Churches Being Prepared

[LadyKay]

1 hour ago, other one said:

We have a private group for our Neighborhood Watch and I would agree that it works well....  except that some don't have computers.   We have that same problem at church.  We have older people that just don't do computers.

Those who don't get calls from those who do. It works somehow. I do recall years ago before the internet. They had called off church due to a snow storm but people showed up anyway. So we went ahead and had church for the few of us who made it there.

[other one]

19 minutes ago, LadyKay said:

Those who don't get calls from those who do. It works somehow. I do recall years ago before the internet. They had called off church due to a snow storm but people showed up anyway. So we went ahead and had church for the few of us who made it there.

we have done that....  combined all the Sunday School classes and had that all morning...

[Martyr212]

That is exactly the issue.  If some are not notified, they travel out in the nasty weather for a service that has been canceled.  I have noticed lately that some churches, schools especially delay the service or class instead of canceling it.  Its best for everyone to stay off the road when there is inclement weather and poor driving conditions.  The cities actually advise that people stay off the roads so the plows can get through too.

[Martyr212]

Thank you for the input.  I am looking into some mass notification systems and I will post them once I have the best service narrowed down.

[Martyr212]

Thanks so much for all the responses and help.  We ended up trying out a system called DialMyCalls.  So far so good, working great.  We can send calls and text messages out to everyone at the same time and pretty quickly too.

[kwikphilly]

Well I assume by your response "we ended up trying,,,,,," that you are directly involved somehow in the communication to the congregants,,,,,,,,,I just don't like to "assume",,,,,,,,,glad you got it sorted out,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,here in Florida we don't have those type of "increment weather" issues,,,,,,,if we do you head for the hills & there are no "hills" in Florida-lol                                    Praise the Lord for He is our Refuge,our Protector,our ALL in ALL                                    Love,Kwik

[Willa]

We rarely get deep snow but we do get ice.  When streets are hazardous they notify by Facebook, but we also have a web site where latest news is posted.  We also cancel evening services on holidays so that people can be with family.  When in doubt, people call the church.  Our church has over 1000 in attendance.  Not a mega but not small.  

[Martyr212]

kwikphilly, We are in FL too.

Last year we canceled service one time due to Hurricane warnings and another time because the a/c wasn't working. 

Our church isn't mega big but the congregants sure appreciate getting the call or text so they don't get all ready for service and travel only to find out service was canceled.  That is why we started looking into this service.  We had another provider but their pricing got out of control.  DialMyCalls gave us a non profit discount and offered us 7 days a week customer support.  So far we are very happy.  We are going to give it one more month.  After that, we are going to remit payment for the full year so this will be one more concern under control soon.

We've also used the other service provider to remind our members of a yearly picnic we have.  Everyone seems to like the reminder and update calls.  Some prefer texts so we have the ability to do that too.

 

[Martyr212]

We've only had DialMyCalls' service for a short time. Already used it for rain cancellations and event reminders. Its great and everyone seems to like the service too. Win...Win...