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I would love to see a Permanent Pager Number Field added to Fellowship!  Parents need consistency.  I think a random pager number that constantly changes would confuse parents.  Just imagine the noise of a few hundred parents shuffling through their papers to check their card every time they see a new number up front.  

tgrace, I fully agree with you. We actually don't use the 3 digit code at all, the first reason being that our paging system will only accept numbers. Second reason is that our Childrens pastor was adamant that paging numbers would remain the same vs changing every time a child checked in, that and she was totally turned off by the look of the large codes.

We currently use self checkin and our kids each have their own quick check card with a barcode number on it. What we did was we took the barcode number and we not only placed it in the barcode field but we also place it in the default tag comments field directly below the barcode field. What this does is it causes the childs barcode to print on their nametag. So, now the childs barcode is on two things, the childs quick check card (which parent uses to pick their child up vs a paper receipt)and the childs name tag. The parent shows up to class with the childs quick check card and the volunteer will check the number on the quick check card to the number on the childs name tag.

As for identifying visitors in kids we have them fill out paperwork (we don't put them in Fellowship). We manually do up a name tag for the kids, red for first time visitors and blue for second time visitors. This makes the child visible to volunteers because they have colored nametags vs white that all our regular attendees have.

Yes, there is paperwork involved but because of the area we live in we get thousands of kids who come through every year and don't always come back due to different reasons. So, we feel strongly about not putting all these kids into the system because we know allot of them won't be back.

I hope some of this info helps you.

Kim

Kim,

Thanks for your insight.  That’s a great idea using the tag comment line, but what if the child has allergies or custody issues?  Of course, I don’t know how much tag line real-state is available on the nametag.  Coming from ACS, this has really been our only squawk, ACS had its own designated pager number field.   We will mostly likely just use the last 3 digits from the barcode number. But ideally, it’d be great if there was a set “pager” field that would display on the child’s nametag as well as on the parent’s receipt.

Todd

Great Idea.  I have been wanting to do this and now I have a template!!!

As a parent and Fellowship Personnel at my church, I am very happy with the 3 digit system.  I believe that alot of security comes with having a different code every service.  I also know that Fellowship One has done a great job of creating security with that.

Many churches work very hard at keeping things as unencumbered as possible.  They rightly reason that if the attendee finds attendance too difficult or too many hoops to jump through, they will be turned off and less likely to come back.  

Last year I was visiting a church in the Northeast who had opted to bypass the security receipt.  They reasoned that the additional burden to the parents added one more layer of frustration that wasn’t necessary.  Sure, it is one more layer that must be dealt with.  However, because they never actually implemented the receipt process they weren’t able to assess the real burden it caused.  

You… reading this… do you use the receipts?  You tell us what the burden is.  In the meantime, I will tell you that from my experience with 100’s of churches that do… it is trivial.  You have brought up a couple additional issues: the existing paging system will only support numbers and the idea of 100’s of parents rifling through their purse looking for their receipt as a number is flashed (consequently taking them and people around them from focusing on the message).  I will provide some insight I have uncovered over the years regarding those, but first let me fill you in on something we haven’t publically discussed before.

Through personal relationships with several of our customers, they have shared what could have been a very tragic situation averted because of the receipt we generate.  This isn’t something a church typically wants to share as they don’t want to scare their membership, so I assume there are many other stories we haven’t heard.  They range from the family going through a custody battle trying to pick up a child (too common) to someone hiding in a children’s bathroom hoping to bypass the security at the front door.  All it takes is once and you will wonder why the security tag was such a burden before.

Now, back to the two additional issues brought up… these are probably the most common I hear.  First, the pager system- yeah, I know it stinks to have to invest in something new, but the pager boards that support alphanumeric are down to $500; you should weigh this cost against the additional security benefit.  Secondly, the “is that my receipt code shuffle”- the practice we recommend is to display the child’s name on the board followed by the receipt code.  I understand that this can seem to be disrespectful to the parents, but in practice I haven’t seen anyone who actually cared; perhaps you can use the first name only or initials.

We strongly recommend that you consider taking advantage of this security feature you already have available to you.  If you are still concerned about the process, please get in touch with a neighboring church that uses it and get firsthand experience with how minimally invasive it can be.

Curtis,

Many churches, like ours, feel that a numeric or alphanumeric pager display board in the sanctuary is distracting. On our "largest" campus, we have choosen to use physical vibrating pagers to contact the parents. This works well for us and allows us to reach a parent no matter where they might be on the campus.

In our other two campuses, we use numeric pager display boards. There are a lot of ideas that have been posted, but we would love to be able to permanently assign a numeric pager number to a parent. It would speed up the check in process. Also we would like to see the numeric pager number printed on the parent receipt to help them remember the pager number.

Now you bring up a good point for those campuses, why not switch to an alphanumeric paging system. This way, the 3 digit security code is also the pager number. That would work great, with one exception. Churches would probably tend to stop clicking on Assign Pager Number and simply use the security code on the child's name tag to page the parent. But what if the child lost or destroyed the name tag? Without the name tag, there is no way to know what code to use to page the parent. Which means that you need to enter the security code in the Assign Pager Number field during check-in. But, you don't know that code until the child checks in.

If you are indeed suggesting that the security code be used with an alphanumeric paging display as the "recommended" then there needs to be someway to pull up that security code for the child in the portal. A simple solution would be to automatically assign the security code to the pager field in situations where the pager field was not:

a) manually entered at the time of check-in

b) permanently assigned to a child (if you add that feature)

What are your thoughts?

Our church saved a lot of money by not purchasing a new alpha numeric system when we switched to F1, but we now include it on our powerpoint slides in the bottom right hand corner.  The codes are called in by the Children's Ministry or our Welcome Desk (for elders or medical team members) via a two-way blinking phone system to our multi-media desk.  This also was a benefit as the number is available on all TV's throughout the church that are showing the service.

Part of the security attraction of F1 was the fact that the security numbers do change each week.  We also change the color of our nametags each weekend.  

Agreed on the random gened security codes. We use are media software, Songshow+ to display the tag codes. We don't display the child's name and we have had no problems with getting parents to respond. Once explained they "parents" like the idea that it takes the tag to pick up their children. I like the yellow card idea. That is the missing piece in our communication to visitors on our security measures.

Lee Holley

I am surprised by the number of comments regarding not using the random security code generated each time a child is checked in.  We are a relatively large church, expecially in the Northeast.  We too have found the issue of using display boards ineffective for several reasons.  The main problem is that people would not see the codes displayed.  We use individual silent pagers that vibrate for contacting parents during services.  We use the security code receipt for pick up. The majority of parents, even first timers, are very comforted by all the security measures.

I like the cross training/cross ministry effort to recognize new families through the use of the yellow card.  We originally trained our room workers to watch for children with a "V" at the beginning of their code to signal a first timer.  We quickly learned that there are various reasons when a first time attender to our children's ministry does not get the "V".