About the Protestant Church Association Cologne and Region
The Protestant Youth Department Cologne and Region is part of the Protestant Church Association Cologne and Region and office of the respective youth association. Daniel Drewes has been involved in youth work at the Protestant church since 2013. He has been managing director of the youth department since last year.
Daniel Drewes – Managing Director of the Youth Department Cologne and Region
The initial situation
In recent years in particular, the Youth Department of the Protestant Church Cologne and Region has grown considerably. Task management has become more complex and especially in public relations, better ways of structuring tasks and eliminating bottlenecks were needed. A standardized platform was to unite communication, public relations processes and project management in a central system and provide Drewes and his colleagues the support they needed.
Why Stackfield?
As a subsidiary of the Protestant Church Association Cologne and Region, the Youth Department is subject to strict data protection regulations. Although Drewes had already gained experience with Microsoft Teams, Teams was not an option for data protection reasons. As a German, GDPR-compliant and ISO-certified tool, Stackfield met all the requirements. Moreover, Stackfield's price-performance ratio was convincing. Without exceeding the Youth Department's budget, Stackfield offered all the features that were crucial for Drewes: from task management to team communication to file storage. It was important to me that we only used one platform that could do as much as possible,
explains Drewes.
Stackfield's Soft Launch
in the Youth Department
Once the decision had been made in favor of Stackfield, Drewes put together a planning group to ensure the smooth introduction of Stackfield at the Youth Department. In a small team, the platform was tested intensively over several weeks, initial structures and rooms were created and relevant information was stored. After a few weeks, Stackfield was presented to the department at a meeting.
Workflows and Kanban: optimized task management in PR
At the Youth Department, all PR tasks are now organized and processed in a dedicated Stackfield room. The Kanban board is the central element of the room and provides a clear overview of all tasks. In addition, a standardized workflow ensures that each task follows a defined process.
New tasks are initially stored in the To do column. As soon as the relevant colleague takes on a task, she moves it to the next column Doing. After completion, the task is moved to the For approval column, which triggers an automatic notification to the person who requested the task. The latter can then provide feedback or mark the task as Done. The entire process is transparent and allows team members to track the current status of tasks at any time.
With Stackfield, colleagues get to see more of each other. They can see how many tasks are involved in public relations and understand why some things take more time.
Internal communication and gathering topics for team meetings
With the help of Stackfield, internal communication in the Youth Department can take place in one place only. Private messages can be sent in 1:1 chats and information can be shared with several people in group chats or in topic-specific rooms.
The Kanban board has been repurposed to compile the topics for weekly team meetings. Each thematic focus has its own task column. Additional columns are used for general topics such as planning the next Christmas party and organizational tasks, for example selecting the next minute taker. The columns are available to all Youth Department members. New ideas and topics to be discussed can be added as tasks to the corresponding columns and questions can be entered directly in the comments section of the task. During the team meeting, the board serves as a central overview and helps Drewes and his team to work through all the important points.
Social media planning with Stackfield's calendar module
Posts for Instagram and co. are now coordinated via Stackfield. Each upcoming post is created as an event in the calendar. Important information can be stored in the description and post-specific details can be discussed in the comments. As all team members have access to the shared calendar, the editorial schedule remains transparent and visible to everyone at all times.
Event management with Stackfields discussions
In order to keep an overview of upcoming events, all events are stored as topic-bundled chats, so-called Discussions. The list of discussions can be checked and added to at any time. Event-related questions can take place directly in the discussion and thus be attributed to the corresponding event at any time. Past events can be closed via a status if required.
Each module has its purpose: project work in Stackfield's rooms
All projects in the Youth Department are organized and handled in Stackfield, such as the stand of the Protestant Youth Cologne and Region at this year's Gamescom, the world's largest event for computer and video games in Cologne. Here, the various modules in the room take on different roles: The protection concept is compiled together in the discussions, tasks to be completed end up on the Kanban board, the shift schedule is in the Pages and relevant documents are stored in the file repository. Furthermore, volunteer members are added as Guests with limited rights and can participate in the project organization directly in Stackfield. Drewes praises: With Stackfield, all information is now in one place. [...] We are grateful to be able to use Stackfield in this way.
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