Hosting Coordinator Duties
Set Training Dates
The very first thing in planning for a training is to determine when your space and your teachers
are available. It is also important to plan around holidays and other local, regional and national
events.
Reserve Space
You will need a well-equipped Godly Play room, which you can prepare between now
and the time of your training, and another room where participants can sit comfortably
in a circle of chairs. Please keep in mind that this second space will need to be a larger
space for trainings with 24 or more people.
If you are holding a 24-person Core training, you will need a second Godly Play room or
a room that will allow for people to sit in a Godly Play circle for participant storytelling.
Additionally there will need to be spaces for small group story practice for the number
of participants attending the training. You will also need an area with tables and chairs
to serve and enjoy meals together.
Easy transitions between the various spaces make for a more relaxed training.
Talk with Your Potential Participants
Make sure that your teachers are available on the dates you choose to hold your
training. You could also send out some feelers to other local Godly Play folks to see if
they are available on the dates you are considering.
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Determine Training Type
Your local Trainer or Training Coordinator at the Godly Play Foundation can assist in
determining which training type will best meet your training needs and the training needs of
your region. Be sure to let her know about your program history, about your teachers and
about your program goals.
Set Times
Work with your Trainers to decide upon mutually agreeable starting and ending training times.
Let the Training Coordinator know as soon as you have collectively agreed upon a schedule.
Times
Core trainings most often cover a Thursday or Friday evening and the next two full days.
A Friday - Sunday training typically begins after Sunday morning worship to allow
participants to attend their own service and then starts after lunch and continues
through the evening.
Extended Introduction length trainings are typically a Friday evening and then all day
Saturday.
Workshops are typically most of the day on Saturday or a Sunday afternoon.
Meals
Core trainings include a dinner the first night and then lunch the next two days.
Extended Introduction trainings provide lunch day two and may include dinner the first
night.
Lunch does not need to be provided at workshops but may be served at the host’s
discretion.
Networking
This is one of the most important duties of the Hosting Coordinator. In a Type I training, the
number of participants will directly affect your cost to train your own teachers.
The Training Coordinator will provide a link to a pdf brochure to email and post online.
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If you are a church, your first call should be to your Diocese or local or regional denominational
organization. Local and regional religious organizations can be one of the most helpful ways to
spread the word about your training. It is also important for them to be aware of your training
as they are often coordinating trainings around the region.
Next, send out an email with the brochure link to colleagues, acquaintances and other Godly
Play contacts. Ask your webmaster to post news of the training on your website along with a
link to the brochure. Also be sure to get training event information included in any of your
church’s programs, handouts or newsletters that may go out to interested people.
Think about places that you can distribute the brochure, and carry a few with you to meetings
and other events. Best of all, talk to everyone you know about your Godly Play training! You
will be surprised to learn how many parishes have a Godly Play program or are interested in
starting one.
Be prepared for emails and telephone calls from potential participants needing information. Be
helpful when you can assist and refer them to Training Coordinator for any registration
questions.
Welcome Letter
Right away, you will need to write a Welcome Letter on your letterhead and send it to Training
Coordinator as a pdf. The Training Coordinator will send your letter to participants shortly
before training, and it will serve as their guide to your church and your location. Please include
important information such as:
1. A map to your church;
2. Where to meet for training once at your church;
3. Options for lodging, which may include hotels, hostels, parish hosts or room blocks
at reduced rates that you have arranged;
4. Places to eat or to visit;
5. Anything else that may make your participants feel more welcomed and
comfortable while visiting your town and your church.
Hosts’ Participants
As soon as possible, please have your own teachers register through the Host Church
registration option. It is important to have them register soon after registration opens so that
enough spaces are held for your teachers.
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Godly Play Classroom Preparation
Work with your Trainer(s) to ensure that you have the necessary materials for your training.
Please be aware that you may need to acquire additional materials to bring your room up to
standard. To assist in the room assessment process, your Trainers may ask you to send digital
photographs of your Godly Play room.
Godly Play Resources offers all hosting organizations a one-time 10% off discount to prepare for
trainings. The Training Coordinator will send the discount code to you; please let her know if
you have not received your discount and are ready to make a purchase.
If your church has not previously consulted with a Godly Play Foundation Trainer, you are
feeling uncertain about your room(s), or you are a first-time host, you may choose to invest in a
Trainer Consultation to ensure that your environment is standardized and ready for training.
For Type I public trainings, this is a requirement for first-time hosts although it may be waived.
Meals
Meals may be catered, pre-ordered take-out, purchased from Costco or from a deli, made by
other parishioners, or any combination thereof. Oftentimes other groups at a parish will
volunteer their time and energy to make and serve meals—it is a great way for people not in
the classroom to support the church’s children’s programming!
Also be sure to provide snacks throughout the day. You will be surprised how much energy is
expended by being so open for hours at a time! Bowls of nuts, bagels and spreads, coffee and
tea, scones or baked goods all make fabulous pick-me-ups. Please also ensure that water is
available at all times.
Helping Hand
If you are attending the training as well as hosting it, you will definitely want to secure a helping
hand on the dates of training so that you do not need to leave the circle to act as host. A
helping hand to greet and direct latecomers and prepare snacks and meals will ensure that you
are not missing pieces of the training by trying to be in more than one place at a time!
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Trainer Lodging + Ground Transportation
You may request Trainers that are amenable to being housed by a parishioner or the Trainers
may stay in a commercial establishment. Work with the Training Coordinator to determine the
best fit for your training. You will book and pay for the room(s); be sure to retain your original
receipts for payment after the training.
If your Trainers are flying in, please make arrangements for your Trainers’ ground
transportation to and from the airport and to and from the church for the actual training.
Oftentimes the hosting coordinator does this personally or finds a parishioner or participant to
do the driving.
Notebooks
Work with your Trainers on notebooks. You may need to purchase three-ring binders or
portfolios to house the training notebook contents. Approximately a month before the
training, we should have solid enough participant numbers to make this purchase and get
started on the notebooks.
Currently the notebook contents, including a schedule, are supplied by your Trainers. Work
with your Trainers to secure these documents at least two weeks before the training event.
These documents will need to be copied and put into the notebooks. Sometimes hosts use tabs
or colored paper as dividers to make the contents more accessible. Depending on your
notebook style, a cover is also an option.
Certificates
The night before the last day of your training, you will need to print out certificates with the
name of each participant completing training. The week of training, Training Coordinator will
send you the template, currently a PowerPoint file. Please use thicker paper and a nice printer
to print the certificates.
At the Training Event
Hospitality
You are charged with making sure that all participants feel welcome and secure—you
are the event’s Doorkeeper making sure that everyone “is ready.” In true Godly Play
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fashion, please make sure that everyone is personally welcomed at the door or upon
entering the training space. Thoughtful nametags make a great addition.
At the start of the training, make sure everyone knows where bags and coats are safe,
where restrooms are located, and where water and snacks will be situated.
As other Trainer or participant needs arise, please be available—or have someone else
available—to assist.
Participant List
You will be in charge of the official attendance. If someone not on the list arrives, he or
she may drop an official registration and tuition check in the mail to Training
Coordinator after the event. However, please take down the names and contact
information for all drop-in participants.
Food
You or your representative will ensure that food is served according to your Trainer’s
schedule and that water and snacks are available throughout the day.
Certificates
The evening before the last day of the training, please print off the certificates and then
give them to your Trainers the next morning.
Evaluation + Coupon
On the last day of training, you will forward an email with a link to the online evaluation
and a coupon code for Godly Play Resources to everyone who attended the training.
The email will come to you from the Training Coordinator, however, we ask that the
Host send the emails as he or she is onsite and can ensure it goes only to those who
actually attended the training.
After the Training Event
The week after the event, you may need to mail the training story manuals to either the
Trainer(s) or to the next training. The Training Coordinator will let you know where they need
to be shipped.
The manuals fit perfectly in the USPS Priority Mail medium flat-rate box, which is a real bargain
compared to shipping them by weight. Please insure each set of 12 for $200 (expensive
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books!). Be sure to keep your receipt as this is also an expense that will be paid.
Within two weeks of the training event, please send Training Coordinator the following:
1. Updates to Participant List for official attendance;
2. Scanned or copied receipts requiring payment.
Training Coordinator will follow up the training event with an evaluation for the Hosting
Coordinator. We so value your opinions and ideas and are constantly striving to make Godly
Play Foundation training better in every way, so thank you in advance for returning our
evaluation!
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