Prospects, Guests, and Members¶
Every organization will have a People tab, and under that tab will be the following tabs:
Members are currently enrolled in the org.
Previous members are people who used to be members.
Inactive member status is used for orgs like deacons, who serve a term, go Inactive for a year or two, and the return to Active service.
Pending members are used during Annual Promotion.
Prospects are prospective members, who may or may not have visited the org.
Guests are those that have actually attended.
The tabs you will use the most throughout the life of a class will be Members, Prospects, and Guests. The class is responsible for ministering to these people.
Below are definitions for these three types of people associated with an organization and further information on how they can be used to help you minister to people in the context of an organization.
At the bottom of this article is a list of other help articles that go right along with this subject.
- Prospects¶
For our purposes in TouchPoint, a prospect is someone that you want to associate with a specific class (organization). The purpose is so that the class leaders can minister to and follow up with prospects in order to encourage them to visit and perhaps join the class.
A prospect can be someone that has visited the church, but has never visited a class. That person can be added to the Prospect tab of the class that fits that person’s stage of life, so that lay leaders in the class can contact the individual, invite them to the class, and stay in contact with them.
A Prospect could also be someone that has visited the class before, and is considered likely to join the class in the future. This person would also display on the Guest tab. However, because you consider them a prospective class member, you may want to add them to the Prospect tab as well.
When a person is added as a prospect, the system will assign them a special Member Type of Prospect.
- Guests¶
A guest is anyone who has visited a class and whose attendance was recorded. Guests can be people visiting from out of town, church members looking for a class, or unchurched people who are actually looking for a church/class to join.
Guests will display on the Guest tab until one of these 3 things happen:
# They join the class. # 180 days has passed since their last visit. # You change First Meeting Date for the class.
Classes that use Promotion (usually babies through high school age) will change the First Meeting Date to be the date of Promotion each year. This way, they re-set their list of guests for that new year. Most adult classes will just allow the guests to remain on their Guest tab for the 180 days.
Those guests who seem to actually be prospects for the class should be added to the Prospect tab of the organization. They remain on the Guest tab as well, as it is based on attendance.
By using the Prospect tab, the class leaders know which people are likely to join the class (versus those who just randomly attended once), so they can focus their attention on them.
- Members¶
A member of an organization is someone that has made a decision to become part of that organization. Members will never be Prospects or Guests of that same organization. However, many members will initially be a guest, then a prospect, and finally a member of the organization.
Once a person becomes a member of the class, they no longer display on either the Guest or Prospect tab.
TouchPoint is a tool for ministry. That is why we track people in the manner we do. We do not want people falling through the cracks. Giving you the option to ‘qualify’ your guests, making some people prospects and not others, is designed to help the lay leaders in each class better focus their time on people who live in the area, are in need of a class, or who have indicated some interest in the class. Those would be the prospects.
So, lay leaders could use the Prospect tab to find those they need to contact, instead of only using the Guest tab, which will contain people who may never intend to return.
Why leave guests on the Guest tab? That tab is a log of what happened. It contains the history of the class, as it documents everyone who visited the class.
The Prospects tab is the tab you can manage. The same is true for the Members tab.
Guests vs Prospects¶
Guests will automatically be added to the Guest tab when you record their attendance in the class, if they are not members. You never remove guests from that tab, but you have the option to Hide a guest. They will automatically be removed 180 days after their last visit, or, if the class changes the First Meeting Date in the Settings for the organization.
Prospects are intentionally added manually to the Prospect tab of an organization when you decide that they fit one of the following conditions:
They have visited the class and are good candidates for joining the class.
They fit the demographics for the class, even though they have not actually attended the class. Perhaps they attended a worship service only.
Note
A hidden guest will reappear in the list if they visit again. You can also hide a prospect or drop them from the organization.
Click here for more information regarding Hiding Guests and/or Prospects.
Click here for more information about Rollsheet Guest Weeks which is how long a guest stays on a printed roll sheet.
Who Manages Prospects?¶
A teacher with OrgLeadersOnly type of user account will not have access to people who have not yet visited their class. However, if they have Attendance role they can make an existing guest a prospect.
So, for those who have not visited the class before, a staff member would need to do one of the following:
Add a person to the Prospect tab of an org based on their age, marital status, and other information, and let the leaders in the class know they have done that.
Assign a Task to a lay leader in the class asking them to follow up with that person, letting them know that the person might be a good prospect for their class.
In either of the above situations, once the person is added to the Prospect tab or a Task has been assigned about that person, then the leader can access that person’s record and contact him.
Understanding that, each church can decide how they wish to manage prospects.
Add a Prospect to an Organization¶
There are two ways to add a prospect to an organization:
For a guest who has actually visited the class, you can click the Add as Prospect link beside his name on the Guest tab of the organization.
For someone who has not yet visited the class, you can add him to the Prospect tab of an organization in the same way you add members to an organization.
Go to the Prospect tab > Add Prospects. Search for the person, select them and then click Commit and Add.
You could add a group of people at one time by using the Add From Tag option on the Prospects tab, if you have them in a Tag.
Suggestion
Perform a search to find those who visited your worship service but did not attend a Life Group. Add other conditions for specific stage of life parameters that fit a specific class. Go to the blue Toolbar > Gear > Tags > Add All. Name the Tag and click OK. You can then add those people to the Prospect tab of the organization using the Add From Tag feature mentioned above.
Change from Prospect to Member¶
- If a Prospect has visited (the name will be on the Guest tab):
Click the Join Org link beside the name on the Guest tab.
- If a Prospect has not visited (the name is not on the Guest tab):
Click the person’s Member Type - Prospect beside the name.
Click Edit.
Select Member from the Member Type drop-down.
Then click Save.
Change Several Prospects¶
- If there are several prospects that need to be made members:
Go to the organization Prospect tab.
Check the boxes beside the names of those to change and then click Filter.
Select Prospect > Update Prospects.
Select Member from the Member Type drop-down.
Click the blue Update button.
Note
When you are updating prospects, you will see a note telling you how many Prospects will be updated.
FAQs re Prospects¶
- What happens when a Prospect attends the class for the first time?
You should add the prospect as a guest to that meeting, just as you would any other guest. The person will now display on the guest tab, and will remain on the prospect tab as well.
- Do Prospects’ names print on roll sheets?
No. Prospects names will not print until after they visit for the first time. Guests print on roll sheets; prospects do not. But prospects that are also guests will print on the roll sheet in the guest section below the members.
- Is there a way to find prospects, regardless of the specific class for which they are a prospect?
Yes. There is a Search Builder Condition on the Enrollment tab named Is Prospect Of. You can select a Program and Division, without specifying an organization. Or you can search for all prospects if you do not select any filter.
- When you no longer consider a person a prospect, how can you remove them from the Prospect tab?
Go to the organization Prospect tab.
Check the boxes beside the names of those to remove and then click Filter.
Select Prospect > Drop Prospects.
Click the red Drop button. Do not check Remove from Enrollment History.
- Can I look at a person’s record and see if they are a prospect in an organization?
Yes. Look on his Involvement > Current tab and the Member Type column. If he has a Member Type of Prospect, then his is a Prospect for that organization. He may be a Prospect in multiple organizations.
- How can I make someone a prospect in a different class?
If you want to move a prospect from one class to another just click his Member Type and click the Move button. Then elect the appropriate class. This will place him on the Prospect tab of the class you chose and remove him from the original org.
A final word about managing Prospects
Someone on your staff, perhaps an outreach minister, should follow up with individual class leaders on their progress with prospects. First, they can run Search Builder searches to find prospects who have not yet been contacted or who have not visited a class. Then they can hold those leaders accountable to the assimilation ministry and give them help in order to be successful in ministering to these people.
Here are links to other articles that you may want to read, as they are related to ministering to Prospects, Guests, and Members of your organization, as well as features mentioned in this article.