at director@christiancoaches.com.
