Picture I.D on Nametags

[hccdecatur]

I know this sounds petty...but I am inquiring as to how the upgrade does not contain capability of printing pic's on nametags?

I had called in and spoke to someone in Customer service who said that Powerchurch 11 contained the ability of printing pics on nametags. However, I am trying to figure out why that feature was not included in 11?

Can someone pls help me understand? Also, for those who read from tech support or Powerchurch employees, is there any plans to add? Or are we talking Powerchurch 12 or later?

Just an FYI...I did some checking and that capability exists w/ other companies products in this market...it seems to be a basic function, but maybe I am marginalizing it...

[Jeff]

This can accomplished fairly easily by creating a custom report. Our experience with customers is few have pictures of individuals. They may have pictures of family groups as a result a pictorial directory campaign, but not many individual pictures.

[hccdecatur]

I guess what I'm asking relates to check-in...Is there a capability of printing pic's straight to the nametags on the Dymo printer containing name, pic, etc?

The issue is having pic ID w/ the nametags generated out of the checkin software...

[Jeff]

Sorry, I did not realize from your original post that you were the check-in name badges. PowerChurch has printed name badge labels for years as part of the attendance module.

I realize that we are missing a Check In section in the forum and it should be added shortly. With this message posted in the Online forum, I need to point out that right now, the check in system will not work with PowerChurch Online. We are working on a ways to make Check In available to online customers. The check in system accesses information differently than PowerChurch Plus, making it difficult to adapt to the PowerChurch Online environment.

Instead of taking us to task because we are missing one feature, why not explain why this is a make or break feature for your church?

[hccdecatur]

I"m sorry...I am not trying to take PC to task...more or less our church's main interest in pics on nametags is the desire to be able to immediately cross reference the child's name and identity together.

The issue at present, although the # system, and the tag will match child to parent/guardian, the pic allows us to guarantee we have the right child w/ the right name, etc. for when a child is roaming.

I know the option is there to check the pic at the kiosk, but just trying to get a response to a question that was a key issue w/ us proceeding forward on the upgrade. That being said, there is alot of wonderful additions to PC's upgrade

If I am understanding, you are saying that addition might be made yet on PC11's Checkin software correct at some point in the near future?

Thanks!

[Jeff]

We have received several good suggestions for additional functionality for check in. Our first focus is determining how or if we can get Check In to work with PowerChurch Online. After that we'll be looking at other changes.

[Tracy]

Just wanting to clarify.

The desire is to have an image of the child (from the profile in PowerChurch) on the child's name tag printed when checking the child in.

[Justine Loker]

Our church would love to see picture nametags also. We are currently using Parent Pager for our children's check-in, but it has been a hassle to keep up both databases with addresses, etc. We would love for PowerChurch to be able to take over our Parent Pager check-in. I really think that the picture helps our volunteers to find that child when the parents are checking that child out.

[Jeff]

So do you want the picture on the child's nametag or on the parents security tag as well?

Right now we only print one parent security tag. If the picture is to be on the parent's security tag, what would you do when checking in mutiple children. Would you print one name badge and one security tag for each child? If that is the case then what do you do about the quick check out process, should we require each security tag to be scanned, or would scanning one parent security tag be enough?

[Justine Loker]

We currently have the picture on the child's name tag and when the parent check out the child it also prints out on the check-out paper so the child volunteer looking for that child has a picture to help him find them. With multiple children, you would check them out all at once and it would print 3 different sheets for the volunteers. We do have a finger scanner but don't use it that often. We usually use volunteer adult workers to check the children out when the parent comes to their computer station.

[Tracy]

This means during the service/event, someone will print a "check out sheet" which has children grouped by who checked them in with a picture next to the name? Or a sheet is printed for the worker to keep and a small tag is printed for the parent to hold on to? (which might be the name tags are kept with the teacher in our case).

We want this to be usable with out a lot of maintenance, extensive equipment requirements, etc...
Now that you've used a module for tracking nursery, check in/out scenarios, or you're thinking about getting one, take twenty minutes to explain how your environment benefits and what situations come up, what wishlist items you have. We want the system to be able to work for you and others. Is a printer, a dymo printer, and a barcode scanner required at every workstation? No, they could all be used at a given workstation, and not one of them is required to use the module. If you are not a worker in the area that uses or would use this, talk to them, find out what they feel could be beneficial and report back to us. If you are a working talk with others and get some feed back, put it all down and report back to us. We would like to get this streamlined without a complicated mess that the workers will just put it away and think it's a waste of time.

This is an open forum, post feed back here, or send an email to wishlist. Your idea's may bring other things to light for others, and spark additional ideas.

[hccdecatur]

Just to clarify on my part...

It would be beneficial to have the pics on both the parent and the child's nametags. The more pics the better

The benefit of Checkin is the relief it gives to office administration....however, it assists in improving security...so, any add'l improvements to security is a HUGE plus.

[Tracy]

If a parent drops a ticket with images of the children on it this would reduce security.
What happens when checking in multiple children, the way the DYMO printing works, multiple images on one label would be very difficult, multiple parent tickets does not work in the flow when a church or class choses to not print images.

[Justine Loker]

When a parent has a child or children that are attending Sunday school or Children's Church, they will walk back to our Children's wing to our counter. Our counter blocks off our children's wing from the rest of the church. It has two doors at opposite ends. One for going in and one for coming out. Every child has to be checked in before entering behind the check in counter. The parent tells our computer station operator their name and what child or children they are checking in. If they are visitors, we send them to our visitor staion where they will take pictures of the parents and children and continue through the check-in process. Anyone that has been here before will be able to check in at any station. The child will get a print out nametag with their name, their picture, and what room or program they are on that day. We have the option to print papers for the parents if needed but we don't use that option until the child is checked out. Upon check out, the parent goes to a computer station and tell their name and what child they are picking up. The computer operator will have a picture of the person who checked that child in or any other authorized person that is under that child's name so they will know if they are authorized. A paper will print out with the child's picture on it. We take that paper and turn it in to the person standing at the "check in" door and a scheduled runner will go and get the child out of the sanctuary and walk the child out to the "check out" door to meet up with the parent. The paper the runner has will have the child's picture and the picture of the person picking up the child. Each child will have his or her own check out paper. It works great ..... as long as we don't have technical problems. That's another check in procedure altogether. I hope this helps.

[hccdecatur]

Just to clarify...if a pic is optional in both the parents tag and the student's tag, that would be great. However, the main objective would be to have the child's tag w/ an image really.