Hello, world. Mike here. I'm currently flying above the US from Chicago to Houston for 2 weeks to hang out with a few churches down there. Lots of construction sites and wire pulls.
Anyways, since I made this blog to keep everyone up to date on what's been going on, I'll fill everyone in on what I'm up to and why I'm not doing tech at SMCC anymore. First off, I loved producing and live design for SMCC. It brought me great joy to be able to create environments for services. However, in that, I couldn't help but feel like I was spinning my wheels with my ability to learn more about church technology and production. I caught wind of an opportunity with a company called Church Solutions Group. CSG is a company I've always really admired. They contract with churches around the US and outlying countries to design & integrate church strategy, facility, and technology. The portion that I was always attracted to was the technology portion, with system design and integration of audio/video/lighting/acoustic systems for the auditoriums and overall facilities for the churches. I replied to the internship request, and within a few days, I was on my way to becoming a CSG team member.
I arrived a week ago, on Monday. It's a bit weird uprooting my life and suddenly moving to Chicago. It's only been a month since I even heard about the internship program. That, and Chicago's crazy. Toll roads, red light cameras, a Subway restaurant every block (Subway:Chicago as LDS Churches:Utah), humidity, tornado sirens… Still getting used to it all. I just put all of my stuff into the apartment I'll be sharing with the other intern. Nice small place. Way more room than we need right now, but it's a pretty cool arrangement.
On Monday, I started working at a nice little church named Water's Edge Bible Church out in West Chicago. We had been working with them on an auditorium redesign project for a week longer than I had been a part of it, but I was excited to make a difference there. It's a smaller church with an older-style Worship room, just seating around 130 in pews. I'll post some work pictures as I go along. Met a lot of really cool church volunteers there. My Project Manager, Mark Sliteris, is a pretty cool guy. He's extremely skilled with a mix of carpentry and technical skills. It was awesome learning stuff from him. I got some exposure to drywalling and minor construction. I spent most of my first week there, usually working from 11 am to 10-1 at night. While it wasn't a very big project from a technical standpoint, getting practice with lighting, video, construction, and sound was awesome. Looking forward to working with him more. I also spent some time with my boss, Matt Mckay. I'd love to follow him around for a few weeks and learn how he operates. He's a church relations guy and heads up purchasing for the company.
It's been really neat getting to know the rest of my coworkers. I'll have to sit down and talk with each of them and share my notes on what they're all about, an interview of sorts. I'm excited to learn about the design portion of what we do around CSG, learning what gear and what practices work best. Right now, they have me working completely with the installers and integration. I'm bulking up since I'm in the physical work side of things.
I can't wait to see what God sends my way next. I really do miss Utah, but I love what I'm doing out here. I'll try and write a post at the end of each week (even though this one was posted late). Miss you all!
