About Rotation.org & Support Info
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Rotation.org
is a volunteer run website and non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting the Workshop Rotation
Model for Christian education. We rely on church and individual
donations to pay for the website, and to pay for our part-time
coordinator position. Donations keep this site and all its content
freely available to all.
Others have stepped
forward in the past to make this website a reality.
Is it your
church's turn to support Rotation.org?
Please write
a check payable to:
Rotation.org Inc.
and mail it to:
Rotation Fund
c/o
Tanja Rouintree, Treasurer
428 W. Maple
Nevada, MO 64772
The average donation
is about $75 to $100 per church.
View a list of contributors
here.
There is no charge
for using Rotation.org website content or for becoming a member
of the Ideas & Lesson Exchange. This site will always be
FREE to anyone who wants to use it. However, it is not free
to maintain the site and afford our much needed coordinators.
We appreciate any help you can give.
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Who
is Rotation.org?
 Rotation.org
is a group effort! Hundreds of volunteers, educators, and pastors
have collaborated to bring you this site. A volunteer Board of Directors
oversees the website and finances.
Rotation.org Inc. Board Members:
Jaymie
Derden, Elementary Coordinator at State St. UMC in Bristol VA,
Board Secretary.
Carol Hulbert,
Rotation Teacher and writer at First UMC Church Ann Arbor MI, and
currently our Board President.
Julie Burton,
Director of Congregational Resources for Eastern
Oklahoma Presbytery, Rotation.org Treasurer.
Tanja Rouintree,
CE coordinator at the Presbyterian Church in Nevada Missouri,
incoming Board Treasurer.
Neil MacQueen,
Rotation.org Founder, Presbyterian minister. Rotation.org webmaster.
Ken and Phyllis Wezeman,
coordinator@rotation.org are our paid part-time coordinators and are also members
of the Board.
We
are a 501c3 non-profit corporation.
Accounting oversight is provided by Bass, Solomon & Dowell, CPAs,
Palatine IL.
Welcome Tanja Rouintree, our incoming Treasurer and newest Board
Member...
Tanja, her husband and 2 kids live in
Nevada, Missouri, 90 miles south of Kansas City.
She has a degree in education, and has received lay pastor
training from the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. In June of 2003 she joined
rotation.org to begin planning a rotation program at her
Presbyterian church in Nevada. 15 months later they launched
Faith Village. She is now the paid coordinator of the
program. Tanja is a quilter and avid reader.
Tanja will be replacing Julie Burton who
is rotating off the board. Julie worked hard to set up
Rotation.org Inc's accounting procedures and helped shepherd
us through the incorporation process.
Thanks Julie!
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Ken and
Phyllis Wezeman
are our
part-time paid Resource Coordinators. Ken is a Christian
educator, publisher, writer, editor and former resource center
staff person. Now a Presbyterian, Ken pastored a Christian Reformed
church for seven years and was on staff at the Parish Resource
Center in Mishawaka Indiana. In addition to his publishing work,
Ken is technology coordinator for Hope Rescue Mission in South
Bend and an amateur radio operator. Phyllis Wezeman is
a nationally known CE author and seminar presenter, and is herself
is a Rotation educator at First Pres South Bend. We are truly
blessed with their talent.
What
our Paid Part-Time Coordinators Do:
Ken
and Phyllis's job is to be available to those seeking Rotation
help. They send out our monthly email newsletter, answer the
site's voluminous email, oversee web content, and organize and edit our
volunteer writing team.
Ken
and Phyllis also put in a lot of time working with our Writing
Team Project. About 14 educators, pastors and volunteer
teachers are working together with Ken and Phyllis' help to create
Rotation curriculum for this website. The Writing Team makes
their curriculum available to all through this website for
free. It's truly a 21st Century way to share our various
expertise with literally thousands of Rotation churches who
can't write their own, or enjoy the creative level and integrity
our Team achieves.
The Cost of Running this Site
When Rotation.org first began, it was all done out of the pocket of
its founder. Then a few friends chipped in to help pay the
web-hosting bills. As we've expanded, the webhosting bills have
grown quite a bit. The servers behind our Lesson Exchange are
powerful and feature amazing software. And some of the special
scripting at this site is done by professional web folks. Still, the
technical stuff doesn't cost as much as you would think... about
$2000 a year.
Our biggest commitment of funds is to pay for our coordinators. They
deal with requests for help that flood this site. They also keep the
volunteer Board of Directors organized. One of our Coordinators'
biggest contribution is toward the Writing Team which produces free
Rotation curriculum each year. We pay our coordinators to manage the
volunteer writers and professionally edit the "free" lessons. Of
course, the Wezemans are professional writers and editors! So
we feel we're getting a bargain.
From time to time we spend money to create content that directly
benefits the users of this site. For example, the free Flash
presentation was paid for out of the Fund. Rounding out our annual
expenses are things like accounting and tax expenses, and expenses
related to our annual board meeting.
In 2008, we want to produce "free" online Teacher Training
presentations. These will be presentations you can send your new
teachers to online, or download and hand to them on a CD.
All totaled, it takes about $16,000 a year to operate this site. In
2008, we want to raise an additional $5000. Given the large number
of people visiting this website and using its materials, we
think that's incredibly reasonable amount to ask and shouldn't be
hard to raise IF everyone "takes their turn" making a donation.
Many
churches put us in their annual budget because they know
Rotation.org is saving them a ton of curriculum money, and because
they appreciate the mission-forward aspect of what we're
trying to do.
Who handles the cash?
Until the Spring of 2005, Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh
PA faithfully managed the Fund. In the summer of 2005 we incorporated and re-established the Fund
under the management of Bass, Solomon and Dowell CPAs in Palatine
Illinois who work with our treasurer. Donations pay for the Coordinator position, site hosting
and domain name services, special projects, accounting costs, plus the occasional need to create
or update our website's functionality.
History of Rotation.org
www.rotation.org began in the Fall of
1997 as a means of freely distributing the original Workshop
Model Manual produced by Neil MacQueen and Melissa Hansche at
the Presbyterian Church of Barrington Illinois. Neil created
the website and posted the manual along with a few articles and
some free lesson plans. (The manual has since evolved into a
book published by Presbyterian Publishing).
Click here for a more detailed
history of the Rotation model and movement.
As the Internet
began to flourish, several of us who were contributing content
to rotation.org recognized the great potential of an Internet
site to inform, resource, and create connections between Rotation
educators. The website was also an answer to the small avalanche
of phonecalls about the Rotation Model that Neil and other churches
were experiencing.
1999
saw Rotation churches
contributing a ton of free lesson materials. In the summer of
'99 an email newsletter and Web bulletin board were added. The
"Ideas Exchange" bulletin board and Lessons Exchange
are designed to explore something completely new in Christian
Education: using web technology to allow educators to share
with each other.
In 1999 and 2000
the site grew and grew, not only in content, but in the number
of people who were using it. So in
2001, Neil and several
other educators started the Rotation.org Fund so that
we could afford the expanding site and make much needed improvements.
At that time the Fund was accounted for by a volunteer church which held the
bag for us, received contributions and paid the bills. At about
that same time the Rotation.org Advisory Team was created. This
is a group of 3 Rotation.org users and Christian educators who
work on a consensus basis to spend the money, establish policies
and practices. Membership on the Team was by the invitation of
previous Team members, and terms last for two or three years.
In 2002 a generous
grant from 1st Pres Birmingham Michigan allowed us to add a part-time
Coordinator position and update the Lesson Exchange software.
Since then Rotation.org has made an annual appeal to the "Friends of Rotation.org" via email that allows us
to continue the Coordinator position and maintain the website. In 2004 we
were able to hire a part-time "Exchange Gardener" to help clean up the
message boards and reorganize them. In 2004, over a dozen volunteer
gardeners (moderators) took on "upkeep" responsibilities for various
areas of the Exchange.
In 2005
Rotation.org Inc. was created as a
501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. We
are now overseen by a five-member board and have a CPA firm managing the
Fund and auditing the account.
Rotation.org
is not only a resource, it is a radical experiment in resourcing -supported
by volunteers. We are demonstrating a new way of creating curriculum and
sharing resources with each other.
And we continue to push the envelope.
Rotation.org is not
officially affiliated with any one particular Rotation group.
Rotation.org is not
connected with any publisher, denomination, and is not
officially connected to Children's Ministries of America group
-a which offers national rotation conferences. Rotation.org is not officially
connected with Sunday Software Inc.
whose owner (Neil MacQueen) originally created the rotation.org
website and who is on the Rotation.org Board of Directors.
There is no fee
to belong to the Rotation.org community. It's open to all.
Who owns the domain
name and the materials?
Neil
MacQueen is the registered domain name owner for
www.rotation.org as Neil is
webmaster for the site. In 2005, Neil transferred rights to the domain
name to Rotation.org Inc and the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors approves all expenses and manages the
Fund. ALL materials at this website belong to the author(s)
named with each piece. They have complete copyright control over
their work and can request that it be deleted or modified at
anytime. At NO time will the information gathered at this site
(currently only via the email news subscriptions) be used for
commercial purposes.
8 ways you can support
Rotation.org:
1. Share lesson materials
by posting them in the Lesson Exchange.
2. Browse postings and
add your ideas to others.
3. Join the Volunteer Writing
Team.
4. Make a donation to continue
to maintain and improve this website.
5. Make a larger donation
to continue the ministry of our Part-time Resource Coordinator.
6. Suggest
new topics, changes and additions to the Ideas Exchange message
boards and the Articles database.
7. Contribute your creative
Rotation photos.
8. Add your church's name
and contact info to the CONTACT directory here so that others in your area can connect
with you.
For more information about any
of these items, email
our Resource Coordinator.
Questions?
Contact the Rotation.org Resource Coordinator
Question about Supporting this Website? Contact
We-support@rotation.org
Click
here to view the most recent financial statement
Click
here to read the Rotation.org Mission Statement
Board of Directors:
Carol Hulbert, Chair
Neil MacQueen,
Rotation.org webmaster
Tanja Rouintree,
Treasurer
Jaymie Derden,
Exchange Moderator
Ken and Phyllis Wezeman,
Rotation.org Coordinators, coordinator@rotation.org
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