Black Hills Youth Worker Network

Now, I know… some of you are thinking, “Just what youth workers need… another electronic distraction!”  No, really!  The Flip Mino is something you should check into for your ministry.  Here’s five reaons I came up with after unboxing — and, yes, playing with — my new Mino HD just this morning:

* PRICE – Every youth workere that I know is watching their budget.  The good news is that the very highest end Mino model, the one that shoots in HD (which I highly recommend), is less than $250. The Ultra model is under $130!

* SIZE – These things are so small that you can literally put it into your coat pocket and grab great video moments whenever and wherever they arrive.  I plan on keeping mine with me as much as possible.  That way, when the students start an impromptu Thanksgiving service pumpkin pie fight, you’ve got all the footage to prove who started it at the elder’s meeting later.  Tee-hee!

* EASE OF USE – There’s not much to figure out here.  Just a power button, record button, zoom functions, and delete.  Simplicity is beauty.  There’s not even a memory card to lose!  When you want to load your video to your laptop, just “flip” the USB connector out and the built in Flip software helps do the rest — no cables required!  My first video was online and ready-to-share with the world 5 minutes after I unboxed the Mino — no joke! (and the majority of that time was taken up by the hosting site processing the video)

* VIDEO QUALITY – One of the selling points for me was the high video quality that I’ve been seeing by other Mino users — especially the Mino HD.  The quality on the HD version rivals some much more expensive video cameras that I’ve used in the past.

* VIDEO IS THE NEW MULTIMEDIA MEDIUM – ‘Nough said.

Here are five practical ways that you can use the Flip Mino in your ministry:

* Film your highlight moments from youth services: gross games, student testimonies, student worship, mis-behaving students (grin), etc.

* Take it out to film a video-journal of your thoughts during a youth event (like I did here with my HD cam this summer) or even start a regular video-blog feature (such as this).

* Film on-the-spot student confessionals / testimonials a la reality shows (great for the end of camp week).

* Take it with you to a b-ball game and film that end-of-the season, game-winning shot that features a student from your ministry.

* Capture video all year long and create a highlights video at the end of the year (here’s our 2006-2007 video)

Anyhow, there’s a few ideas… and I’m sure that you can come up with many more.