GroopBlog

On Friday night, we packed ourselves into American flight 1508’s seats 22 E and F, with just enough elbow room to continue to pinch ourselves, still wondering if all the blessings that had been packed into last week were for real. We can’t begin to say enough good about Saddleback Church, their campus, their attention to detail, their friendly volunteer staff, and their very knowledgeable yet humble pastoral staff. This was Groopik’s first conference ever to attend as an exhibitor, and I believe Saddleback’s warm welcome spoiled us for future events.

We were so blessed by all the people we met. We got to know some great people from other ministries that were close to our booth. It was great to mingle with others who are also passionate about small group ministry - Dan from SmallGroups.com, thanks for all the great advice. Phil from Serendipity, thanks for the great restaurant recommendation. Pete and Kristi from Excellerate, thanks for the frappuccino and the fun. And Sam and Cory from Christianity Today, thanks for the tip on the Camtasia software that will allow us to finally produce the quality tutorials we’ve been striving for.

It was also great to meet pastors who are in the trenches, excited to build community in their churches. We met pastors from all over the States, and some from Brazil, Austrailia, Spain and others as well. I, the “Gringa” who grew up in rural Illinois was so proud to be able to enthusiastically greet the Spaniards with my “what-I-thought-was-fluent” Spanish I had learned as a missionary. I was immediately humbled as I realized my Spanish was fluent for general conversation, but not for web application terminology. Luckily, Cristian the Chilean bailed me out, and I kept my Spanish to myself the rest of the day.

Other exhibitors commented that this conference’s attendees seemed more hungry than usual to find the right tools for their small group ministries. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to their specific situations and receiving the input from them that is only going to make our product better. We’re already making a few tweaks based on the input we received. We came home with one overriding conclusion though, which is also based on the feedback we received from pastors at the conference, and that is, we are really proud of and excited about what Groopik has to offer. There is other small group management software out there that does not have the connection tool that Groopik has for every member of your small group ministry. Likewise, there are a gazillion social networks out there that help people connect. (Unfortunately, they help you connect to a few things you never wanted to connect to…) Groopik is the perfect union of the two, helping pastors manage, and helping small group members connect within the accountability that their church’s small group ministry provides. We are honored to be a tool that connects the body of Christ, and we are excited to see just how God is going to use us.

Is this for real? Here in the Groopik office, we’re beginning to wonder if we’re living a new twist on the famous children’s story – The Little Engine That Could. It goes something like this….

Once upon a couple weeks ago, we were really excited about this nice “train” of step-by-step video tutorials we have scripted and ready to “pull up the hill” (which means, post on our website, for you literal folk). These tutorials will give members, group leaders and administrators everything you need to know to be an expert Groopik user. So we’ve asked (I believe the count is now at) five different “engines” (screen capture software) to pull these tutorials to their destination. Each has given us a different reason as to why it’s not able to complete the task. Now we believe we may have found the “Little Engine (software) That Could”. However…we’ve watched it slowly chug down the video rendering track, and we even help it say, “I think I can, I think I can….”, but just before it “reaches the top of the hill” (renders a very nice video), it crashes every time. So…we contacted the little engine’s maker, and he said he knows it has problems, and that hopefully with a little elbow grease he’ll have this little engine working properly by the end of this week. So, the moral of this story? We’ll be patient with the engine (software) maker and pray that we’ll reap what we sow.

It’s an exciting time in the Groopik office. We just received the approval to be one of the exhibitors at Saddleback’s 2007 Small Groups Conference that will be held on Feb 20-22. We’re working on our display strategy, which will hopefully be a lot smoother than the “non-strategy” I used to get us into the conference. I’ll explain…

I’m Caryn. I’m the “technologically-challenged” woman married to Groopik’s developer, Cristian. Up until December, my part in Groopik consisted of coming up with the name and logo, choosing colors for the design, and doing the typical “man’s chores” around the house while Cristian was coding. I bring great value to the Groopik team in the area of testing for “user-friendliness”, which basically means, if I can use the system, anyone can. So back to my non-strategy story…

I called Saddleback to see if we could exhibit our system at the conference and was quickly directed to Ron Wilbur, the Associate Director of Small Groups. I asked him if they were having exibitors at the conference, and he asked me what we had to offer, so I asked him if he was near a computer. He was, so I directed him to login to our demo account so I could give him a walk-through of our system. It was at that very moment that panic set in as I realized I had heard my husband explain Groopik a million times, but I had never done it myself. “Um…um…this is our Reports page. Um…uh…here’s where you see your reports.” (brilliant explanation) Then I froze some more, and had him click on the News tab, which we think it’s neat that you can post news, but it’s definitely not the coolest thing about Groopik. After I stuttered and ummed for a few more minutes, he ever so kindly helped me out and said, “Okay, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you have to offer.” He was very kind and encouraged me some more, and after discussing a few details, we left it that I would call him back later. I hung up the phone and cried out of total embarrassment. How could I not explain this way cool, incredibly easy-to-use tool my husband and I had lived for the past year? I was sure that Saddleback would say no to this flaky woman, but when I called back, once again Ron was very encouraging, and long story short, we’ll be there! Two things certainly took place that day. One, Ron Wilbur soared to the top of my heroes list for being so gracious. And two, I spent the rest of the day learning how to easily explain the Groopik that’s easy to use. I’m actually pretty good at it now. Swing by our booth, and I’ll tell you all about it.

In Dec 2006, we launched Groopik.com. This came after 7 months of “after hours” development. My day/weekend job is Media Director at NorthWood Church in Keller, TX. In 2006, I didn’t seem to get enough of web development and creative brainstorming from 9-5, so coding became my life. Actually, I love my job at NW, and plan to be there for a good long while, but even as a kid, I dreamed of running my own business one day.
The idea for Groopik took form out of a wish list we had for our small group ministry at NorthWood. There were obvious “make-my-life-easier” features on the list, like receiving instant reports, assigning actions to leaders, helping visitors easily find groups, etc…but in a nutshell, here’s what we wanted: