[CS-FSLUG] Church Management Software

[EnzoAeneas]

All:

I haven't heard much on this in a few days and was wondering if people
were still committed.
I would like to get started quickly and produce some working modules
as my church has expressed their need such tools
is growing quite quickly. Do we have an idea what programming language
we should use and if it doesn't matter, how do we divide the tasks?
Individuals, pairs, teams?
I have searched and found a few free software development hosts for
this project and was wondering if anyone had a preference
when it comes to version control software.

I prefer a distributed (Git, Bazaar, Monotone, Mercurial,etc) versus a
centralized system (CVS, Subversion (SVN)), but will defer to everyone
else if there is a consensus.

The hosts that I have been looking are:

1. Launchpad.net -- used by Ubuntu and many others - VCS: Bazaar
2. freeHg - used by mostly smaller projects, but is quite less formal
- VCS: Mercurial
3. Tuxfamily - also used by small projects - VCS: Bazaar
4. Sourceforge.net - the most popular of open source software
repositories (I have a  project here already) - VCS: CVS, SVN

We could also use FTP and SSH to share code with each other. Let me
know what you guys think.

Kevin James
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 9:00 AM, Greg Slade <grgaslists at rogers.com> wrote:
> Being reminded of that old church management package which was actually a set of dBase II templates also reminds me that it came in three different packages. They could be used individually, or else install all three, and they would interact with one another.
>
>  The difference between the three databases was who needed to use them. It basically broke down to the pastor, the church secretary, and the church treasurer, because each would be dealing with information that the others didn't need to (and, in some cases, shouldn't) see.
>
>  If I remember correctly, the breakdown in functionality (out of the features suggested so far, and a few others I'm throwing in) would be something like this:
>
>  Pastor
>
>  Manage ministry/administrative teams
>  Service planning (sermon series, Bible readings, responsive readings, hymns/choruses, special music, etc.)
>  Pastoral visitation (scheduling, notes)
>  Sermon preparation
>
>  Secretary
>
>
>  Track attendance
>  Promotional mailings
>  Worship service scheduling (bulletins, announcements, others?)
>  Membership roll (and tracking missionaries)
>  Mailing list
>  Event tracking
>  Formatting and printing church directory
>
>  Treasurer
>
>  Track donations
>  Track support of missionaries
>
> Time tracking for employees
>  Pay bills
>  Payroll, taxes, and other accounting goodies
>
> Implied but not stated is membership roll and mailing list.
>
>  Not envisioned by early packages:
>
>  Worship service execution (slides, recordings)[1]
>
>  I should say that normally packages for small to medium churches offload all the accounting/financial functionality onto an existing third-party financial package, although some do things like add fund accounting capabilities (essential for even small churches, but not used by many businesses) to those packages through plug-ins or some other means. The one financial function which is absolutely essential, at least for certain countries, is automating the way that donations are receipted, because the IRS has specific rules which much be followed, and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency has even more specific rules. (In addition, in the UK, there are rules for submitting claims for Gift Aid: there, instead of donors getting to deduct donations from their income tax, the government adds 30% to qualifying donations.)
>
>  Greg
>
>  [1] OpenSong works under Linux, although I'm currently having trouble connecting to the web site. In any case, I don't see any need to reinvent the wheel here.
>
>  --
>  Greg Slade
>  "A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells
>  us the truth about its author."                       - G. K. Chesterton
>
>
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>
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