Minor enhancements
As you know, we are always upgrading things. Most of them are minor enhancing navigation, performance or cosmetic. We make a big deal of major feature additions or changes, but here are a few of the things that we’ve done the last month or two.

You may have noticed other things, but I thought pointing these out might be helpful to you.

Conferences
It was great seeing many of you at the Verge and Radicalis conferences the past week or so. If you’re not aware of the regional Saddleback conferences, check them out here. They’ve made them affordable so you can bring leaders and not have to travel as far. It would be great to see you there.

Thank you so much for your ideas, support and encouragement. It is a pleasure for our team to serve you.

You wouldn’t build a house with a spatula nor would you flip an egg with a hammer. I suppose you could but can you imagine the result?

The type and quality of tools you use determine the type and quality of what you build. It’s true with making disciples and building teams as well. As a pastor my goal was to equip and then release people into ministry. I had great equipping tools – curriculum, books, training, teachers, mentors, podcasts, etc. But, I didn’t have very good releasing tools to stay connected with and coach people in the process of doing ministry. Then the Internet came along and with it a new way of doing things.

It is our feeling that Information Systems in a church need to follow not lead ministry. The architecture of most church management systems is individual and security focused. Churchteams was built with a team and accessibility architecture. This is very different and it makes a difference in the type and quality of the ministry you build. We’ve experimented with this concept for ten years. We’ve learned much and the results are astonishing.

Welcome to the 2010s!

Our commitment to you as a trusted client and friend is to continue upgrading and adding value to what we offer. We love hearing from and dreaming / learning with you.

Late last week Mark released a mapping upgrade to Google. You’ll notice familiar Google icons and functionality. Also, you can now enter a specific address under “Pick Your Preferences” and choose to see the groups within a radius of 1 to 100 miles. That means someone looking for a group can enter their address and both see and map groups based on the distance from their house. As you know you can zoom right to a specific house with Google maps. If you prefer greater security than that, click Customization Features, then Security and Accessibility. You can choose to limit the zoom to a neighborhood or area of town. Go to browse groups and take a look. Remember, you can customize your preferences by clicking Customization Features, then Browse Small Groups Customization Options.

Several people have mentioned to us that they would like to be able to customize the email reminders that go to leaders each week. The goal is to leverage those emails as a way to communicate with and resource leaders. One person asked about being able to customize the webpage a leader goes to when they have finished their weekly communication. We loved this idea and feel like it accomplishes the same thing as the ability to customize the email reminder. So, last week, we also released the ability for you to customize the landing page when a leader finishes his/her report. Check it out under Customization Features, then Email Reminder Options.

Is it just me, or is there a sense of excitement in the air about the potential of a new decade and what God is doing among us?

We have one more great addition before the end of the year. How about something to help with assimilation, recruiting and similar tasks?

Through the years, we learned that putting people who expressed interest in certain decisions or growth points (ex. new member’s class, joining a group, volunteering) in a group is actually much more efficient and effective than simply flagging or tagging them with a member attribute and pulling reports every time you wanted to see or do something with them. So, we began using “Connect” groups as a holding / communication pool for these people. It made those folks quickly accessible for everyone and easy to communicate with. However, we found that the extra steps to keep notes, view other information such as date of first visit and transfer to another group were cumbersome. Thus, the genesis and purpose of our NEW, COMPLETELY CUSTOMIZABLE, GROUP VIEW.

The next time you go to a group’s information page, you’ll notice things look a little different. There’s no change at the member level, but at the leader and coach levels, they will see these changes:

1. Check boxes by each name so that you can choose an individual or multiple people to transfer or remove.
2. Click on the name of an individual to view their profile and update their information. This replaces the “View Profile” column.
3. Remove option allows the leader to remove an individual or several people at once. This replaces the “Remove Member” column.
4. Transfer option allows them to remove people from this group and add them to another group in just a couple of steps.
5. Once you have created another view that is accessible at the leader and/or coach level (the small group view is the standard view), the option to pick a Group View shows up like it does at the higher security levels.

From the Administrative Assistant Level on up, in addition to the above, they can:

1. Customize group views by dragging any fixed or customized attribute or any contact information into the group view.
2. Set default view for a particular group.

In addition to all of the above, the Small Group Administrator can click Customization features – Customize Groupfinder – Group view customization and do the following:

1. Add and edit current group views.
2. Remove group views.
3. Set the default view that is used for all new groups that are created.

Notes and Recommendations:

1. You can determine who has access to which group view. The goal is to keep as few group views available at the coach level on down as possible. Yet leaving a wide range of uses for Administrative Assistants and up.
2. Each member attribute has a security level that can’t be compromised. ex. an attribute viewable only by AA and up that is included in a Group View viewable lower than AA will not show up at the lower security levels.
3. Clearly communicate with staff so that they don’t edit important Group Views, especially your primary views for leaders.
4. I’ll get a video on it out in the next few days.
5. Try it and give us your thoughts and/or feedback.

2009 has been an incredible year for Churchteams. Thank you for your encouragement and referrals. I pray you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. It is our privilege to serve you.

Thanks,
Boyd

Here’s a blog copy of the email I sent out today.

Thanks for all the referrals. I can’t emphasize this enough. Your referrals mean the world to us. We’ll keep doing our best to serve you and every new customer / friend helps us continue to move forward. Here’s some stuff to know.

Check in & Security – We’ve learned a lot the past 3 months and feel really great about where we’re at with check-in and security. The videos for setup / customization and training are both done. You can also find them on the admin main menus. We even put the training video on the main menu when you log in using the check in password (view/edit that password at either SG or Membersip Admin levels). It is super easy to use and very effective. You can use the same idea to check in teenagers or volunteers or anyone else.

Add/edit members from meeting report page – In the process of tweaking for use in check in, we upgraded all the meeting reports so that you can add new members or edit members right from the report page. This makes it way easier for your leaders and staff to enter new people.

Texting Ideas

1. Give preschool parents confidence by adding their cell #s and carriers to pre-schooler information. Then you can text mom/dad if they are needed.
2. It looks like it might be a cold winter. Why not use the request to upgrade member info (see below) to update cell #s and carriers so you can use texting as well as email this winter to alert everyone to weather driven schedule changes or remind them of events?
3. One student pastor is looking to have a text ready to email from Churchteams at a critical time in his message to get feedback from the kids (it will go to his inbox). For those who don’t get the text, he’ll have them text their name and mobile carrier to his or someone else’s phone to collect the new numbers. Can you imagine everyone’s phone buzzing at once?

Request for members to update their own information – It is worth repeating. From member or group reports there is an option to send an email to ask your people to update their own information – a self-updating database! You choose who to send it to and using the “other options” you can send reminders to those who haven’t responded. Combine it with announcements on Sundays and you’ll have better info than you’ve ever had. Control what information they can access under member customizations. This would be a great way to grab mobile carriers for texting.

Contributions – We added a new report at the member administrator level to be able to pull detailed reports which essentially recall all entries over a designated date range including a single day / batch. The summary report enables you to see your giving over any period of time. Churches that are using this part of the tool are giving it a thumbs up.

2010 – The new year is just a couple of months away. Have you thought about upgrading your use of Churchteams? You have all the features already. It might be a great way to help your budget and stewardship.

Coming soon – some of you are curious as to what we’re working on. Right now, we’re taking the assimilation lessons we’ve learned the last 3-4 years and adding features that will simplify and smooth out the flow of people from one place to another or from decision to application. Also, we’re going to upgrade our mapping features.

We value the opportunity you’ve given us to serve you. It is our commitment to serve you well for the honor of the One we all serve.

Fall quarter is here and with it all the year end activities. Here’s a best practices process to help sign up volunteers for a Fall Festival, Christmas presentation or any other event.

* Make sure your normal link from your website goes just to the right group type (Videos-Setup/Customization – #4).
* Create a group type for events. You’ll use this throughout the year.
* Create a group for each area you need volunteers for and the maximum number needed.
* Identify them with this group type.
* Add a link to this group type from your website event promotion page with instructions to click “Join The Group”
* Be sure the “Join A Group” option is enabled (Customization Features, Security & Accessibility).
* Use email, texting or labels for any instructions, coordination and appreciation notes to these groups.
* When the event is over, make the groups inactive and use them for reference and recruitment next year.
* Note: Browse Groups for SG Admin has the option to view inactive groups and then re-activate them.

BTW, a number of churches are using this same process to manage their mission trips and/or service projects as well.

(This is updated from the original email)
About 18 months ago we decided to begin creating a full Church Management System option. So, we created the contributions feature, then we expanded what we were doing to an extensive members and family tracking and much more. We’ll continue adding features, but with this one, I believe we’re ready to offer you a full CMS solution. We’ve pretty well learned how to do check in for kids and volunteers and last week we added security. Here’s the scoop.

Electronic children’s check-in and security! This is huge. From the Administrator Assistant main menu only, click on the Childcare check-in customization steps to customize labels and set up / test your label printer. From the Small Group Admin or Membership Admin level go to password administration and customize a password for check-in login (default is admin password plus “check”). Then using Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher login using this new password. Hold down control and click Check-in for the groups you want to check in at that station. All you’ll have to do is check them present and click on the label button to print a label for kiddo and another one for dad/mom with a randomly designated 5 place alpha-numeric. When everyone is checked in, just click to save the attendance. If you want to send an email, put in the parent’s email for the kids and email parents an update on what happened in class. I’ll update the video page soon with a new video to walk you through training volunteers.

Manual check in roster and entering attendance. Click “Reports and Communication” – “Group Reports” – “Check in roster”. Allows you to pick dates / groups to print out a check in sheet for either a single group or a whole set of a certain group type. When you’re ready to enter attendance as a batch, login as the Administrative Assistant, click Enter Batch Attendance, then designate the same groups and dates. This will enable you to enter attendance for each group quickly over any date range.

Parent and family communication. Click “Reports and Communication” – “Either Group Reports or Member Reports” – “Family Labels”. Notice we have added two new options to designate “Parents of” or “Lastname Family”. This will be great for sending out postcards, flyers and letters.

How much extra does it cost? Nothing extra. We’re not going modular in our business plan. If you start using these other features, you might find you have more people in the database which may take you to the next pricing level. We figured that would be enough. Plus, this is aligned with our commitment to constantly improve the tool to better serve churches. I pray you find these features for children’s ministry helpful.

We’re here to serve you. For real.

Purpose Driven Small Groups wrapped up their 2009 conference year the past couple of days with a conference in Dallas. I think I have been to every small group conference but one that they have done just as I have been to every small group conference Willow has done in like 10 years and many other conferences as well. Here are the reasons I go to these conferences:

1. To be with and learn from leaders responsible for community life in their church. Whether that means 3 groups or 3000 groups, these are my people. Like Dane Havard from Rabbit Creek church in Anchorage, AK.
2. To share how Churchteams can serve them. Our calling/ministry.
3. To meet current Churchteams clients face to face. Like Bill and Pat Morgan from Beumont and Cindy Burleson from Gillette, Wyoming.
4. To catch up with friends like Ron Wilbur from Saddleback, Jay Daniel from Norfolk, NE and Rick Howerton from Lifeway to name but a few.
5. To learn and be inspired. I loved Steve’s Saturday morning session on Authenticity. We died laughing and were moved to tears and application of what group life ought to be like.

Honestly, it was conferences that taught me how to think about and do ministry. I have been just one of hundreds or in some cases thousands attending a church conference for almost 20 years and student conferences for a decade before that. A conference inspired me to see that the local church really is the hope of the world. A conference helped forge my convictions that life change happens best in community. A conference introduced me to a world much bigger than where I live day to day. They influence my life.

They will yours as well.

Finally, in the spirit of a football commercial, here’s to you Mr. “God has led me to share my life, learnings, mentors and team through a conference” man. Thank you. It is so worth it.

I’ve not done a very good job of writing about the high five that I started last spring. Better late than never though. Belong. Grow. Serve. Launch. Together. These are the high five that determine a win and keep your ministry flowing (see earlier post).

Serve really is the new kid on the block in many ways. As small groups ministry have grown in churches, they have taken on in recent years a move away from being just Bible Studies or Fellowship Groups. There are some models where the whole group is built around service: volunteer for a charity group, worship service support, mission trip teams. My personal bias is to have your groups have an element of each of the high five to whatever degree the group predetermines in conjunction with their leadership. Service in a small group can be a simple a helping a neighbor through a tough time or touch up project, or putting together a game booth for the church fall festival. Or it could be adopting a mission trip or local ministry effort or school.

The value of “serve” is that it puts feet to the gospel. It gets it out there where it can be noticed for what it is – good news, someone is here to help. What could possibly be more like Jesus?

This will change the way people view groups on your website!

Finally, the contemporary web-interface we’ve been talking about and you have been waiting for! Here’s a link to check it out. If you log in to your account, you’ll see it with your groups. Mess around with it and you’ll see a ton of incredible changed and upgrades.

Ready to link it to your website directly? This will give your groups an entirely new feel going into the fall. Since we don’t have access to your specific website, you’ll need to forward this email to your website update person and have them change part of your link:

from GroupBrowse.asp to GroupBrowseNew.asp

To add your logo, go to Customization Features, then Browse small groups customization options. You’ll see an html box there to link to your logo or put whatever header you want on top. You’ll notice other options on that page to add or delete filters in the left column and what group information you want displayed in the right column.

Get your leaders to upload pictures of their group and the thumbnail will automatically be added to your webpage (unless you uncheck the pictures option). This will bring your groups to life. For even more, have them do a video introduction, upload it to Tangle, Vimeo or Youtube and then add the link on Churchteams and it will show up on your website. They can link to literally anything on the Internet: their Facebook group, a Google calendar, their curriculum or even another website. If you’re worried about what they put up, give them some guidelines, trust your leaders and keep a good eye on it. Their creativity may amaze you and add spice to finding a small group.

Member customization attributes added to Small Group Admin

From the Small Group Admin main menu, go to Customization Features, then click on member customization. This feature was previously exclusively on the Membership Admin main menu, but we changed it for two reasons: 1) easier overall customization of the tool by SG Admin, and 2) the ability to make the Membership Admin exclusively for contribution access. With this change the only distinctives of the Membership Admin are contribution entry customization, giving record access and Member Admin password customization.