We are a pretty tech savvy team, this gives you an introduction to the tools and systems we use.
GSuite – https://gsuite.google.com
The backbone of life at foothills. All work must be done on Foothills google system not personal.
- Gmail – email system
- Drive – document storage
- Calendar – work calendering & staff meetings (not facilities usage)
Slack – https://slack.com/
Backbone of daily intra-staff communication. Instant message style. Desktop app, web based app, and mobile app. Read more in the Slack Guide
WordPress
Our website is based on the wordpress platform. WordPress.org not WordPress.com. We do have a wordpress.com blog but thats going away.
Airtable –https://airtable.com
New tool used to categorize information. More functionality than a Google Sheet. Ex: Worship attendance, music resource list, podcast statistics,Foothills testimonials, worship planning overview.
Canva-https://canva.com
Used for creating graphics for Communicator, Order of Service, Website, Service Memes, Slides, and Social Promotions
Flickr-http://flickr.com
Storage for all Foothills photos.
MailChimp- mailchimp.com
Email Campaigns and marketing for the church.
Audacity-
Software for editing podcast.
Podbean – podbean.com
Current host for our sermon podcast
SundayStreams – https://sundaystreams.com/manager/
Livestream distributor and host.
ProPresenter –https://renewedvision.com/propresenter/
Software we use to project media (song lyrics, images, videos) during worship.
Planning Center https://planning.center/
AKA Planning Center Online, AKA PCO
PCO is our Church Management System, it combines our database, event management, online giving and donation management, group communications, worship planning, and volunteer management. Not much eh.
PCO is essentially six sub-apps that interface with a central app.
- People is the central app.
- It contains individual profiles, allows us to build lists based on profile information, allows us to create online forms, and we can put people in workflows.
- Services is about worship & volunteering
- Orders of service are created here, Sunday hospitality volunteers managed and scheduled, contains a database of music and songs.
- Registrations is the platform for RSVP and payments for events
- Most events we put on we ask people to register, we do this through registrations.
- Groups is our management system for church related groups
- Each group has a page, a roster of members, an events calendar, can take attendance for events, and leaders can email all group members.
- Check-Ins allows us to collect attendance and headcounts
- For most events we ask people to check in on a tablet. This gives us data as to trends of attendance globally and specifically a person’s engagement in the church.
- Resources is our facilities management system
- Our central calendar that manages all the room bookings and reserving ‘stuff’
- Giving is our donation management system
- Online giving, text giving, fund management. All done in Giving.
How to log in: https://people.planningcenteronline.com/