Annual Promotion¶
There are 2 methods for Promotion in TouchPoint:
Manage Involvement Members for Promotion (See this short demonstration video)
Annual Promotion Process (the steps are outlined below)
When to use Manage Involvement Members for Promotion¶
Most churches will use Manage Involvement Members and not the Annual Promotion process outlined below to promote their classes.
To decide which method is best for you, note the following list of questions. If you answer Yes to any of these, use Manage Involvement Members for Promotion
Do you have only one Involvement per grade or age group?
Do you have multiple grades or ages in the same Involvement?
Do you have only one Involvement per grade or age group at different hours?
Do you have few enough classes or few enough members in each class (even if you have more than one class per grade per hour) that you can move them the week just before Promotion (i.e. you do not need to put them in a ‘pending’ state for more than a week)?
If you answered Yes to any of these questions, Manage Involvement Members for Promotion will work for you. However, if you prefer to use the Annual Promotion method, you can certainly do so.
When to use Annual Promotion¶
If your church has multiple classes per grade or age group, and you need to have the classes in a pending state for more than a week, you will need to use the full Promotion option described below. This method allows you to notify parents via mail of their child’s new room number and teacher’s name while the students are still pending in that class.
Steps in Using Annual Promotion¶
Note
TouchPoint does not create new Involvements during Promotion. It will use existing Involvements. If you need more Involvements than you currently have for a specific grade, you can create new ones. However, always look to see if you have any Involvements in that grade that are currently Inactive. If so, you will want to make them active and use those. This is covered in Step 2.
- Step 1 - Setup
The TouchPoint Admin for your church must set up Promotion before you can use the promotion management page. This is a one-time setup before you use Promotion for the first time. However, this setup can be edited if you need to change it in the future.
See also
- Step 2 - Prep Work
The staff that manages the classes that will be involved in Promotion must do some preliminary prep work to get their classes ready for Promotion. See Class Management below for other changes.
See also
- Step 3 - Promotion Management
Only after the steps 1 and 2 have been completed, will you move to the actual placing of students in a Pending state in their new classes.
See also
Important
You can notify the parents (Step 5) either before or after Promotion is Finalized (Step 4). However, Step 3 (Promotion Management) must be completed before you notify parents. The students must be in the pending classes if you choose to notify parents before promotion is finalized.
Click here to see how to move students to a different Pending class.
- Step 4 - Finalize Promotion
After all the students have been placed in Pending Classes, and after attendance has been entered for the Sunday prior to Promotion; your TouchPoint Admin can Finalize Promotion.
See also
Note
Be sure to notice the last step in that process as it relates to changes you need to make on the Involvements just after Promotion is finalized.
- Step 5 - Notify Parents
There are several options for notifying parents of their child’s new class, teacher, and location. This step must occur after students are assigned to pending classes, but can happen before Promotion is finalized.
See also
- Step 6 - New Teachers
If you have enrolled new teachers as Pending in the Involvements where they will teach, follow the steps in this article to make them Current members. Or, if you did not make them Pending, you can just add them to the Involvement now as a Current member, selecting the correct Member Type of Teacher or Director (whatever type you use for your teachers).
- Step 7 - Enrollment Control Report
You will want to take advantage of the Enrollment Control Report, either the PDF version or the iPad/iPhone version. It will be a huge help for those parents who forgot their child’s room number.
You may want to print a few copies of the PDF version to have on hand. For security reasons, you would not want this to be posted publicly where anyone could walk up and find out where certain students will be in class. Have a volunteer available to find the child’s class for the parent.
See also
Let your staff know about the iPad/iPhone version, so they can access it from their mobiles devices and be on hand to help parents find their child’s room. Make sure you let them know which Program and Division to use in the filter when accessing the report.
Moving Students to a Different Pending Class¶
If, after you move students to a Pending Class, you need to move children to a different Pending Class, follow the instructions below.
Moving One Member at a Time¶
If you are moving just one or two children into a class, use the Member Dialog Move option.
- Step 1
Go to the person’s Involvement > Pending Tab, click the Member Type to open the Member Dialog.
- Step 2
Click the Move button, select the new pending Involvement, and then click Yes, Move move member!.
See also
Moving Several Members¶
If you need to move several members and you have multiple classes for which you need to do this, use the method below. This is the same page you used initially to place children in a Pending class. This allows you to stay on the same page and just change the Promotion Type, Schedule, and Target class to move multiple class members.
Tip
You can sort by any of the the headers on that page.
- Step 1
Go to Administration > Manage > Promotion and select the correct Promotion type and Schedule from the drop down lists.
This will display all Involvements and all members of those Involvements, along with their Current Class and their Pending Class.
- Step 2
Select the Target class. That is the one where you want to move someone.
- Step 3
Click the box beside the person(s) you want to move and then click Assign to Class.
This will drop them from the previous Pending Class and put them in the one you just chose.
- Step 4
Repeat steps 1-3 until you have made all the necessary changes.
Dropping Pending Enrollment¶
If you need to remove the Pending Assignment for a student(s), follow the Steps above; however, instead of selecting a different target class, select Remove Assignment from the Target Class drop down. Then click Assign to Class.
Class Management¶
- Pending Location and Teacher Member Types
There are several changes you should make on the Involvements in addition to the Prep / Cleanup before Promotion is Finalized and before you generate a Promotion Export for a mailing list.
Go to the Involvement settings tab and enter the room Location in the Pending Location field. If the class is staying in the same room, you do not need to enter anything for the Pending Location.
Verify on the Pending tab that the teacher has the correct Member Type. The member type will be retained if you are promoting them with the class.
Remember - we display the name of the current teacher and the current location when we display the name of the class. Until promotion has been completed, the pending teacher will not be displayed in the Pending Class, except on the Promotion management page.
- Checkin
After Promotion is finalized, for all classes using Check-In, you will need to change the start and end birth dates. For most of them, it will mean adding a year to each date.
- Step 1
Go to Involvements > Manage > Search and filter for the correct Program and Division.
- Step 2
Change the birth date ranges by clicking in the Birthday Start field, pick the correct date and then the blue check mark.
Then do the same for the Birthday End.
- Step 3
Repeat for the other classes.
Important
Changing birth date ranges is necessary for all classes that use Check-In. This is used to direct children to the correct class for their age.
Latest Update |
9/6/2022 |
Update terminology for Involvements