Comments on: Databases

By: Ministry Software

Ministry Software — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:29:52 +0000

Another piece of software in the volunteer scheduling arena is Ministry Scheduler Pro:
http://www.ministryschedulerpro.com
It integrates with ACS so if you are doing volunteer scheduling you might want to check that out as well. It also integrates with a lot of other databases. (I personally would not recommend ACS from what I’ve seen, but I know it is popular.)

By: James Higginbotham

James Higginbotham — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:31:39 +0000

I have built a volunteer scheduling tool called Church Director. Some smaller churches use it both for managing volunteer schedules and tracking basic volunteer details. http://www.churchdirector.com
Our church, which is much larger, uses Fellowship One in addition to Church Director. I’ve worked with their development team in the past to do data integration, and they are a great group!

By: Jon Morris

Jon Morris — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:04:56 +0000

we just switched from a CMS based on a network system to a planningcenteronline.com which is based on the web…anyone you want can access it and you can on the road. great for organizing ministry and people.

By: rick

rick — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:06:28 +0000

Bobby – I nominate you… go to my blog!

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:21:16 +0000

We use FellowshipOne.com It’s got it’s pluses which far outweigh any minuses.

By: kevin

kevin — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:48:25 +0000

Reasons to have a Database
Track Members of the Church
– Phone Numbers
– Address
– Bday
– Etc
Use it on a Kiosk
– The software will allow people to sign up for things
– Sign up for a mailing list
– Sign up to receive info about stuff
Website
– If you remember back in the day I had a database Driven Website. You visually couldn’t see it, but everything was pulled from a database. I know you have a website now, but it would more than likely be used for an internal website to be viewed in a kiosk or something.
Accounting Purposes
– Track Giving
– Budgetary Reasons
Keep Track of Payment
– Run reports on who hasn’t paid for specific event.
– Send out via email or generate individual letters that are sent out with people’s indivual name and remaining balance on it pertaining to a specific event. All with a click of a button.
Worship
– Keep track of what songs are played during certain events so when the CCLI# people come to audit you have your documents in place.
– You could also link to songs somewhere on the network and have them print when selected in the key you want it. But thats pretty tricky and labor intensive.
Supporters
– Track Supports outside the church
– Generate thank you letters or what not to those.
Mission’s
– Keep track what missionary’s you are supporting
– Send out letters
– Track how much you are giving to each person/group/state/country (helpful in informing congregation maybe.
Calendar of Events
It can work as a calendar for planning purposes if you don’t already have a calendar. (Helpful for web stuff mainly)
– Reminder for email of certain events.
– Run Graphs for reports and stuff.
This is just a quick little list off hand. I’ve never heard of the software, So i don’t know how or what all they offer a user or restrict a fellow semi database guru programmer such as myself in creating cool applications stated above. I’m sure there is more, i’m just not in church mode… or your church mode. I could so consult on this stuff. It would just take me forever to create the database.. haha.
I love a good database!!

By: Jenn Glenn

Jenn Glenn — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:01:10 +0000

Hey Bobby, this post made me laugh. Why? Cause anything that decreases funds bugs a Bookeeper. If you find a new program, you need to figure out how it’s going to save you tons in the long run and then go sell the idea to the Bookeeper. Once you’ve got said person motivated, he/she will be on board to sell your great idea to the entire office!

By: Jamie Stavenger

Jamie Stavenger — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:00:09 +0000

I have nothing to add to this conversation…this post may as well been in Japanese. BUT, I wanted to say that I really miss you guys and hope all is well under the California sun.

By: bobby

bobby — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:17:49 +0000

Ha! It’s all good. Thanks for the thoughts though Carolyn! But yeah, we’re set I think on accounting. I’m trying to figure out how I could or should use any other sort of people database or what not.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:12:09 +0000

oops.. I thought you were looking for an accounting database. sorry.