As a person becomes more and more involved with your church, what is
the best way to capture the information you will be storing in
Fellowship One? One of the things you can do to
help your staff is to document where you want this information stored.
This is
not meant to be a complicated or daunting process; in fact, it should
be simple
and perhaps one page in length. Don't think it's possible? Let's break
it down
a little bit by using a case study of Bob Stick.
Rather watch instead of read? Click here to check
out Bill's video blog
We have lots of information about Bob that we've collected
as he attends events and activities at the church. For example, we know his
father is a missionary, he speaks Spanish fluently, he is CPR certified, and
many other information points. We can track all of these things in a logical
way that will help us locate them easily later. Suppose I am starting a new
program targeted at our Spanish speaking community. Wouldn't it be nice to
quickly find all people who speak Spanish so that we can invite them to
volunteer? Sure it would!
To make sure we are able to find people quickly using a
repeatable process, we need to make sure information like this is stored in a
logical place. This is where documenting processes is critical. Let's look at a
chart of all the places where we can store things in Fellowship One.
Click here to see full sized view
All this information on Bob needs a place to live. Using logic and
some strategy, we have placed a check mark beside each possible
location for this information.
Note: This is an example only. Use your judgment
based on your knowledge of your staff on where these data items would be stored
for your church. Also notice that some of the items could result in more than
one piece of information. For example, In Celebrate Recovery could be
both a relationship with a mentor/accountability partner and an assignment to a
confidential activity Celebrate Recovery.
Breaking it down
Let's make it even simpler. Instead of the actual data
for Bob, let's categorize data into main categories. As shown in the image
below, we've taken these informational tidbits and separated them in one of
following categories:
-
Nice to know information
-
Item that requires action
-
Completed volunteer requirement
-
Special hobbies/skills
-
Activity that requires mentoring
-
Activity attendance
-
Life event
You will probably be able to think of others as well. Again,
you will notice in the image below that we have multiple check marks in some of
the rows. Some information can be stored in more than one place. For example,
an activity that requires mentoring would probably require both an assignment
to a confidential activity and assignment to a relationship.
Click here to see full sized view
We have created a simple table for you to use to
generate your own information plan.
Click here to download our template. Look for
more of these documentation templates soon!