Several years ago, we developed an integration that allows you to send your list data from our PDS, ACS, and Headmaster products directly  in to Constant Contact. This saves you the time of setting up a spreadsheet, saving it, and manually loading it in to your Constant Contact account. Within the ACS product, there is also the ability to send your contribution statements via Constant Contact.

Our clients continually provide feedback on how they enjoy the product as well as the integrations. I am excited to share that we now have a special promotion for ALL of our clients with Constant Contact. Starting today, February 1, if our clients sign up for a new Constant Contact account at http://acspromo.constantcontact.com they get 50% off of their first 6 months of billing. I love a good deal! This is for ALL of our ACS Tehnologies clients – PDS, ACS, Headmaster, The City, Membership Plus, Organizations, etc. I wanted to share the word, so you can share your word!

Over the Christmas holidays, I went to a lunch program at my hometown church.  It was a great offering of Christmas music in the Sanctuary followed by soup and sandwiches in the Fellowship Hall. This church, much like many of you, has just completed a large renovation project. I viewed the new workout facility, Sunday School classes, and DVD offerings in the updated library. The thing that caught my attention the most was hand sanitizer machines placed beside elevators and large gathering entrances.  I thought it made complete sense. They were subtle yet appropriate enough. This was a great idea and addition to the facilities. Prior to lunch, I even tested them out.

May we continue to worship, but may we try to stay well also. For those that make church their first outing after being stuck inside sick, may they please cleanse their hands.

What a great way to kick off 2011, with an adventure with his family.  Little did Ron know at the time, but that walk would set the tone for his whole year.  At the end of 2011 , Ron started a new journey.  Ron had been serving as the Business Administrator at Bethany Assembly of God, a large church in Agawam, MA for the past 7 years.  He was a certified ACS Trainer as well.  He has now not only moved homes to be closer to his children in Ohio, but he joins the ACS Technologies Training and Implementation team.

Welcome, Ron!  We are pleased to have him on the team as he helps with combining the on the job needs of our clients with the functional applications to supply custom solutions.  His experience in the church office as well as with ACS Technologies tools is a winning combination.  I look forward to us all getting to know Ron better during his new journey!

The Access ACS API opens up an avenue for you to have access to your data via products other than the ones by ACS Technologies.  Ministry Scheduler Pro had previously released an integration that let clients have access to their ACS Small Group data in their product.  There is no cost to this integration.  If you have Access ACS, the API is available to you.  Organizations just need to sign the paperwork authorizing access to their data via the API.  Once the paperwork is signed, we will supply a security id.  That security id is entered in to the Ministry Scheduler Pro software and the small group data is then available.  This has been a popular feature to both Access ACS and Ministry Scheduler Pro clients. 

The top request from clients was to have the activity data available as well as part of the integration.  We both heard you! 

An activity API call was added that is available for all API development.  Ministry Scheduler Pro immediately used that call to update their product so now clients in kind have access to their ACS activity data.  No updates have to be loaded.  Easy data access for easier ministry management – I love it!  Happy scheduling!

And all the development creatures were hard at work using their computer mouse.  The stockings have been hung by some of the testers with care, the wreaths and garlands are throughout and on the buildings letting us know that Santa will soon be there!

Steve goes down the aisles and occasionally gives a team a whistle,
And to work we all go like the down of a thistle.
But please hear us share as 2011 goes out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

She recently had her son’s super hero birthday party and mentioned the great ideas she got from Pinterest.  I visited the page she linked and loved the ideas as a fellow party theme lover!  I didn’t think much more about it.  Since then, it seems to be the hot buzz word I hear around – “I waste too much time on Pinterest,” “I was inspired by Pinterest,” “I just pinned the best idea.” Okay, it was time to get up to speed!

I requested generic access, but couldn’t seem to get ‘in.”  It seems that Pinterest is a community.  A community with special views, rights and privileges that I wanted to join.  I knew I had friends in the community, so I went with current technology and did a Facebook post requesting access.  Permission granted!

I am now uncovering the world of virtual bulletin boards.  All of the ideas, links, and creativity that is out there on the web can be “pinned” and organized on bulletin boards.  You can follow others, create your own boards, and search within this unique site.  In addition to being curious about my own children’s birthday party themes, I started thinking about how can something mainstream like Pinterest be used for ministry.  Is that possible? YES!

I started doing searches and was positively overwhelmed with the resources out there that had been pinned.  Sunday School Crafts – pages of great ideas.  Church Youth – all sorts of ideas.  Online Giving – inspiration and quotes.  Church sermons - lots of topics and imagery.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg!  So, go ahead and get to pinning.  Create a ministry board.  The ideas seem to be endless!  (and please share with me as you have your own ideas and create!)

Fisher Price makes a nativity set in its Little People collection. It’s great because of instead of it being a manger that your children can’t touch, it is made for them to play with. Since I have kicked off the season early, it has made an entrance. The other day I hear from the kitchen my 4 year old tell the 9 month old “NO Andrew, Jesus is NOT for you.” Oh the irony. I wasn’t sure which life lesson to tackle first – the fact that we share our toys or that Jesus IS for everyone.

The doors of your church are always open, but the perception is that they are even more open at Christmas time. Many individuals that can not or do not attend throughout the year often will come for the Christmas Eve or other holiday services. All are welcome. I have visions as a child of the ushers setting up the folding chairs on the aisle for the Christmas Eve service. This is a busy time but a wonderful time for the church when those that don’t typically attend want to worship. You are given a window, sometimes just an hour, to welcome them. How can you help make sure that they know they are always welcome? When they exit the door, that they are contacted so that they enter again before next year? Is it the passing of a registry? Visitor cards? Ushers at the door spotting new folks? Or do you capture the information in Checkpoint (ACS) or Children’s Ministry (The City) of new visitors? Are they sent a welcome email or invitation to your City site?  What sort of follow-up will you do?

As we gather to worship, may we all celebrate that Jesus has come for ALL of us. And hopefully, somebody new will enter your doors to hear that message. Hopefully, they will return to hear it again throughout the year.  What a wonderful time to let everyone know that Jesus IS for them.

As part of the Thanksgiving celebration, we had a canned food drive for a local organization.  To kick it up a notch, it became a competition – Clemson vs USC.  For those of you not from SC (as myself), I have learned that everyone around here tends to pull for one school or the other – very strongly.  Maybe they didn’t attend there, but you can be a hardcore fan.  We had one office that was decorated and to be filled with canned goods for Clemson and the other was for USC.  Each day, there was a weighing.  The final tally came in with a victory for Clemson.  The real winner though was our charity.  We are donating around 1,000 lbs of food! 

As we gathered together for lunch to review the food drive as well as say thanks for the meal together, we went around the room so folks could say things they were thankful for.  There were babies, marriages, and family.  There was also much thanks for our jobs, ability for job growth, and work environment.  We are thankful to be a part of this company.

The Church Life application has recently been updated for the iPhone.  With the recent creation of a peripherals team to just focus on that type of development, we are excited about bringing more of this type of functionality to market.  An update to the Android application is coming very soon as well!  (A heads up, due to the nature of this update users will need to uninstall the previous app and load this one.  We are sorry for this inconvenience, but it will be worth it to you in the long run!)

Facility Scheduler and Access ACS did an update on November 8 which was full of client requested features.  (You can see the full list in the Release Notes…)

We know social media is sometimes the best way to get your communication out (and communication is key to ministry).  So, as part of this update you can update your Facebook and Twitter accounts inside Access ACS.  Event icals are now available to add an event from Access ACS to your personal calendar as well.  In Facility Scheduler, the much requested RSS feeds are now available.

I feel a bit like I’m on a late night informercial – but folks, that’s not all!  We also recently updated ACS to version 11.2.  In addition to lots of enhancements to Financials, there is now a file export available for VoiceWave.  This is a new product from PhoneTree that allows for sending of voice, text, and email communication.

All of these releases were full of enhancements based on the feedback we received from you.  As we look back on 2011, I am pleased with all of the updates provided on our variety of products.  We haven’t closed out the year, and the work and planning continues!

I felt a little indulgent with the shopping I did throughout the different stores. I had to remind myself, it was all gifts that I was just getting now even though the Calendar had not turned to December. It’s really not too early to start getting ready, though. I love the idea of doing the shopping now – I love to buy for others, but I don’t like the “stress” of the season. As a faith based community, we do all want to stay focused on the true Reason for the Season. I know all of our clients have already been making their lists for December. It is such a joyous time in the church but also a busy time. You have to start early to plan and coordinate all of the events and details. You will be hanging the greens in just a few weeks!

I encourage you to do whatever you can to prepare ahead of time. Think of what can be done and needs to be done in the software for this time of year. Make your list and check it twice! Look through the Constant Contact holiday designs for any festive templates for special communications. Make sure your published calendars are up to date. Set up any special events that need to allow for sign ups. Create any special holiday funds for Online Giving. Gather a list of scripture and seasonal thoughts to share via your Facebook and Twitter accounts throughout the holidays. Make sure your graphics for your Check-In and Website are ready to go. I know the list goes on and on of all that needs to be done to prepare for December.

I know we frown open the commercialism starting so early, but perhaps we can share the joy of the season early as well. Can I go ahead and start listening to my music?