As churches grow, many choose to introduce multiple service times to provide space for new attendees and families to visit and feel comfortable rather than continually trying to expand their buildings. Dozens (or in some cases, hundreds) of parents bring their kids and drop them off in classrooms or children’s church prior to going to the main worship service.
Anyone working in children’s and student ministries knows the top three priorities of check-in:
- Each child is checked into an age-appropriate classroom
- Health or custody issues are well understood by staff and volunteers
- Child pick-up is limited only to authorized adults
We would like to add a fourth priority: In addition to checking in children and families,
Volunteers are checking in to their assigned roles as well.
During this dynamic, 15-20 minute check-in window, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of activity. Volunteers may inadvertently check in more kids than a teacher can handle, compromising care. Or, due to unexpected demand, churches may need to open a new room on the fly, but doing so is cumbersome and opens up the risk that important child information may not transfer. This is a frustrating experience for parents and volunteers, directly impacting the church’s ability to accomplish its mission.
We’re working on four new applications that expand on the traditional check-in system you know and love today.
Fellowship One Teacher
Fellowship One Teacher will be the first piece completed within the new check-in solution. This feature will enable volunteers and/or staff to have access to information on their specific room assignments. They can see when children are added to their class before the child gets to the room. They can check kids in and out, see their security codes and important notes like food allergies and any upcoming birthdays. Teachers can filter the rooster to only show kids that are on-site, checked in or checked out order to work quickly and efficiently. Teachers can also add any important notes or comments.
*Image shown is a design in-progress and is subject to change
Fellowship One Coordinator
We are putting the controls back into the hands of the coordinator. Fellowship One Coordinators will be able to move teachers around based on demand. Rooms will automatically close once they have reached their limits, but coordinators can add more space to a room and reopen it. As an example, maybe the coordinator decides to move a teacher into a grade room that is in high demand and now has an additional 4 spots available. Also, teachers can “raise a hand” and alert coordinators that they need help.
*Image shown is a design in-progress and is subject to change
Self Check-in
This will allow members to use their InFellowship credentials to check-in from their phone or tablet once they come within a certain distance of the church. The self check-in will be very similar to the kiosk check-in. However, there will be a few more options for the user. For example, they can specify permanent or temporary notes. Permanent notes might be a food allergy and a temporary note might be “upset stomach, please don’t feed my baby today.” They can also add profile pictures from their phone. Future functionality will also allow churches to better facilitate communication between the caregivers and parents.
Assisted Check-in
Up to now, we have only had kiosk or station check-in. This new update will let mobile volunteers (with an iPad and hip printer) check in visitors wherever they may come into the church.
Coming to iOS
As you may have guessed from the iPad comment under assisted check-in, these new features will be available for apple users. Teacher, Coordinator and Self Check-in will all be responsive which means that everyone can access this new solution on any device they have on hand with the proper credentials.
These features are coming out to our select test group this year, and we are very excited to put these new solutions into your hands. Look forward to spending less time working with software and more time interacting with your congregation.
