Former commissioner offers ‘GA HELP’ to this year’s class

Former commissioner offers
‘GA HELP’ to this year’s class

By Edward Terry, The Layman, June 6, 2010

In anticipation of the first “paperless” Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly, Charlotte, N.C. pastor and 2008 GA commissioner Robert Austell wants to ensure that participants are fully equipped for the strenuous week.
 
Hoping to help GA commissioners sort through an immense amount of information on dozens of complicated issues, in addition to an exhausting schedule of meetings, events and votes, Austell created the GA HELP Web site. The idea grew out of his own GA experience in 2008, when he spent much time scrambling to help other commissioners navigate the PC-Biz Web site, where overtures, reports and actions are posted.
 
“The biggest surprise for me was realizing how hard it was for the average commissioner to follow what was going on,” Austell said of his first GA experience. “I spent a fair amount of time going up and down my row helping people. … The average commissioner is an older adult who isn’t necessarily familiar with computers – it’s a struggle to track all of this business.”
 
When the assembly meets in Minneapolis, Minn., this July, PC-Biz will completely replace the voluminous commissioner binders stuffed with paper copies of essential information. Commissioners’ only option for information and to track business will be PC-Biz.
 
In 2008, Austell also observed that only a few commissioners had a deep knowledge on many of the issues that came to the floor. He began wondering if there was a resource that could help.
 
“Few of the commissioners around me really knew much of what was out there and the various viewpoints,” he said, adding that much of the business was presented without much context. “A lot of times they were just responding to who was presenting the item of business. I’m thinking ‘there are all kinds of resources out there if you know where to find them.’”                                           GA HELP Web Site
 
As pastor of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church and former moderator of Charlotte Presbytery, Austell reads information from a variety of online publications and blogs. He doesn’t limit himself to one particular point of view, and over the years has amassed quite a list of information sources that he regularly checks. Knowing how that information digest helped him at the 2008 GA, Austell wanted to share.
 
“All of this is stuff I read on a regular basis,” he said. “I’ve taken it from my e-mail and RSS reader and put it up on a page so other people can see what I see. You get a broader sense of what’s out there reading blogs and that sort of thing … it’s more ear to the ground information.”
 
Simple to use and easy to navigate, GA HELP has dozens of links to GA-related resources and media that cover the PCUSA. In addition to a topical resource pool, GA HELP also breaks down business according to the 19 GA committees. Austell also provides a live feed to PCUSA-related topics on Twitter and Austell’s own “Top 25” list of news and commentary sites. 
 
GA HELP launched in late May, and Austell already is hearing back from appreciative users, he said. Aside from his personal time, the only expense has been the $9 he spent to purchase the “gahelp.net” URL. As helpful as it is, Austell isn’t planning to keep the site online very long after the GA ends.
 
“It will be a good resource for sessions and pastors to see the range of response to GA,” he added.
 
For more information about GA HELP, e-mail Robert Austell at robert@gahelp.net, or check out the site at www.gahelp.net.