User Support Forum

I need some help in understanding how to set up the activites and skills. We are a new church, so we don't have a lot of activities, but I want to get things set up correctly.

First, what is the difference in activities and skills?

I've entered all the Activity and Skill Custom Codes, but how do I assign those to people? I guess I need to see know how other small churches do this.

I've been using PowerChurch since 1995. This is what I have developed for the activities parts. I'm cutting and pasting the list here...
Activity/Skill...................................................Type..............Dept
100 MEETING THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH....Bible Study.......Adults
300 VESTRY
301 Sr. Warden
302 Jr. Warden
303 Vestry Clerk
304 Vestry Member
305 Treasurer
306 Chancellor
400 CHURCH REPRESENTATIVES
401 Eastern Parish
402 Cursillo
403 Agents of God's Care
404 Convention Delegate
500 NURSERY STAFF
501 Nursery Coordinator
502 Paid Nursery Worker
503 Nursery Volunteer
600 CHILDREN'S MINISTRIES........Sunday School.......Children
601 Little Blessings Nursery......... Sunday School.......Children
602 Little Lambs...........................Sunday School.......Children
603 CROSS Training.....................Sunday School.......Children
604 Sunday School Teacher..........Sunday School.......Children
807 Advent Event.....................................................Children
808 Baptism Class........................Bible Study............Worship
900 CHURCH TASK GROUPS
901 Office Angel
902 Power Pray-ers
903 Building Group
904 Long Range Planning Group
905 Stewardship
907 Blessed Counters.......................Skill / Interest........Adults
1000 WORSHIP MINISTRIES
1001 Lay Eucharistic Ministers
1002 Wedding Coordinator
1003 Prayer Chain
1101 Altar Guild.................................Worship................Adults
1102 Acolytes
1103 Lay Readers/Lectors...................Worship
1113 Preachers
1114 Video/Sound Technicians.............Worship
1115 The ROCK Planning Team
1207 8:30 a.m. Choir...........................Worship...............Music
1208 10:30 Music Team........................Worship...............Music
1400 SMALL GROUPS
1408 Young at Hearts
1410 Singles
1500 MEN'S EVENTS
1501 Luminaria Brkfst. Participants.......Small Group........Adults
1503 Men's Retreat..............................Small Group........Adults
1505 Pancake Supper..........................Small Group........Adults
1600 WOMEN'S EVENTS
1601 Womens Events Planning Team
1602 Womens Retreat Planning Team
1603 Womens Retreat Participant
1604 Womens Event Participant
1700 YOUTH MINISTRIES......................Small Group....... Youth
1710 Youth Group.................................Youth Group........Youth
1715 X-ALT
1716 In His Hands
1800 MEMORIAL GARDEN PLANNING
1900 AHWATUKEE PLANNING TEAM
1950 Family Retreat Attendee

Our list allows us to select people for special mailings and allows us to select phone numbers for groups. Basically, I'd do a number based system and give yourself lattitude to insert more numbers as more groups are added.

We have not worked much with skills, but find the activity portion very helpful.

Activities and Skills are really the same in PowerChurch.

The examples listed in the prior post are all examples of activities, but if you wanted to use this module to track skills, you could do the following:

5000 PERFORMANCE SKILLS
5002 Solo singing
5004 Choral singing
5006 Song leader
5008 Composer
5010 Organist
5012 Guitarist

5100 TRADE SKILLS
5102 Carpentry
5104 Plumbing
5106 Electrical
5108 Roofing

This would allow you, in a time of need, to query the membership for people who have carpentry skills, or to fill in as a song leader.

The functionality in PowerChurch is exactly the same for tracking Activities OR Skills.

So how do I assign a Custom Code to someone?

The Custom Codes allow you to define only the Types, Departments, and Roles for your Activities and Skills.

To add new Activities or Skills, click the Maintain Descriptions option found under Membership > Activities & Skills.

There are three different methods you can use to add people to your defined activities / skills:

- Mass Update Activities & Skills: This allows you to add either ALL people from membership to an activity, or you can use the standard Selection Criteria dialog to choose a group of people to add to the activity / skill.

- Maintain Activities & Skills: Allows you to bring up one person at a time and choose the activities / skills that they are a member of.

- Maintain List of Attenders: Allows you to bring up one activity / skill at a time and choose what people should be members of it.