Looking for United Methodist Lay Members to be interviewed by phone, particularly teens & young adults

The Martec Group is conducting a variety of phone interviews for the Connectional Table, an organization within the United Methodist Church. We are currently trying to find lay members to participate. Please forward this email to any members you think might be interested in being interviewed or please just make them aware of our research. We set up interview times convenient to them. We are particularly looking for younger members if possible, but will accept any interested individuals.

By younger, we mean anyone younger than 45 years of age. We would ideally like to conduct interviews with 1-2 per congregation because we need to spread out our interviews throughout the country.

The project is outlined below in detail and I have also included a link to the UMC web site article about us.

My name is Ashley Holz and I can be reached at 1-888-811-5771

Information about the Project
The Connectional Table of the UMC will develop and distribute an annual State of the Church Report. The first of these will be completed in 2006.

As a supplement to the State of the Church Report, the Connectional Table will stimulate, encourage and support energetic and fruitful conversations across the Connection.

The purpose of these conversations is to help the Connectional Table:
* Further define the current realities (signs of strength and weakness) in the life and ministries of the Church.
* Claim and honor the strengths of the heritage and work of the Church.
* Examine proposals for areas of concentrated attention and accountability that will be the stepping stones for advancing the story of faithful witness and service.

The research will explore and describe the thoughts, feelings, values, and judgments of a cross-section of people who participate in and lead The United Methodist Church.

The Martec Group will conduct the survey on behalf of the UMC. The Martec Group is an international research company located in the USA, Europe, and Asia. The Martec Group in the US will be conducting some of the interviews in person and some over the phone.

To fulfill the requirements of the survey, The Martec staff will contact both leadership and members of the UMC for the purpose of conducting personal and telephone interviews. Martec's success in conducting interviews is highly dependent on the support and cooperation of pastors, members and lay-leaders. More specifically, their assistance is crucial to help find and get in contact with active and inactive members, whose participation and feedback is of great importance.

We have been calling on this project for several weeks and have had the opportunity to have many in-depth phone discussions with middle age and older members of the church. We very much would like to include the voice of younger United Methodists in our research. We have not had much response from younger people so far. If you can provide us with any assistance, we would very much appreciate the help.

The Martec Group has been commissioned by the Connectional Table, a worldwide organization within the United Methodists Church to conduct this project. Some of our findings and input will be incorporated into the State of the Church report. Information regarding our research can be found on the UMC web site:

http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.1806755/k.BA88/Research_firm_explores_state_of_the_United_Methodist_Church.htm
http://mail.martecgroup.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.umc.org/site/c.gjJTJbMUIuE/b.1806755/k.BA88/Research_firm_explores_state_of_the_United_Methodist_Church.htm

Unfortunately, we are unable to share direct results of our study with you as you requested because we have been commissioned by the Connectional Table and as such need to provide information directly to them. In addition, at this point, we are still in the interviewing process and have not begun analysis. I understand your interest in the research and report findings. It is our understanding that The Connectional Table will take some of the information we provide and publish a report themselves that will be distributed church-wide by spring of next year.

This first phase of research is qualitative and the second phase will be quantitative. We are asking free-flowing questions regarding members experience...what they like, what attracts them to their church in general, etc. There is no preparation needed for those we interview. The interview last between 20-30 minutes.

If you are able to distribute this email to others, we would greatly appreciate it. We really would like to make sure that what the young people are thinking is captured.

Please do not hesitate to call Ashley with any questions - The Martec Group at 1-888-811-5771 or email Ashley at Ashley.holz@martecgroup.com

http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=6&mid=11283

http://mail.martecgroup.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?

http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=6%26mid=11283

Kind Regards,
Ashley Holz