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December 22, 2014 By Ryan Nelson   |   3 Comments

Christmas Decorating! Welcome to Gingerbread Lane

Every December, Faithlife has a Christmas decorating contest. What’s at stake? Free lunch and bragging rights. Teams and departments duke it out to prove once and for all who has the most holiday spirit, creativity, and determination.

This is serious business.

Bob Pritchett, CEO of Faithlife, has always insisted on using an outside judge—someone impartial. This year, we brought in Anne-Marie Faiola. You might remember her from our women in leadership speaking series. She brought her husband and two kids to help (cookie-bribes may have been involved).

There were skits, elves, toy trains, Santa himself, hipsters singing carols, dressed-up dogs, and more. It was quite a sight.

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What kid can resist ripping through a wrapping-paper doorway?
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The facilities team called their piece “All Wrapped Up.” And they meant it.

In the next display, you may notice that there are more than a few snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. That’s thanks to Jani Snell. She’d been planning for this contest since last December. “Last year, the competition was rigged,” said Jani. “My team cut out hundreds of snowflakes and created the most beautiful winter wonderland, and we lost. I’ve been part of a winning decorating team in the past, so to have a loss associated with my name was unacceptable.”

So what’d she do? She saved all those snowflakes she cut out during Netflix marathons and hung them up again this year, with a new theme and a new team.

And she wasn’t the only one who planned ahead. “In early November, Glenn Airoldi popped into my office one morning and said, ‘Christmas decorating contest. You in?’ Uh, duh! To work with a group that was set on winning made the work that much easier.”

Being in the large department category this year meant that Jani had about 15 people volunteer their time to help out, including a core group of six who put in at least four hours to pull off “Gingerbread Lane.”

“I expected to win based on the amount of sweat and paper cuts that went into the project,” Jani says. “I mean, my coworker electrocuted herself twice making sure that all the lights were perfect. The night before judging, a group of us stayed from 5:00 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. to make sure everything was perfect.”

Like I said, this contest is a big deal.

“I think the only thing that kept us going was the drive to win,” Jani says.

Take a trip down “Gingerbread Lane”:

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Welcome to “Gingerbread Lane,” formerly known as the second floor of building four.
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Yes, that is an elf on a tricycle.
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The treats didn’t last long.
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Teams in the large departments category had their work cut out for them.
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Every office was adorned with lollipops, gingerbread walls, fake snow, and icicle icing.

Next came the holiday hipster exhibit.

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Observe a hipster in their natural Christmas habitat.

The fine print says, “Please don’t feed the hipsters gluten or dairy products. (Or meat, GMO’s, MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors or flavors of any kind). Permitted foods include: kale chips, gulps of air, and GF cardboard.”

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Hipsters doing hipster things.

No trees were harmed in the decorating of this space.

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Everything is recycled, of course.

This year, for the first time, design joined in on the decorating fun. Branson Anderson rallied the troops and transformed “DSGNHVN” into a modern winter wonderland.

“We can’t help but work on Christmas decorations like a design project,” Branson said. “We had a brainstorming meeting, made moodboards, created a design document detailing our plan. We had to visualize everything.”

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Everyone was excited to see what our designers came up with.

“We got pretty serious about how we hung letter snowflakes,” Branson says. “Are we modulating height in a compelling way? Is our distribution right? Like I said, we can’t help but design it.”

It may have been serious, but it was far from boring.

“We had a huge turnout. It was a really great time. We were blasting Christmas music, eating food, and enjoying each other’s company.”

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A different take on “snowflakes.”
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Quintin Cooke demonstrates the beauty of precision.
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Every piece had a purpose and fit into the overall design.
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And now they get to work in a place that looks like this.

When it was all said and done, our judges selected a winner for small and large departments, and then Bob announced the winners at our company Christmas party at Semiahmoo Resort.

“Gingerbread Lane” in marketing won the award for best-decorated large department, and our facilities team sealed the win for small departments with “All Wrapped Up.”

“As Faithlife grows, so does the Christmas decorating competition,” said Kensey Burdick, who helped decorate “Gingerbread Lane. “After hours of painting peppermints, wrapping boxes, and hanging snowflakes, it felt great to win! Not only does the winning team get a free lunch from Faithlife, they get an entire year of bragging rights!”

But it’s not all about winning. “It’s fun to see coworkers get so creative and excited about Christmas,” Kensey said. “It’s not every day you get to see your manager wearing a Santa suit! We don’t just work hard at Faithlife—we play hard, too.”

So how much time did they put into this? “Too much!” Jani said. “I think I put in about 16 hours. This is definitely the most work I’ve put into the decorating contest, and I don’t think I have the energy to repeat that next year.”

Next December is a long ways away, but something tells me Jani will still have her stash of snowflakes next year.

Want to see the rest of the pictures from the decorating contest? Like us on Facebook to see “Lego Land,” “Pirate Christmas,” and more!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: christmas, company culture, faithlife

December 17, 2014 By Ryan Nelson   |   5 Comments

Faithlife’s Biggest Christmas Party Yet

christmasparty

Last Saturday, Faithlife took a trip up to the Semiahmoo resort, near Canada, for our annual Christmas party. The dress code was “as nice as you like,” and the evening was a festive mix of classy and casual.

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Max Morin says this holiday sweater is actually threaded with real tinsel.

Over the last four years, Faithlife has doubled in size. With that kind of growth our list of possible venues near Bellingham grows smaller each year. Last year, we had a little over 300 employees, and we gathered in one central room with our guests. This year, the Faithlife Christmas party sprawled across four separate sections of the Semiahmoo Resort with a different selection of food and entertainment in each area.

At 5:30 p.m. the doors opened to the Protea String Quartet, and the stream of people never stopped.

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The Protea String Quartet played beautiful background music for three hours.

A half hour later, our friends from Oh Snap! Photo Booth and The Upfront Theater set up shop, so people could get pictures with friends or have some laughs between bites to eat.

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Oh Snap! Photobooth helps keep things laid back and goofy.

Beckie Rosillio from the video team scoured the resort for Kodak moments like these:

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Sean Boisen and his wife Donna enjoy a moment together.
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Tayler and Kyle Beede smile at Jeff Allen’s jokes.
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Kyle Roosendaal and his wife, Denica, find themselves laughing out loud.

Beckie has been taking photos at our employee Christmas party every year since she got here, and by the end of the night there was a line of people waiting for her to take their annual Christmas photo.

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Anne Campbell, Fran Radke, Jen Lounsberry, and Kay Solvik have some fun with their photos.

In the main ballroom, stand up comedian Jeff Allen took the stage and had people literally throwing back their heads in laughter:

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Nathaniel Scataglini and his wife, Sharon, hold nothing back as they laugh at Jeff Allen.
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Jeff Allen performed one of his stand up routines in the main ballroom.

Throughout the night, everyone was free to roam between rooms, so there was never a dull moment.

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Sherri Huleatt breaks out the Beethoven to woo her husband, Kyle. Okay, maybe they’re just posing.

The Upfront Theater crew took a break and then returned for a final show. This time, the improvised comedy somehow led to a soap opera wedding (don’t ask me to explain how it got there):

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The Upfront Theater is a local improv-comedy club, founded by comedian Ryan Stiles.

After the entertainment wrapped up for the evening, it was time for Bob’s annual speech about how much he loves working with us, why we do what we do, and of course, Faithlife’s famous raffle.

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Bob shares why after over 20 years, he still loves working with these people.

As always, when it comes to thanking his employees, Bob went big. Thousands of dollars in gift cards were given away, brand-new tablets were handed out, and there was even a Playstation 4 and an Xbox One thrown in the mix.

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These are just a few of the big prizes given away at the Christmas party.

When the raffle was over, only one thing remained: Christmas carols. Max Morin and Josh Warren from design led the company in a couple of carols, and the evening came to a close.

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Max Morin and Josh Warren are both talented designers and fantastic musicians.

Want to be at the next Faithlife Christmas party? Check out our available careers!

* * *

To see the rest of our Christmas party photos, like us on Facebook!

Filed Under: Inside Faithlife Tagged With: bellingham, christmas, company culture, faithlife, pacific northwest

December 10, 2014 By Ryan Nelson   |   5 Comments

Glassdoor Names Faithlife One of the Top 10 Places to Work

Faithlife named Glassdoors top 10!
For the second year in a row, Faithlife was named one of Glassdoor’s top ten small to medium sized businesses to work for in the country.

It’s no secret that Faithlife has always been a little different. We have no HR department. We give employees unlimited vacation. Our company manual is one page.

To some, that may sound like a recipe for disaster. It’s unconventional. But you should know: Glassdoor selects from thousands of companies all across the United States based on employee surveys. We like it here. So we said so.

“We offer our employees more autonomy, less bureaucracy, and more reason to be personally invested in the company,” said Bob Pritchett, Faithlife president and CEO. And it’s true. Every couple of months, Bob hosts an “Ask Anything” meeting that’s open to all employees, where anyone is welcome to ask Bob . . . anything! From sales goals and what comes next, to company mistakes and what we’re learning, Bob models the openness and honesty he desires in our company culture. Everyone has a voice and the opportunity to make their voice heard.

Faithlife began in 1992 with a handful of people and an idea: help people study the Bible. Today, Faithlife is serving the church with more than Bible software. We provide church presentation software, a Christian ebook app, beautiful Bible art, a better way to reference Scripture, a church communication tool, the world’s smartest humanities software, and much more.

With so many directions to go in, it’s easy for employees to find a career path they can be passionate about. Even with over 400 of us, every person has a place, a purpose, and room to grow.

Part of what’s made Faithlife such a great place to work are the very things that make Faithlife so unconventional. Our company manual is short and sweet because our mission is simple: “to serve the church.” The values that help us carry out our mission can be summarized in four words: “Honor God. Love others.” Our company values encompass the way we treat each other, our customers, and our work. We balance the productivity that makes us successful with an emphasis on people that helps us care about our relationships to others.

Every summer we bring interns—about 50 of them—to experience what it’s like to work at Faithlife. Unlike many intern environments, our interns are treated like employees. We pay them, and we give them challenging jobs that help them grow into valuable employees, not leftover tasks that make them feel like the bottom rung of a corporate ladder. Every intern gets a mentor—an employee they work alongside who can walk them through their job and help them adjust to day to day life here. If they’re still enjoying their work at the end of the internship, we often keep them! (That’s actually how I got started here about a year and a half ago.)

We celebrate success and the awesome people who make it happen. We nominate each other for awards to recognize when someone is growing or goes above and beyond. We advocate on behalf of each other, so even in a company this size, no one is left to fend for themselves. We work in teams, and those teams have fun together outside of work (and even during work).

It’s official: Faithlife is one of the best places to work in the U.S. Check out our careers, or apply for one of our internships (marketing or software development), and you too could find yourself saying, “I love my job.”

Filed Under: Inside Faithlife Tagged With: company culture, faithlife

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