Metropolitan Chicago Synod

The Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serves and supports more than 200 congregations in the greater Chicago area. The synod annually hosts an assembly of several hundred attendees, a professional leadership conference, as well as smaller conferences and workshops.

Easy to Use

The Metro Chicago Synod previously used another online registration system, but found it difficult to manage. “Only one person in the office was trained enough to figure it out,” said Jeff Drake, associate to the synod’s bishop.

The good thing about Learning Stream is that everyone in the office is able to understand it, use it, and access the information. It makes it that much easier.

Affordable, Too

The synod also found that Learning Stream was more affordable than its previous system. “We looked at many different online registration companies and the learning curve and the costs were just prohibitive,” Drake said.

The synod expected Learning Stream to improve on their old software, but they didn’t realize how much. “We’re even happier than we thought we’d be,” added Drake. “We’re always finding new ways to use Learning Stream, because we’re able to pull information from registrations so easily. For example, we had a speaker at our 2009 Assembly that attendees really liked. To announce that he was speaking at another event, we could very easily export a list of assembly attendees and email them about it.”

More Applications

When the synod discovered how easy Learning Stream was to use, its staff began finding other applications such as collecting data from congregations. Said Drake, “Learning Stream saved us more time than our previous software. It’s so easy to access the information and provide it to people who want it. I love that it’s so automated that we don’t have to worry about many steps. It does our thinking for us.”

I love that it's so automated that we don't have to worry about many steps. It does our thinking for us.