Rachel
For that exact reason we actually chose from day one NOT to use the status of Visitor. We felt like it would require too much tracking/maintenance in regards to when they get moved to Attendee.
I am the Database Manager at our Church and we have two Campuses with a total of 4 Weekend services "not including Young Adults" that takes place during the week. Basically what we do is that anyone who gives or fills out any form during our weekend service is automatically entered as an Attendee. In addition to that I created an Attribute called "Information Source" that identifies where the person's information came from. So we have individual attributes like Accounting, Connection Card-Tacoma or Bellevue this is a multi-purpose form but its also the same form we use for First Time Visitors, then we have Connection Card-Youth and so on. We only enter this Info Source attribute when someone is getting entered brand new into the system. This allows us to see where their info originated from. Then via attributes we track their first two visit dates, and obviously we can only document the 2nd visit if they actually fill out another visitor card and mark they are returning.
For our church which run's on average 3,000+ each weekend we leave a person's status at Attendee until one of two things happends. First if they complete our Membership Class and at that point we change their status to Member and record the date they completed Class as their new Status Date. Second if they request to be removed from our database we change them to inactive attendee.
We also have a Misc status, we assign this to people who fill out a form during weekend services and they have an Out of State Address. This allows us to target them differently in terms of thier visit to our church.
Your right, there is only so much you can do to accurately reflect by status who is an actual attendee in your church. There are allot of people that will fly under the radar, meaning they could come faithfully every week or even a couple of times a month but never fill anything out and either not give or maybe they give cash.
So, yes, by doing this we have people in the database as Attendees who its possible have not been here in quite some time. However, we do 5 major conferences each year in addition to a Scrooge Production during the holidays and the list goes on and on. So, the way we look at it is, even if the person is not attending, we can still send them info on special events going on at church. We just felt it would be an impossible task to try and track whether or not every attendee or even Member for that matter is actually attending. We can obviously monitor it to some degree by giving and through their volunteering and attendance to special events so this really comes down to those that fly under the radar, there really isn't anything you can do.
One last thing we do is in the event that we get mail returned to us then we flag their address as mail returned. Then what we do is a couple of times a year we run a report based on that status and the date it was issued and if its been in the system that way for more then 6 months then we change their status to inactive. You can pretty much figure that if they have moved and have not filled anything out at the church with updated info within 6 months then more then likely they are no longer attending.
The only thing I can suggest is that if you are really wanting an accurate count for who is physically attending your church would be to run a report "might take more then one" that would identify people who have no record of activity in terms of giving, attendance, or simply filling out forms. I you have email or address on those people maybe once or twice a year email/mail them some sort of card asking them if they are still actively attending your church.
Sorry so long, hope some of this helps you. Let me know if you have any further questions.
Kim Ludwick
Database Manager
Champions Centre
"One Church, Two Locations"
Tacoma/Bellevue, WA