New CMS Check-in Features and Instructions

Karen just finished this presentation explaining how to use the touch screen features in CMS Check-in. You’ll see that you can do most of the necessary activities right from the touch screen and not have to go back to CMS. Here is a pdf document of this presentation if you want to print.

Insert Word Doc into HTML Email

Below is a short presentation from Karen on how to compose a message in Word, then paste it into an HTML email using BVCMS. Note that this technique does not support including pictures. You can do that but, you have to insert and upload the pictures using the HTML editor in BVCMS. Also, the word formatting does not always translate perfectly into HTML but it will be close and you can “fix” it in the HTML editor. Here is a PDF version too.

Tags within Organizations (sub-groups)

The following link: bvcms.s3.amazonaws.com/Wheel/Wheel.html will take you to the screencast  demonstrating how to create and use small groups - i.e. groups within an organization.

If you prefer written instructions, see below:

Creating Sub-Groups within Organizations

This feature can be used to create small groups in a Bible Fellowship Class or other types of groups in a large organization such as the Adult Choir. A person can be in more than one sub-group. Example: A class might have 10 sub-groups each with a leader. The leaders would be part of their sub-group. The class might also want a sub-group of all the class leadership. Each of these people would be in a regular sub-group as well as in the leadership group.

Before creating groups, assign leadership the appropriate member type…such as Group Leader, Outreach Leader, etc. (This will help when organizing groups with the leaders.)

NOTE: There is a special role (Manage Groups) that a user must have in order to create, delete and manage groups. However, all users can view the groups.

Creating Groups:

1. Go to the Member tab on the Organization page and to the section labeled Manage Groups.
2. Enter the name of the sub-group in the New Group Name field…ex. Campbell Group (if you plan to have multiple types of small groups, you might want to begin the name with a code so that they sort together. Ex. for voice part groups use something like “V: Tenor”; small groups could be “SG: Campbell”. This will help when searching for groups in very large organizations.)
3. Click Make New Group link.
4. Continue creating new groups as above.

Add/Remove Group Members:

1. In the Change Active Group field, use the drop-down arrow to find the group to which you want to add members.
2. Click the Group Members link (notice the tool tip: “Update Group Members:[name of group]”
3. In the Group Members dialog box, scroll through and select those to add to the group. (Notice that the name of the group is at the top of the dialog box.)
4. After selecting everyone you want for that group, click Close to return to the Organization page.
5. To view those you selected, use the drop-down arrow to the right of the toolbar and select the group. This will filter the list and find only those in the selected group.
6. To add members to another group, select the group using the drop-down arrow in the Change Active Group field, then click Group Members.
7. As you add members, you will be able to see which groups they are already in by looking in the far right column in the Group Members dialog box. This will list all groups of which they are members.
8. If you have people currently in Tags, you can create a new group, select Group Members, filter for the Tag, and then Select All. This allows you to add entire tags to the same group easily.

Alternate Method of Adding/Removing Group Members:

1. Go to the individual (either in the member list on the organization page or on their enrollment tab on their record) and click their member type in the organization.
2. That opens a Member dialog box where you can select or unselect the group/groups.
3. Click Update Groups after you make a change.

Features:

By filtering for a specific group, you have the following options available:

1. From the toolbar you can:
• Send emails to the group
• Print labels
• Export to Excel
• Print Reports…like an Inreach Report
• Print a Roll Sheet (under Other in the toolbar) – this is a good way to print roll sheets for each voice part individually if you have the members in voice part groups.
• Export a Member Report to Excel (under Other) – on this export the attendance information and member type is for that organization – on all other exports, that information refers to their Bible Fellowship class.
2. On the grid you can:
• Sort by Last Attended Date to find those in your group who missed the last meeting/rehearsal.
• Sort by Attendance % to find those that may need an Inreach visit.
• Sort by Birthday to look for those with upcoming birthdays.
• Send an individual email to someone in your group by clicking their email address.

Tags VS Groups:

Here are a few differences between Tags and Groups. You can decide which suits your needs best.

• Tags are private (only the creator can view them unless the creator shares them with others).
• Groups are available for anyone to see.
• Tags require that you remove people from the tag when they no longer fit the criteria.
• Groups are dynamic…when a person is dropped from the organization he is dropped from any groups in which he is enrolled within that organization.
• Tags can use the toolbar, but not special functions.
• Groups can be used to print roll sheets and special Member Reports in addition to the toolbar functions.

New Videos on Touchscreen Check-in

Karen has recorded some new screen casts demonstrating for our Teachers and Volunteers in the Children’s area. She discusses:

1. How to use the touchscreen check-in program
2. How to do a first time visitor registration.
3. How to search for a person in the database when they are not found on the check-in program.

You can find the videos on the main menu under Videos

So much to say, so little time

I’ve heard that said as “so much to do, so little time.” Well we have not lacked for doing. Just for saying much about what we’ve done. We have been making great strides this past year. There are so many new features, too many to tell in a short blog post. Here’s the short list:

1. Lots of on-line registrations. Volunteers, sports teams, special events, discipleship, new member classes, men’s luncheons. Some requiring payments, some to purchase downloadable resources. All of them enroll the registrant into an organization, notify the ministers, and send confirmation emails.
2. New reports and exports.
3. Child Check-in with Touchscreen
4. Recreation Check-in with timestamp and picture taking capabilities
5. HTML Email (like constant contact)
6. Small Group discipleship with private blogging and online resources
7. Shelby, ACS, and Membership Plus conversion capabilities

That’s a lot but not all by any means.

We are coming up on our one year anniversary for our open source launch April, 2009. So I have decided to start blogging in earnest again. I’ll write one blog post per feature to whet the appetite about that functionality. I’ll try to do at least one each week. Then Karen and I will follow up some of those blog posts with a 5-10 minute screen cast demonstrating the feature.

Creating a Task to Contact a Person

You are a minister and you find out a person needs a visit or a contact of some sort. You want to delegate this to another minister or lay person who is a user on the system. Here are the steps to take:

From the Person’s record

1. Click Add New Task on the Growth tab, bottom right.

2. This will take to your Task Page and will display the task in an open window.

Notice that the task is labeled NewTask. You can change this to say what you want, whether it is just an FYI or whether they need to establish contact with the individual for more personal ministry.

3. Next, modify the Task by clicking on Edit.

4. If the follow up needed from the minister involves contacting the person then check the box beside Complete With Contact. If you are assigning the Task just for the minister’s review and no further contact with the person is necessary, than leave the box unchecked.

5. If there is an urgency to the need for ministerial follow up, then you can change the Priority from None to 1st Priority.

6. Next, type any comments you need to pass along to the minister in the Notes box and then click Update.

7. Once you have updated the Task box click on “Delegate” to assign the Task to the minister. This will open a search pop-up box where you can search by name.

8. In the search box, type in the minister’s name, click “Search,” and then click “select” beside the minister’s name. The task will then be sent to the minister for follow up.

Note that when you delegate a Task to someone the task will appear on both the owner’s (your) Task page and the recipient’s Task page. It cannot be removed by the recipient until they complete the task. As the owner, you can override it and delete it from both your page and the recipient’s page.

When you assign a Task to someone they are sent an email with a link to the Task. When the recipient accepts the Task you are sent an email telling you that the Task has been accepted.

Once the Task is completed, an final email is sent to you informing you of the Task’s completion.

NOTE: In addition to Ministers, you can assign Tasks to lay leaders who have access to the Church Management System.

Assigning Tasks from a Contact

When you have contact with a someone (such as a new member or guest) and you need to inform a Minister about the contact, you can assign follow-up on that individual to the minister as a Task. Here are the steps to take:

From the Contact Screen-

1. Click Add task to the right of the person’s name.

2. This will take to your Task Page and will display the task in an open window.

Notice that the task is labeled Follow up already, which will tell the minister that this task is assigned to him for further follow up, whether it is just an FYI or whether they need to establish contact with the individual for more personal ministry.

3. Next, modify the Task by clicking on Edit.

4. If the follow up needed from the minister involves contacting the person then check the box beside Complete With Contact. If you are assigning the Task just for the minister’s review and no further contact with the person is necessary, than leave the box unchecked.

5. If there is an urgency to the need for ministerial follow up, then you can change the Priority from None to 1st Priority.

6. Next, type any comments you need to pass along to the minister in the Notes box and then click Update.

7. Once you have updated the Task box click on “Delegate” to assign the Task to the minister. This will open a search pop-up box where you can search by name.

8. In the search box, type in the minister’s name, click “Search,” and then click “select” beside the minister’s name. The task will then be sent to the minister for follow up.

Note that when you delegate a Task to someone the task will appear on both the owner’s (your) Task page and the recipient’s Task page. It cannot be removed by the recipient until they complete the task. As the owner, you can override it and delete it from both your page and the recipient’s page.

When you assign a Task to someone they are sent an email with a link to the Task. When the recipient accepts the Task you are sent an email telling you that the Task has been accepted.

Once the Task is completed, an final email is sent to you informing you of the Task’s completion.

NOTE: In addition to Ministers, you can assign Tasks to lay leaders who have access to the Church Management System.