Section 4:
This is our last section. We'll be doing a club night run through, looking at what exactly a club secretary does on a club night.
Keep in mind what we talked about earlier. There are many ways to run your church's program. Not every church will have the same number of secretaries or the same split of duties. It's all up to your church and what works best for you individually.
Keep in mind what we talked about earlier. There are many ways to run your church's program. Not every church will have the same number of secretaries or the same split of duties. It's all up to your church and what works best for you individually.
Preparation
Before club begins for the night, there are a few things you should do. They could be done sometime during the week or after club the previous week.
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Attendance
What's the first part of each club night? Check-in!
At check-in, the following things are recorded:
At check-in, the following things are recorded:
- Present: Are they present? If not, ignore the rest.
- Dues: Did they pay their dues? Some churches have you pay at the beginning of the year, in which case, this isn't a question you'd ask each week.
- Bible: Did they bring a Bible?
- Handbook: Did they bring their handbook or entrance exam?
- Uniform: Did they wear their uniform?
- Sunday School: Did they go to Sunday School this week? Since not all churches do Sunday School, you could just ask if they attended church somewhere (anywhere, not necessarily at your church) this weekend.
- Visitor(s): Did they bring a visitor?
If you are doing check-in on ARK, it will only show the first letter of each of those things. If you are using the paper forms from Awana, they use F for Friend, instead of V for visitor.
Some check-in tips:
Some check-in tips:
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- Ask EACH and every child their name - including your own.
- If you do it to everybody, they won't get their feelings hurt. After all, they told you their name five weeks ago, and even though they haven't seen you since, you should remember if you really cared about them.
- If you ask your own child their name too (especially if done in a funny manner), they won't get hurt. They'll learn that it's just part of the routine.
- Bonus points if you can train them to come up to the table, state their name, and hold up their handbook and Bible where you can see them.
- Be prepared to register new clubbers at the first few club check-ins.
- For the first three nights of club, we set up areas to register those who didn't pre-register, as well as the regular check-in tables.
- You'll need extra help with check-in for the first few weeks.
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It helps sometimes to have an extra blank on your check-in form.
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After check-in
Now that check-in is over, you have all those nice visitor forms. How do you get them to the leaders so they know what new kids they have? You don't want to hold on to them until you get them entered into the system, as the club directors need to know who their visitors are and need some place to write down any sections they pass. You also need to get their listener folders to them. So what do you do?
In EMBC's case, they have check-in at the foyer outside of where they have Opening Ceremonies. Once check-in is complete, the listener folders are placed in pews or chairs along the back wall of the foyer - split into color-coded club groups. Visitor forms are placed with these stacks. On their way out of Opening Ceremonies, the Club Directors know to swing by the pews or chairs to pick up their stack of folders and visitor forms.
At this point, you can probably go back to your office.
But before you settle in and prepare to start recording sections passed and calculating awards, you have a very important job to do.
In EMBC's case, they have check-in at the foyer outside of where they have Opening Ceremonies. Once check-in is complete, the listener folders are placed in pews or chairs along the back wall of the foyer - split into color-coded club groups. Visitor forms are placed with these stacks. On their way out of Opening Ceremonies, the Club Directors know to swing by the pews or chairs to pick up their stack of folders and visitor forms.
At this point, you can probably go back to your office.
But before you settle in and prepare to start recording sections passed and calculating awards, you have a very important job to do.
You need to prepare the check-out forms.
Check-out is not required by Awana, but is strongly encouraged. This is for clubber safety.
When making check-out forms:
Check-out is not required by Awana, but is strongly encouraged. This is for clubber safety.
When making check-out forms:
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Once check-out forms are completed, you can move on to your second main job as an Awana Secretary.
Recording achievement
Recording sections passed by clubbers will look different in every club, depending on what method you have chosen to get that information back to the secretary. We're going to look at it as though you've chosen to use our listener folder method.
Listener folder setup was explained at the end of section 3.
As clubbers pass sections, the leaders will mark that on the listener sheets inside the listener folder. Once a group finishes their handbook/small group time, the listener folders will be sent back to the secretary.
This goes especially well if you are using ARK, because in the program you can assign clubbers to groups which conveniently coincide with your listener folders.
For example, EMBC assigns colors to their small groups just for T&T, their biggest club. So there will be a purple group, dark blue group, pink group, etc. The folders will all be green or purple (for T&T girls or boys), as will the listener sheets. But each folder and sheet will have a colored dot on it corresponding to the small group color. That way, when a clubber running around a corner plows into the person carrying all the folders and papers go flying everywhere, they can quickly be put back in the right folders without having to take time to read anything. The other clubs are small enough that their listener folders are split by handbook (which is also a sorting feature in ARK).
When the secretary gets the listener folders back, they go to ARK, tell it to record sections, and filter by the group associated with the first folder.
Listener sheets are pulled out, and skimmed to look for any new sections passed.
Listener folder setup was explained at the end of section 3.
As clubbers pass sections, the leaders will mark that on the listener sheets inside the listener folder. Once a group finishes their handbook/small group time, the listener folders will be sent back to the secretary.
This goes especially well if you are using ARK, because in the program you can assign clubbers to groups which conveniently coincide with your listener folders.
For example, EMBC assigns colors to their small groups just for T&T, their biggest club. So there will be a purple group, dark blue group, pink group, etc. The folders will all be green or purple (for T&T girls or boys), as will the listener sheets. But each folder and sheet will have a colored dot on it corresponding to the small group color. That way, when a clubber running around a corner plows into the person carrying all the folders and papers go flying everywhere, they can quickly be put back in the right folders without having to take time to read anything. The other clubs are small enough that their listener folders are split by handbook (which is also a sorting feature in ARK).
When the secretary gets the listener folders back, they go to ARK, tell it to record sections, and filter by the group associated with the first folder.
Listener sheets are pulled out, and skimmed to look for any new sections passed.
HINT: Whether you're using ARK, another software, or paper forms, this applies. To make it easier on yourself, use a highlighter to mark every section on the sheet that you have previously entered (see picture). That way when listener sheets are returned, you can glance at a sheet and know in a second whether or not you even need to pay attention to it this week. If there are no boxes with writing in them that are not already highlighted, you can skip it and move to the next one. When you get to one that needs to be recorded in the system, do so and then highlight the box(es) on the listener sheet. Using this method, you can go through large quantities of listener sheets very quickly.
When you are finished, return the sheets to their folder, and move on to the next. |
If there are visitors who passed sections and are not yet in the system, you can either enter them now or just check to make sure they haven't yet earned an award. If they haven't and you don't have time to enter them, you can leave their boxes unhighlighted to record later. If you are not entering the visitor into the system at some point before the next club night, you'll probably need to pull the visitor sheet out of the listener folder. It can record attendance for up to 3 weeks, so it would be needed at check-in.
Award distribution
It is important to keep achievement records so that achievements can be recognized the night they're earned.
Remember, nobody will die if awards aren't handed out that night. Especially if you are a new secretary and it's the beginning of the year, if you need extra time to work through things, that's OKAY. Nobody will die. If you're going to do that though, there are two things to keep in mind.
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As each club will have a different nightly schedule, you will probably receive listener folders in batches throughout the night. Depending on how much time you have, you can either prepare award reports for individual clubs as soon as you finish each club, while waiting on the next batch of listener folders to arrive, or you can prepare all award reports at the end, once you have finished with all of them.
If you are using ARK or another computer program, this will be easier. You can just print an award report for that night of club. If you are using paper, you will need to examine your achievement cards or make notes as you go through the listener sheets (so you don't have to go through the same stacks of papers more than once).
Each church handles award distribution differently. The secretary may be required to print the award reports and then pull out each individual award needed (possibly labeling each one with the clubber's name by cutting up said award report and attaching it to the award). Or it may be that the club award reports are sent back to the Club Directors with the award boxes (discussed in section 3), for them to distribute. There are many ways to handle it. It all depends on what works best for your church. |
However your church chooses to distribute awards, remember that nobody will die if they don't get their awards on the night they are earned.
End of the night
After awards are distributed, your night is probably mostly over.
But before you shut off the light and lock your office door for the night...
Sometimes, somebody from your church (usually a commander or a deacon) will come by your office several times a night wanting to know if you have numbers yet. They want to know how many kids came tonight. You can count the number of clubbers you checked in on paper, or you can pull up a summary report in ARK or whatever software you are using. If you have the capability to pull up that type of report easily, it's a good habit to get yourself into, even if there's no deacon knocking on your office door every week. The same report that gives you numbers also provides a way for you to check which clubbers may have skipped the check-in line and still need to be counted present. You can see if someone passed a lot of sections that night, but oddly was not present.
To find this report in ARK, go to Reports, Attendance, Club Summary - Clubbers, Date range: current club night to current club night, clubs: select all that you have, sort - clubs, and preview.
The end of the year report that we talked about in section 1 is the same as the end of night report, except the date range covers the whole year. (As a reminder, this is where we got the numbers that we used when we talked about scholarships. )
But before you shut off the light and lock your office door for the night...
Sometimes, somebody from your church (usually a commander or a deacon) will come by your office several times a night wanting to know if you have numbers yet. They want to know how many kids came tonight. You can count the number of clubbers you checked in on paper, or you can pull up a summary report in ARK or whatever software you are using. If you have the capability to pull up that type of report easily, it's a good habit to get yourself into, even if there's no deacon knocking on your office door every week. The same report that gives you numbers also provides a way for you to check which clubbers may have skipped the check-in line and still need to be counted present. You can see if someone passed a lot of sections that night, but oddly was not present.
To find this report in ARK, go to Reports, Attendance, Club Summary - Clubbers, Date range: current club night to current club night, clubs: select all that you have, sort - clubs, and preview.
The end of the year report that we talked about in section 1 is the same as the end of night report, except the date range covers the whole year. (As a reminder, this is where we got the numbers that we used when we talked about scholarships. )
That's all folks!
You have now reached the end of the text version of Awana Secretary Basic Training Extreme. The live class has a few more details, but this is all that was transcribable.
I know it's a lot of information, especially if you're a brand new secretary, but just remember four things for me:
As my goal is to provide you with the tools that you need to make your life easier, not more complicated, the documents we have referenced are gathered together on the Resources page (link below). They're editable Word and Excel files. Change them to say what you want. Make copies. Whatever you need. They are for you to use.
My email address and other important web addresses are in the Links section of the Resources page. Feel free to email me at any point during the year with any questions you may have. If I don't know the answer, I'll know someone who will.
Have a great club year!
I know it's a lot of information, especially if you're a brand new secretary, but just remember four things for me:
- Nobody will die.
- I can't do this by myself.
- Almost everything is totally customizable to your church's needs. No two clubs are going to look alike or have the exact same needs. Don't try to make your club look exactly like what we talked about. Make it work for you.
- And most of all - remember that God says what you do is important, and your reward is the same.
As my goal is to provide you with the tools that you need to make your life easier, not more complicated, the documents we have referenced are gathered together on the Resources page (link below). They're editable Word and Excel files. Change them to say what you want. Make copies. Whatever you need. They are for you to use.
My email address and other important web addresses are in the Links section of the Resources page. Feel free to email me at any point during the year with any questions you may have. If I don't know the answer, I'll know someone who will.
Have a great club year!