We are so excited to let the congregation know that we are in the very early stages of implementing a new membership database, called Realm. This project was funded by the Endowment Committee. We have now launched an implementation committee and are working on data transfer from the old membership database system that the church has used for nearly two decades, creating groups, defining data field terms, and learning all we can about how to start to use this comprehensive church membership system. Eventually we hope it will also support the accounting functions of the church.
In the past week, we met with the Deerfield UU church as they launched a training for key leaders in their congregation. We also travelled to Naperville to meet with a Lutheran church which is also using the Realm Software. They have been working on the project for about a year and are well on their way to launching interest groups, membership listings, and encouraging members to put their information into the database.
Once implemented, congregants will be able to manage their own data—information about their family, their children in RE, their interests and their pledge.
We are pleased to have a strong leadership team led by Brian Nielsen and including Eileen Wiviott, Mary Shelden, Tamiko DeVille, Sandra Robinson, Melanie Kitchner, Vickie Doebele, Joe Romeo, and Carol Nielsen. We have a sub-team examining the accounting software including Erlene Howard, Vickie Doebele, Karen Courtright and Sandra Robinson.
Soon, we will be looking for some assistance in reviewing the data that was transferred from the old system and checking for errors. If you are interested in working on this project, please contact Brian Nielsen (b-nielsen@northwestern.edu).