with Doug Gould Shure Notes® readers who have attended seminars and workshops have probably encountered Doug Gould, who along with colleagues Kevin Spiegel and Dave Mendez, travel coast to coast to teach pro audio and how to use Shure gear. Since this is the training issue and that’s the way Doug spends most of his time, it was only natural that we turn the spotlight on him. First of all, Doug, share a little of your audio background. I am not an engineer. I am first a musician. Everything that I’ve learned about sound was from that perspective. I’ve been playing in bands since I was thirteen and anyone who has done that knows that you’re responsible for more than playing

your instrument. Whether it was playing a gig in a bar, laying down tracks in a recording studio, or just observing others who knew more than I did in various situations, there was always something new to learn. I’m still learning. I’m still curious. After leaving the Navy, I played in rock bands and worked in hi-fi stores. When I got married, I started working in a little neighborhood music store as the resident keyboard, recording and sound reinforcement expert. My experience and relentless pursuit of a better job (I eventually became a parent, too) landed me a sales job with a company in New England that represented a variety of pro audio manufacturers - JBL, Digitech, Soundcraft, Audio-Technica, and others. Eventually, I was regional sales manager TASCAM for about ten years. During that time I played and recorded with a Christian band, Last Adam, and served as worship leader in my church. Now, of course, I am at Shure, undoubtedly the best job that I’ve ever had with the best pro audio company in the world. Your focus here is on solving audio issues for churches – kind of a mission all on its own. How does serving the needs of churches fit into your personal belief system? There are a lot of people in the church who are running sound as volunteers with little or no experience in how to get the sound their pastor wants. They’re not in a position to go back to school or spend hours in training, gaining the experience in other ways as I did. I try to give them basic techniques to improve the quality of their sound – right now.

There is only so much they can absorb and apply at a conference for two days, so I really try to give them as many resource materials as I can: our own educational publications, the K-Base on the Shure website and some of the other resources we’re listing in this issue: books, training DVDs and CD-ROMS, magazines, workshops and training events. We need to get people the tools they need.

If you have been blessed with a gift — share it, teach it, and pass it on! Mentor someone! Encourage others! This should be our mission in life, not just in the church. Whatever talent we’ve been given should be shared not squandered. Looking back, let’s say 20 years or so, before the CCM took hold, what kind of training or educational programs existed then? Contemporary forms of worship have changed everything. In the days of traditional worship, and those days are still with us in many churches, the space was created to flatter that form. Organ, piano and choir sound great in spaces with glass, marble and hardwoods. The reverb time is enormous. That doesn’t work as well with guitars, amps and drums. The question is, what can we do with the existing space when we change our style? This is where the education has really played an important part. What can we do to solve audio and video problems in our current spaces?

Are there things we can do to help the sound without tearing the walls down? Technologies like personal monitoring have helped quiet the church down considerably regardless of the design of the space. Those are some of the challenges facing us now.

Of course, we talk a lot about gear and technology. But human resources are more important than any of that. We need to educate our customers where they live. We’re passionately devoted to education. We have been fortunate to interview audio teams at a couple of mega churches. But most churches have congregations of 200 or 300 people. They don’t have huge budgets or professional sound engineers. What’s the best way for these churches and their people to get practical information? This whole issue will give them a plethora of choices that I recommend. The best training engages all of the senses. Hands-on training is the best in my opinion. Greg Silsby, a well-known veteran of the pro audio industry with a heart for ministry and training people in the church has started a society called the Fellowship of Technical Ministries. www.FellowshipTM.org. The ministry/society, along the line of a Society of Broadcast Engineers or Audio Engineering Society, was created to get church media volunteers together, to network, to become certified in their craft, to hang out and to help each other. The point of all this: call other churches in your area and begin to meet with each other for the purpose of learning from one another. Call a local recording studio or your community college. Some of them offer night courses in audio. The best way is still to stand beside someone who “does it better” than you do. Apprenticeships used to be the way we learned a trade. I believe it’s still a very effective method. You meet a lot of tech volunteers at the seminars you lead. What’s their Number One question? “Where can I go to get more knowledge, more training and learn how to do it better?” That’s why we decided to devote this issue to Training. We’re covering some of the magazines and books that are available. Do you have any personal favorites for the individual or team that has to “study independently”? I believe Bill Gibson’s S.M.A.R.T. audio guides are some of the best instructional materials available because he includes audio and video examples on a DVD along with the book. It’s a reference book that engages all of the senses. There are four or five different titles. My favorite is “Microphones, Mixers and Signal Processors.” www.billgibsonmusic.com. Spotting any trends? Anything new on the horizon? Podcasting and Vodcasting are going to be huge. Churches were duplicating sermons on tape and CD. It’s expensive and time consuming. Podcasting can end all of that for many listeners. And if a church doesn’t have cable access or a satellite uplink for broadcast, Vodcasting is a great way to go.

Apart from advising our readers to make the smart, long-term microphone decision, any parting thoughts? If you are in charge of the purse strings at your church, my

counsel to you is: Invest in your people! Dedicate finances to training your workers. Set time and money aside to equipping the people in your ministries. Also, if possible, provide them time for rest and recuperation. Don’t allow your workers to burn out. It’s much easier to replace equipment than people. We thank Doug Gould for taking some time for us just before he embarks upon the busy 2006 event season. Want to meet him? Then, check out the “Walking the Talk” Shure calendar that appears in every issue of Shure Notes for Houses of Worship. Chances are very good that you’ll be seeing him at most of the events in which Shure is participating. Anthony D. Coppedge: Conferences, Training and Development Churches rarely ask me how much budget should be spent on personnel training and development. I think this is because it's assumed that on-the-job training is sufficient, or maybe even because spending money on training is not on the radar for some church leaders. But it's a subject near and dear to me for three reasons: 1) I remember what it was like when I was a one-man-band media ministry staff member; 2) I also remember what a difference training made when I put it in my contract with the church; 3) I love to teach and have seen the benefits of those who have gone home refreshed, renewed, and better equipped to handle their ministry jobs. The ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) is the world's largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. ASTD's 70,000 members and associates come from more than 100 countries and thousands of organizations--multinational corporations, medium-sized and small businesses, government, academia, consulting firms, and product and service suppliers. So I figured they'd have some good research data with those kinds of numbers and that kind of diversity. Here's what their 2005 Executive Summary reported: In 2004, the average expenditure as a percentage of payroll was 2.34 percent per employee. The average number of hours of formal learning per employee was 32 hours in 2004. In 2004, the average cost per learning hour provided was $50 per hour ($1,600 for 32 hours). So there it is: $1,600 per employee per year is the average expense for the common employee in the business world. However, in our highly technical field, I'd say that our training budget should be double that since the technology changes so rapidly. Let's face it: aside from IT departments and maybe Accounting departments, corporate businesses don't have the same level of training necessary as our techies. Therefore, I'd recommend no less than $3,200 per full time media & communications ministry employee for training and development. Hopefully, this research and my experiences can help you take this information to your church leadership so that you, too, can benefit from the kind of training I have received. Reprinted with permission from Church Media Hotlist Newsletter. You can subscribe for free by clicking here.

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