How do you register parents and kids for Camp and VBS currently? Is it all by paper? Do you use a third party tool or your website provider form to capture the information electronically and then have to export it to Excel or manually enter it into your database? What about accepting and tracking payments?
In Meet The Software every week, I talk about how we empower leaders by integrating their multiple data sources (including sticky notes and Excel) into a single database. Instead of their information being scattered, leadership is empowered when their information lives and works together! Join me in that Zoom webinar for additional insights into why and how technology evolved to create this frustration and how we resolve it.
We started helping churches manage registrations more than a decade ago and have been asked about and added every imaginable option. Our goal has always been to provide best in class level form and event registration software. And, to have it built in so that it works seamlessly with every other part of the software (demographic updates, email, text, workflows, attendance, previous involvement, etc.).
There are several unique challenges we have to address to make sure data is secure and stays as clean (aka not messed up) as possible. One of them has to do with keeping parent and child information separate and accurate.
For example, because they've used paper or separate registration tools in the past, parents often add their email or mobile phone number as if it were their children's. But, in reality their children either do not have them or have different ones! So, that information on the child's record is inaccurate and has to be cleaned up later on. But, you obviously have to have parent contact information for any event that involves their children. See the problem?
Over time we have observed, adjusted, and tweaked this and many other options related to registrations. With these high value childrens events around the corner, we recently updated the following Knowledge Base Article with step by step details and videos to show you our recommended best practices for setting up Camp and VBS registrations.
We love youth camp and VBS and we love helping church staff streamline their systems for making these events special.
