Programs, Divisions, and Organizations

See article about the hierarchy.

Organizations

Let’s start by looking at Organizations. Notice its prominence on the main menu -

 

 

What is an Organization?

• It is one of the most heavy-duty, versatile components of BVCMS.
• It's called an Organization because that's what it does...helps you organize!
• It is more than just a class, a roster, a group, event or a list.
• An Organization is not the people. It is the container, so to speak.
• An Organization can contain people. Those people connected to an Organization are either Members, Visitors, Previous Members, or Inactive Members.
• An Organization without members contains attendance for meetings (headcount) and visitors for meetings (Worship Service, Special Event). In this case, the Organization is tracking unknown people (headcount) as well as known people (visitors).
• An Organization is a means of identifying people who have met certain qualifications (Crown Certified, Approved Counselors), a mailing list (random people who want to receive communications...like fellow-pastors), a means of grouping together those with certain common attributes (all those who are homebound, all who use Facebook), a place to record attendance for meetings that have too many attendees to count each individual by name.
• Organization is the term used within BVCMS to describe all of the above-mentioned items.

Let's recap-

An Organization...

• can have Members, but doesn't have to (Life Groups would have Members; Worship headcount Organizations would not)
• can have Meetings* - to capture either individual or headcount attendance
• does not have to have Meetings - example, an Organization that is used as a Mailing List or to register those who are going on a trip would not have Meetings
• provides the means to track Visitors and their involvement - you add a person as a Visitor to a Meeting of an Organization
• retains history of both Membership and Attendance (for Members and Visitors) - that's why you don't delete Organizations
• if it has Members, will also eventually have Previous Members (whether the Organization runs by semester or is on-going, anyone who was a member and is no longer a Member is a Previous Member)
• if it has Meetings, it will have Attendance history associated with it and its Members/Previous Members, etc.

*Meetings

• Meetings are specific instances when an Organization meets.
• Meetings have dates and times.
• Meetings are used to record Visits: first-time Visitors, Repeat Visitors
• Meetings for Organizations with Members help determine when people need an In-Reach Contact - that is, when a Member has been absent and should be contacted by someone in the Organization
• Meetings for Headcount Organizations provide data for attendance reporting - Week at a Glance Report

Programs

Programs contain Divisions.

• One way to think about Programs is that they identify types of ministries and their activities. For example:
  • Bible Study
  • Missions
  • Music
  • Recreation
  • Worship
• Programs do not target categories of people based on age of stage of life.

Divisions

Divisions contain Organizations

One way to think about Divisions:

• Based on the age or stage of life of the people in those specific Divisions
• Convenience…group Organization together to:
  • Make it easy to run certain queries for communication – target the right people
  • Make it easier for on-line registrations – select an Organization from a list
  • Run certain reports
  • Add general flexibility

Analogy:

You can put all of your t-shirts, socks and shorts in one drawer if you don’t have very many. However, if you have a lot of each item, you will have to rummage around looking under your shorts and socks in order to find that special t-shirt. In that case, you would be better served if you had separate drawers for each item: one drawer for socks, one for t-shirts, and one for shorts. Each drawer has many items, but the items are grouped together because they have something in common.

So, if you have a few Organizations, they will fit just fine in the same Program/Division (drawer). If you have more than several Organizations, you probably need separate Programs/Divisions to help you find them. By ‘find’ I am referring not only to finding Organizations on the Organization Search page, but also finding people in Query Builder, where you may want to ‘find’ the members/visitors of just certain types of Organizations…such as everyone who is enrolled in or members of an Adult Life Group. It’s not just about finding the right Organization; it’s also about finding the right set of people based on the Organizations in which they are enrolled or are attending. By having Divisions, you can select the appropriate Program and Division in your query.

In this analogy:

• a chest of drawers represents a Program
• it can have several/many drawers, which represent Divisions
• inside each drawer are many items, which represent Organizations

How to create a new Program

Only the person with the Admin role can create a Program.

• Under the Admin menu, select Programs
• Click Create
• This creates the new Program (named ‘new program’) and assigns it a Program ID #
• Now click in the field under Program Name and type in the name of the new Program (example: Life Groups)
• Hit Enter – whenever you type in a field like this and there is not a OK button, always hit Enter to save your text

How to create a new Division

Only a person with the Org Tagger role can create a Division.

• Go to Organization Search
• Click Manager
• Select the Target Program – that is the Program that should contain your new Division
• Type in the name of the new Division (example: Adults)
• Click New
• Notice that your new Division has become the Target Division

How to assign Organizations to a Division

• Make sure the the Organizations are displayed on the Organization Search page
• Click Manager
• Select the Target Program and the Target Division
• Click Add beside each Organization you want add to the Target Division
  • Note: Add and Remove are actions. You are either adding to or removing from the Target Division

Main Division

Whenever you see an Organization in a list or in a tool-tip, the Division that is displayed is what we call the Main Division. This is also what prints on roll sheets and other reports/exports.

On an Organization’s page you can not only see at a glance all the Divisions for an Organization, but also to change which one is the Main Division or add the Organization to another Division.

Go to an Organization and look at the header – that’s the section on the Organization page that gives the basic information about that Organization, such as the Name, Schedule, Divisions, Location, etc. Notice the section named Divisions. There you will see all of the Divisions that this Organization is in. The Division at the top of the list is the Main Division.

Click in that area to open the Divisions Dialog Box. That’s where you can make a Division the Main Division by clicking Move to the Top. That is also where you can select other Divisions in which you want to place this Organization.

If you have more than 17 Divisions, you will want to search for a Division to narrow the list. Just type part of the name of the Division and press Search. You can also type in the ID# if you happen to know it. All Divisions that match what you typed will be displayed. Just check the box beside the one you want and then press Close to add the Organization to that Division.

Speaking of Division ID#s, if you hover over the name of a Division on the new Divisions Dialog, you will see the ID#. It is also the number that is in parentheses beside the Division in a tool-tip.