Section 2:
Before we get started talking about how to prepare yourself for the club year, we need to talk about cloning. There may not be enough of you.
There are many ways to run your church's program, but it's very important to have no more than 50 clubbers per secretary.
If you have more than 50 clubbers or once you grow to more than 50 clubbers, you need help.
Now the ideal way (in our perfect world that's overflowing with volunteers) would be to have one secretary for each club: one in with the Cubbies, one in with the Sparks, and so on. It allows the secretary to know the kids and their situations, and to give answers off the top of his or her head when needed.
But that's rarely a feasible option, and it's just one way of doing things. It all depends on your individual church and what works best for you.
It may be that you function best with a central secretary who has multiple helpers. One way that could work would be to split the duties. The central secretary could be in charge of attendance and supplies, while the others handle achievement and awards for individual clubs.
Or, your T&T club may be large enough to need two secretaries all on its own, while all the other clubs share a single secretary. It's totally up to your church.
But whatever you do, if one person is managing more than 50 clubbers - get help!
There are many ways to run your church's program, but it's very important to have no more than 50 clubbers per secretary.
If you have more than 50 clubbers or once you grow to more than 50 clubbers, you need help.
Now the ideal way (in our perfect world that's overflowing with volunteers) would be to have one secretary for each club: one in with the Cubbies, one in with the Sparks, and so on. It allows the secretary to know the kids and their situations, and to give answers off the top of his or her head when needed.
But that's rarely a feasible option, and it's just one way of doing things. It all depends on your individual church and what works best for you.
It may be that you function best with a central secretary who has multiple helpers. One way that could work would be to split the duties. The central secretary could be in charge of attendance and supplies, while the others handle achievement and awards for individual clubs.
Or, your T&T club may be large enough to need two secretaries all on its own, while all the other clubs share a single secretary. It's totally up to your church.
But whatever you do, if one person is managing more than 50 clubbers - get help!
Now that you've done everything you can for the club as a whole (and duplicated yourself, if necessary), it's time to prepare yourself and for your own specific job as an Awana secretary.
An Awana secretary's job is to encourage through organization and management.
How do you feel when others are habitually late or unprepared? When they're disorganized and unable to find the things they need to get the job done? Does it grate on your nerves? How much would you be encouraged if your co-workers were punctual, prepared, and organized?
A secretary is like the oil in a machine that allows it to function smoothly and productively. He or she encourages clubbers by recognizing and promptly awarding achievement and facilitating the purchase of uniforms and handbooks. They encourage leaders by having reliable answers to their questions.
An Awana secretary's job is to encourage through organization and management.
How do you feel when others are habitually late or unprepared? When they're disorganized and unable to find the things they need to get the job done? Does it grate on your nerves? How much would you be encouraged if your co-workers were punctual, prepared, and organized?
A secretary is like the oil in a machine that allows it to function smoothly and productively. He or she encourages clubbers by recognizing and promptly awarding achievement and facilitating the purchase of uniforms and handbooks. They encourage leaders by having reliable answers to their questions.
Pray for opportunities
- As with our earlier section when we started preparing for the club year by tracking down prayer warriors, you want to start preparing yourself by praying.
- Ask God to open your eyes to see the opportunities you will have to encourage your clubbers and leadership through recognition and organization.
Read a role book
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Choose a system
The next major thing is to choose a record keeping system. Unless your church is a new club, there's probably already a system in place for you to work with.
Common options include:
What system you are using isn't as important as the fact that you have some kind of system that works for you.
Common options include:
- Paper records
- Awana is set up to track information with paper records, and that's fine. You can design your own forms or spreadsheets, or purchase packs of forms from Awana.
- While paper records are fine to use, computers can make it easier to maintain.
- ARK (Missionary Tech Team)
- Awana Record Keeping software (or ARK for short) is produced and maintained by Dan Harding, a missionary at Missionary TECH Team in Longview, TX. Some of the things ARK tracks include sections, awards, attendance, clubber records, and inventory.
- There are different versions.
- Desktop version: If this is your club's first year, Missionary TECH Team will give you your first year free (desktop version only). For all others, there is a $40 annual fee to cover the cost of maintenance and technical support. You may install as many copies of ARK as you need for your club and still pay the one $40 fee.
- Web based version: $60/year
- App: There's also a free app which will work with each of the versions, though with differing features.
- ARK can be purchased and downloaded at www.arkweb.org/
- Approved Workmen
- I haven't used this one, but many people in my class over the years have and have liked it.
- It runs $200-$500+, depending on the number of users.
- Approved Workmen can be purchased at http://www.approvedworkman.com
- Other computer programs
- There are lots and lots of other programs out there. You can use one of those, use paper forms, or mix and match with what works for you.
What system you are using isn't as important as the fact that you have some kind of system that works for you.
System setup
- Once you've chosen which system your church will use or figured out what they're already using, it probably needs to have some initial setup done.
- If you are a new church, you can get a jump start by entering as much clubber information as you can from Sunday School rolls, then wait to complete the job after the pre-registration event.
- If you are using a computer program that was used previously, you may be able to continue to use the clubber information previously entered.
- You may need to find a way to "promote" previous clubbers to a new grade. If you're using ARK, there's a button for that.
- There are some additional things that your church might wish to record in the clubber records. In ARK, this can be done by adding custom fields. These can include:
- Allergies
- Custodial parent or other important custody information
- Preferred nickname
- Name of clubber who originally brought them as a visitor
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