Mavis Moon
I live in Lynden, WA, and attend Sonlight Church. I am retired. My last 25+ years of work were as the IT Director of Pivot Interiors, a Herman Miller office furniture company in San Jose, CA.
I grew up in the Air Force, where my dad was a chaplain. During my childhood, I lived in several places, including Michigan, Alaska, Washington, Texas, Florida, and Arizona. I went to Calvin College--now University--in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I met my husband, Randy.
We lived in San Jose, CA, for over 40 years and moved to Lynden, WA, in the Fall of 2024. I have 3 adult children and 3 grandchildren.
Posted in: Creating Small Groups for Bible Engagement
This sounds terrific, Keith! My brother is a CRC pastor in Toronto and meets with a group of business people for a lunchtime discussion. I don't know what materials he uses, but I believe the concept is the same. I'll have to get more details from him. But there's one CRC example anyway. :)
I will try to learn more about the CCBF network and curriculum.
Thanks!
Posted in: Salesforce for Church - Part II
I would agree with what Justin said. You do have to do some customization since it's not made specifically for churches. I cover what customization I did in my two articles.
We use Salesforce's mass mailing capabilities pretty frequently and it works well. We have all our members in there and can easily select who we went to send mail to. I created a simple template with our church logo and we use that to write messages.
As far as what it can't do, it's not a solution like ChurchSocial or others that are far more extensive in what they include, and specifically created for churches.
Hope that helps!
Posted in: Salesforce for Church - Part II
Hi Deva, I wrote about using Salesforce several years ago. I used it in my workplace, too, for some time. I have retired now and not kept up on the Salesforce technology. In our church we started using Planning Center for tracking not only offerings but membership, mailing, planning, and other things. It is made specifically for churches and the object is to try to have one central place for everything--all systems using one "official" list of contacts & info. Nothing is perfect but I like this program and recommend it. (https://planningcenteronline.com)
If you'd like more on Salesforce, it might be good to ask others who have commented and use it. Sorry I can't be more help.
Posted in: Salesforce for Church - Part II
Hi Marieke,
I used the regular (NOT the non-profit) package. I checked out the non-profit version but found it didn't work the way I wanted. If I remember right it kind of combined persons and households, and it seemed geared toward large non-profits who are tracking donations from companies and that kind of thing, rather than the way I am using it as an internal directory of our households and people and their offerings.
Mavis
Posted in: Salesforce for Church - Part II
Hi Annika,
When I started Salesforce I did lots of training with the videos in their Help & Training site, the Learning Center. The ones under Setup and some under Reports and Dashboards gave me the basics i needed to get things set up. Their help documentation is very thorough. I also used the little "Help on this page" links a lot as I was working inside the program.
I also used the Answers section to post questions to the community. It's great the way people are willing to help you out. If I really got stuck, I would open a case. You don't get an immediate answer, but they do respond and work with you.
It sounds like you've got a good start already. Hope things go well.
Posted in: Salesforce for Church - Part II
Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier on this; missed it somehow. If you go to my profile, you'll see a "Contact" tab and you can email me from there.
-- Mavis
Posted in: Why Give a Tweet?
Thank you, Allen and Martin, for your comments. It's great to hear actual experiences from those of you active in Twitter. What a powerful story, Martin, of your use of prayer during the manhunt in your community. Isn't it amazing God can be present in the virtual world, too?
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
Hi Thomas,
If I understand your question correctly, the answer is yes.
Do you mean that you'd like to host your church website with another provider and still use Google Apps and GMail? That actually is what we do. When people go to www.sjcrc.org they see our public website. People wanting to log in to their Gmail or Google Apps go to a different address, or use the link I put on that public website.
For both things the domain name can be the same, so your Gmail addresses would have the same domain name as your church's website. When you set up Google Apps, if you already own a domain it will prompt you to do some steps that prove you own and have access to that domain, and then you can use that domain name for your Google Apps and Gmail.
Hope this helps.
Mavis
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
Nate,
Sorry it took me so long to respond. I found this page comparing the free vs. "busines" Apps: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html. The nice thing for churches is that we get the "Education version" for free. This Wikipedia page also compares the different versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Apps.
Hope that helps.
Mavis
Posted in: How to Start Using Google Apps
You're right, Picasa is a great program. I am thinking of doing an article on photo sharing and Picasa is right up there. I especially love the way it quickly and easily corrects red-eye. Thanks for bringing it up!
Posted in: Art & Design — Solving Problems, Looking Good for God
Great input, Robert. It sounds like you've got a lot of expertise and insight on this topic - thank you!
What a good point that there is a different "problem" than just clear words. I love the idea that we can use our visuals, as we try to use all our gifts, to help us -- and others -- experience God more fully.
Thanks a million for those $.02. :)
Posted in: Wi-Fi — Make it Secure
Thanks, Kyle. Good points and excellent information! (And I love the word "shennanigans". :) )