Attendance Tracking and Child Security with Fellowship One Check-in

Fellowship One Check-in is arguably the best attendance tracking software and Adult / Child check-in system in the industry. Fellowship One Check-in allows the church to record real-time attendance while enforcing security, safety and registration requirements for any event or activity. The system was designed specifically with child security, speed, ease-of-use, and flexibility in mind.

The flexibility of its configuration and its ability to be directly linked to online event registrations has allowed churches to use Fellowship One Check-in for a variety of purposes:

• Children’s ministry worship services, Vacation Bible School, etc.
• Student activities and events
• Adult Bible studies, classes and events
• Mother’s Day out programs
• Camps, retreats, mission trips, and community projects
• Church-wide events such as Easter programs, Christmas programs, and fall festivals
• Staff and volunteer attendance tracking
• Virtually any activity or event imaginable can leverage Fellowship One Check-in; We even had one client use it for a local food pantry (Click here to read the story)

Fellowship One Check-in uses a touch-screen interface and a thermal printer (no ink required) and can optionally use bar-coded key tags for even faster Check-in.

Fast and Convenient Attendance Tracking

Parents can go to any Check-in station whether it's in the church nursery or the main foyer and check in their entire family at one-time, in one location

Fellowship One Check-in has a number of time-saving, easy-to-use, features that offer unparalleled speed and convenience:

• One Line – Parents can go to any Check-in station whether it's in the church nursery or the main foyer and check in their entire family at one-time, in one location
• No more long lines - A family of four can check-in within seconds, an average of 100 individuals can check-in within 15 minutes per kiosk
• Easy Search – asking for the last four digits of a person’s home phone number is much easier to communicate, understand and enter than trying to spell/find their last name; Optionally, one can still perform a name search
  
• Intelligent Automation - After the phone search the households with the most recent attendance are sorted to the top; The most appropriate room is automatically selected based on pre-assignment and/or best fit by age
  
• One Security Code – a single security code is used for all children so parents do not have to juggle multiple receipts; Makes parent notification easy 
• Shared Claim Tickets – the claim ticket has two identical halves allowing the parent to tear the receipt in half and share it with an additional guardian
• Bar Code Check-in - Check-in supports the association of any bar-coded product with individual(s) such as a custom key tag offered by the church, a grocery store card, or even a drivers license. Individuals or families can then quickly check-in using their card of choice

High-Touch or Self-Service Attendance

Fellowship One Check-in is available in Assisted or Self Check-in modes:

• Assisted Check-in offers a high-tech, high-touch environment
• Ease of use - Assisted Check-in utilizes a touch-screen interface with large, easy to read buttons and straightforward workflow; Volunteers ranging in age from youth to seniors can be trained to use Fellowship One Check-in within minutes
• Personalized Service - Once the results from the phone search are returned, the Check-in volunteer can greet the family by name since the name and age for the whole family is displayed
• Self Check-in utilizes a touch-screen interface along with a bar-code scanner offering additional speed, convenience, and configuration features
• Simple – Provides a simple, three screen workflow; Family walks up and scans their barcode at the first screen, selects their activities on the second screen, and confirms their selections and receives their printed name tags and receipts on the final screen
• Fast - An individual or an entire family can Check-in in just seconds
• Configurable (view examples) – Self Check-in allows the church to select from one or more pre-defined “themes” or design their own custom theme; A “theme” consists of three images, one for each step of the workflow and a color scheme

Child Security

Sadly, divorce and custody battles are a part of many families within every church today. Growing churches have the added concern of new and unfamiliar faces each week. Churches with smooth, organized and efficient check-in / pick-up processes give parents and guardians a feeling of confidence in knowing their children are safe in the care of competent and diligent people.

Fellowship One Check-in gives the church the tools to ensure that children go to the right class, are secure during their stay, and are returned to their parents or proper guardians. Here are a couple of articles on the topic:

At Grand Prairie church, security 'built in'

Megachurches use software to help keep track of members

Some of the many security features are:

• Name Tags (view sample) - A name tag is printed for every child; The child's name appears prominently on the tag along with other pertinent information such as pager code, activity name and schedule, assigned room name, breakout group assignment, special instructions, and a 3 digit, alphanumeric security code
• Security Code - The uniquely generated security code overcomes the inherent weaknesses of a standard member number that can be easily duplicated or abused in custody situations; A computer-savvy parent cannot "mock-up" a false tag using a home computer, nor could the parent reuse a receipt from a previous activity
  
• Parental / Guardian Receipt (view sample) - A parental / guardian receipt that is printed only contains the activity date and matching security code, just enough information to match the child to the proper parent or guardian; The child’s name, room or location is not available in case the receipt is accidentally dropped; The receipt can never be re-printed so that no one, such as a late arriving disgruntled parent, can attempt to “fool” the system
• Asset Tag - One or more asset tags can optionally be printed for a baby’s diaper bag or other items
• Authorizations - What if a parent loses his or her receipt? What if a parent wants another adult to pick up his or her child? Fellowship One includes an authorizations area on the household record to display all people authorized to retrieve their children

Using Check-in for Staff and Volunteer Attendance Tracking

Check-in is not just intended for your attendees and members, church staff and volunteers should use Check-in as well. Having your staff and volunteers use Check-in to track their attendance offers the church a number of advantages:

• Name Tags - Use Check-in to print professional looking Name Tags for your volunteers at less than a penny a piece
• Staffing Levels - Know how many volunteers showed up, who is available and where they’re located
• Security - If the church requires a background check for all childcare volunteers, only those individuals who have passed a background check can receive a staffing assignment; Any volunteer without a staffing assignment cannot check-in for that activity
• Follow-up - Allows the church to follow-up with individuals who fail to show up for their assignment; Perhaps there was an illness or the volunteer opportunity is not a good fit
• Volunteer Time - Capture the amount of time served for reporting and volunteer appreciation purposes