I have a question to ask of the community here. I’m looking for a good ministry scheduling program. Something that allows you to set up recurring serving schedules for volunteers, that allows you to mark people as “going to be out” and allow other volunteers or subs to sub in without it affecting normally scheduled schedule. Anyone know of anything?
Two suggestions I’m not looking for is Planning Center or IDMe. Planning Center is awesome, but it’s more geared around one service and is ideal for worship services where they same group of musicians or such are there for all the services. I need something that can possibly schedule around the same service, but different volunteers at each service. IDMe actually is the best I’ve seen for ministry scheduling, but the only problem with it is that it isn’t web-based (at least it wasn’t a few years ago). It would be ideal to access it from anywhere as well as send out communication right from it.
Do you know of something else out there? Are you using either of the two I mentioned in a creative way that works? Let me know and share the ideas!
Sometimes I feel like the best type of scheduling software is a simple paper and pen! I always think written to-do lists are better than digital ones!!
Our worship team uses planning center. Tried it for organizing kidmin volunteers, but didn’t like it. Agree with what you said above… Seems like there has got to be an easier way than the excel spreadsheet I’m running now. I’ll definitely be checking back here to see what others are doing.
In excel I make the entire years schedule, plugging in all the weekly, bi-weekly teams and then manually remove indivduals from a particular weekend when they need to be gone. Nothin’ super fancy, but it works. Would love a program/app!
I wish someone would develop something like this.
Recently started using Planning Center. Love the reminders and the ability to place upcoming sessions in a matrix, like a spreadsheet. Getting used to some of the finer details, but I think in the long-run, as I get my volunteers used to it, it’ll do everything I need it to do.
I’m with Kenny. IDMe (in my experience) is the best software by far. But it isn’t web based. However, that’s a small sacrifice given what you gain.
I used IDMe for 3.5 years & loved it.
At a new church and attempted Planning Center. Cumbersome
Using excel spreadsheets and just want to take a dull butter knife to my wrists.
(Okay… that’s extreme. But I feel like I’m drowning in paper.)
If I had the cash… I’d go to IDMe in a heart beat.
Try this link, they have about 1,400 customers.
http://www.rotundasoftware.com/MSP/index.php
Ministry Scheduler Pro sounds like it would fit your needs perfectly! MSP makes it easy to create flawless schedules, keep all volunteers engaged, and eliminate the frustration of scheduling. Volunteers can also request subs and sign up for positions online!
Ministry Scheduler Pro – Effective Church Scheduling Software
Hi Kenny –
Have you looked at ScheduleThing yet? ScheduleThing allows you to build scheduling systems around resources and reservation types. A resources is anything that needs to be scheduled (person, place, or thing), and a reservation type is how these resources are organized. So, if you had a reservation of “Youth Group Meeting,” you could automatically include the meeting room, individual volunteers, the youth band, and microphones and speakers. The best part is that you can have as many reservation types as you want, so you could even make different weekly reservation types if your meetings changed that often! It’s also all web-based, so people can check in from their home or phone, and be up to date to see what’s going on.
Check it out at: https://www.schedulething.com/.
Checkout our web based application at http://churchscheduling.com
It automatically creates schedules, sends reminders, and sends administrator reports.
Also, it allows volunteers and admins to set rulles and preferences for how the system should create the schedules.
the best feature of all is that it is completely free to use.