Vacation Bible School (VBS) Tips¶
This article offers suggestions for using TouchPoint to run Vacation Bible School (VBS), from enlisting workers and registering children online to recording attendance and following up with families.
Online Enlistment of Teachers / Workers / Volunteers¶
A companion article has suggestions and sample registrations for enlisting VBS workers online.
See also
Online Registration for Children¶
Use a Master Involvement with the Compute Involvement By Birthday registration type.
Create one Involvement to be the Master Involvement, and one Involvement for each grade or age level. Add the grade or age-level Involvements to the Master Involvement’s Pick List, and give each one a Start Birthday and End Birthday on its Settings > Check-In tab. With Compute Involvement By Birthday, TouchPoint enrolls each child in the Involvement that matches their birth date, rather than one the parent selects as with User Selects Involvement.
Note
You may want to include a statement in your email confirmation telling parents that children are placed in classes based on their date of birth. If their child should be placed in a lower grade, they should call the church.
- Multiple Classrooms per Grade
If you have more than one classroom per grade / age, you will probably still want to use only one Involvement per grade for the registration. However, you will also need to create all the individual Involvements for each of the actual classrooms. Some larger churches may have anywhere from 2 to 20 classes per grade or age.
As children register, use Manage Involvement Members to move them into the Involvement for their classroom. This requires the ManageOrgMembers role. Click Email Assignment Notices to email each moved child’s family a room assignment notice with the Involvement name, Location, and Leader’s name. For that information to appear, set the Leader Type and Location on each classroom Involvement’s Settings > General tab, and enroll the leader with that Member Type.
Put the confirmation email on the Registration > Messages tab of the Master Involvement instead of on each grade-level Involvement. Let parents know that their child will be placed in a classroom later and that they will receive an email with the room and leader’s name before VBS begins.
Close online registration a day or two before VBS begins, so you have time to place every child in a classroom.
- One Classroom per Grade
If you have one classroom per grade, you can put the confirmation on each grade-level Involvement instead of on the Master Involvement. This lets you include the classroom location and other details for that age group in the initial confirmation email.
Recording Attendance: Rollsheets or Check-In?¶
VBS attendance is often much higher than on a typical Sunday, so using Check-In for every child may require more Check-In stations than you have. Consider these options:
Print rollsheets for recording daily attendance.
Use your Check-In stations to register (as guests) those children who have not pre-registered.
Print a Roster or Roster Extended Report to keep in each classroom, as these list all the children and any allergies or medical conditions.
See Registration on Day One below for more info regarding registration once VBS has started.
Schedules - Rollsheets - Meetings¶
- Schedules
Do not give your VBS Involvements a Schedule. For weekly classes, schedules help with printing rollsheets and using Check-In, but VBS classes should display for Check-In only during the week of VBS.
- Rollsheets
To print rollsheets, filter Involvement Search for your VBS classes (Program and Division), then select Roll Sheet(s) from the Blue Toolbar reports. Enter the meeting date and time; without a Schedule, they default to today at 8:00 AM.
- Meetings
Without a Schedule, you must create the meetings ahead of time to use Check-In. You can create meetings for all of your VBS Involvements at once from Involvement Search, using Create Meetings from the Gear icon on the Blue Toolbar. Even if registered children do not check in, you may want Check-In for children who have not pre-registered, so they can be added as guests.
See also
Note
You can create these meetings any time before VBS starts. Because the Involvements have no Schedule, they display for Check-In only on the dates of the meetings you created.
Registration on Day One of VBS¶
Some children will arrive on the first day without having pre-registered. To handle them:
Close online registration before the start of VBS.
Use your Check-In kiosks (or mobile devices) to register children who come and have not pre-registered.
Treat each child just as you would a Sunday morning guest, adding them as a guest to a specific VBS classroom.
Make sure each available class has Allow Check-In checked and a Start Birthday and End Birthday on its Settings > Check-In tab. Check-In then shows only the classes that match each child’s birth date.
For classes that are full or should not receive new children, uncheck Allow Check-In or check Suspend Check-In on the same tab.
Note
If Suspend Check-In is checked, the Involvement does not display unless you use Admin Mode, which displays all classes that allow Check-In.
Why add the children as guests and not enroll them as members?
The parent receives a Location label showing where to take their child.
The child receives a label to wear and one to give the teacher for the rollsheet.
- Adding Guests as Members
To enroll all of a meeting’s guests as members of the class, open the Meeting page and select Add All Guests to Involvement under Operations from the Gear icon on the Blue Toolbar.
After you do this for each class, print new rollsheets for each classroom for the next day.
Most unregistered children arrive on the first two days, so plan to staff more Check-In stations then. Fewer are needed later in the week, but continue registering children at Check-In throughout VBS.
Miscellaneous Tips¶
- Registration Questions
Consider including these questions in your online VBS registration:
Standard - Allergies - records any allergies or medical conditions.
Standard - Parents - collects parent names, which is especially helpful for families who do not attend your church.
Standard - Special Request - lets the parent request a friend or a teacher.
Standard - Emergency Contact - provides a phone number to call if there is a problem.
See also
- Enrollment Control Report
This report is an alphabetical list of every child and their room assignment. Print it and keep it at a welcome desk so a volunteer or staff member can help parents who have forgotten their child’s room. The Enrollment Control iPhone/iPad version opens in a browser, is always up to date, and does not need to be printed.
See also
- Roster Extended Report
Print the Roster extended report for each classroom. It includes each child’s medical information and their parents’ names and contact information. The Roster report is a shorter version without the parent information. If many children enroll after the first day, reprint it.
See also
- Followup
After VBS ends, follow up with the parents of children who attended VBS and are not involved in another church.
See also
Latest Update |
10/21/2026 |
Corrected the registration type, Check-In setting names and tab, and the Manage Involvement Members, Add All Guests to Involvement, and Roster report names. Clarified how unscheduled Involvements display for Check-In and the rollsheet default time, documented the ManageOrgMembers role, and rewrote the article in a neutral tone.