Inside Nspire

Nspire 4.42 Is Released

Bart — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:10:47 +0000

Below you will find the details of our most recent update Version 4.42. This update is now available through your FullAccess Online Website. If you can’t remember how to get to your FullAccess Support website, no worries, just read over the instructions from this past article and you should be ready to go.

Also, remember it is always a good idea to make a backup of your data before installing any kind of update.

Updated in Nspire 4.42

Added a new security name tag to the Scan Console. This option will print two name tags. One tag for the child with additional options for special needs and notes and the second tag, a security tag, for the parents to use when picking up the child. This option includes an option to print a random security number on the tags.
Enhanced the email system to allow blind copy email. When you send email you can specify to send the email as a blind copy to your Nspire user’s email address. This will make sending bulk emails with attachments much faster; however, because everyone will receive the same email you cannot use any tokens in the email.
By popular demand, we have added an option when sending an email to copy the email addresses of the individuals in your reports list to your clipboard. This will let you paste the email addresses into Outlook or another email system.
You can now query Charges and Collection in the Individuals Profile window. There are several new options for find out who has money or owes money right from the View Individuals window.
The Last Present date has been added to the Individual profile window. This will allow you to do some basic querying of attendance in the individuals window. This is our first pass on this and will need to be revisited.
An option has been added to export to exclude duplicate household members. This makes it possible to export household specific information from the Individuals section.
Change the sort order of individuals in the View Attendance Sheet window. Instead of seeing the names in Student/Volunteer order, the list is now in Name order only.
Increased the size of the View Sheet window in Attendance.
A search box has been added to the View Sheet window in Attendance to allow searching for an individual in the window.
Corrected problem pasting HTML code from Microsoft Word into the HTML E-mail editor.
Including the default signature line on HTML E-mail was corrupting the closing HTML tags in the HTML editor.
Added a new token to print the assignable barcode value to your reports. This will allow you to use a 3 of 9 font to print the barcode on your Microsoft Word reports or to export the barcode value.
Changes have been made to make the Inactive flag to consistently exclude people when using the household tokens and other areas of the software. For example, inactive people do not print in the Husband and Wife tokens to prevent deceased individuals from printing on reports and letters.
Right click menu options have been added to the View Attendance window to make it easier to select View Sheet and Print Options.
Fields in the Update Events window would clear under certain circumstances when you edited an event.
Added support for DYMO’s Twin turbo line of printers to the Attenda Plus Scan Console.
Added an A4 formatted pdf manual for international printing.

Assignable Barcodes Just Released! Watch the Video Automated attendance tracking is now easier than ever with the...

Help Haiti Earthquake Victims – We’ll Show you how

Brandon Gross — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:37:26 +0000

Most of you have heard by now about the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday. Our hearts and prayers are with the Haitian people during this difficult time. But as a company we believe very much in action.

James tells us,

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.

(HCSB courtesy www.biblegateway.com)

That’s why we have teamed up with Living Water International and Mercy Water to help the people of Haiti. Watch to following video to learn more:

According to LWI,

“The most urgent need during the coming days and weeks will be water. Homes can take months to re-build, electricity can take weeks to restore, but people can’t last long without water.

Earthquakes destroy water systems. Pipelines break, electrical distribution systems fail, and hand-dug wells–—already questionable water sources–—are rendered useless or become contaminated with cholera, typhoid, and other waterborne diseases.”

“In Haiti, clean water is a terrible problem even at the best of times,” said LWI Executive Director Gary Evans. “After a quake like this, it’s a crisis of epic proportions.”

How you can help:

Get the Word Out - Nspire and our Partners are providing resources to help you raise support for the Haitian people. Feel free to use and distribute these resources to your youth groups, congregations and friends & families. We only ask you do not modify the resources without first requesting permission. You can download the following resources:

- Haiti Awareness Video – Use the following Code Snippet to place the “Help Haiti” video on your website. You can also download the video to show in group settings by clicking here (the download link is on the bottom right of the Vimeo page)

Embed from Vimeo:

Help Haiti Earthquake Victims - We'll Show You How from Brandon Gross on Vimeo.

Embed from Youtube:

- Facebook, Myspace & Website Banners – Use the following code snippets to place the following banners on your websites and social networks:

728 x 90

468 x 60

200 x 200

125 x 125

- Blogs & Twitter – Put your social networking skills into action. We encourage you to blog, tweet and update your status’ to raise support for Haiti. If you are a youth minister, this is a great way for your kids to help out. Feel free to use any of the links above in your posts. You can also link directly to the Living Water International donation page with this link : http://www.water.cc/initiatives/haiti/

Most of all help us raise support for Haiti by donating and encouraging others to do the same.

At Nspire, we have chosen water as a way to help because it is the most basic and essential of human needs. Water is something most of us never have to worry about going without and with the Haiti people already having a terrible problem accessing clean water… An earthquake just makes finding clean water all the more difficult.

But it doesn’t have to be that way… We can make a difference. Our donations, no matter how small or large to us, mean life to the people of Haiti. Help us make a difference… today.

Together we can reach out with the love of Christ to the people of Haiti… thank you for being a part of making a difference.

You can Donate to the Haiti Relief Fund by clicking below

Assignable Barcodes Just Released! Watch the Video Automated attendance tracking is now easier than ever with the...

Strike a Pose… We need your Photo!

Brandon Gross — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:59:01 +0000

Want to be in the new upcoming Youth Assistant website? Are you a Youth Worker?

If you answered Yes, then strike your best pose and tell us how you use Youth Assistant. Then send your photo and quote to strikeapose@nspiresoftware.com . We will select the best poses and use them on the new Youth Assistant website… So Be Creative!

Here are a few guidelines for the photos:

1. Make it easy on Brandon (our graphic designer) and take the picture in front of a blank or solid background (AKA wall, green screen, solid… anything)

2. If possibly give us a full body shot (basically we want to see your entire body in the shot)… Otherwise waist up will work.

3. Forget About that old formal shot you have hanging above the dinning room table… Congregational directory day photos are right out

4. HAVE FUN! Be Creative.

If you have questions you can also send them to strikeapose@nspiresoftware.com

How Creative Are You? Have you ever tried to be creative when the creative...
Creative way to reach out to Visitors!!! Well, this week I wanted to let you know about...

IT Solutions – Using Twitter & Facebook to Your Advantage

Dan Harbottle — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:21:16 +0000

I have been a youth pastor for nearly 10 years now and a great advocate of utilizing IT to maximize ones effectiveness in ministry.

With the huge popularity of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter it is most important that ministry practitioners familiarize themselves with the potentials and the dangers of social networking sites. They can be powerful tools of communication but also powerful tools of distraction. I have put together a list of suggestions & thoughts (in no particular order) for using these resources which I hope will help you in your ministry:

Make them serve you, not the other way round. You can farm, comment on photos, check your personality, chat, private message, and much more, but is it worth it? Ask yourself this question, “Is this the best use of my time; can I be more productive elsewhere?”
Don’t comment on others unless you really need to. I know it sounds harsh, but it can really be a waste of time commenting on the status updates and wall posts that people make. Use them thoughtfully and sparingly.
Don’t bother with Applications – It really is a time waster. There is nothing to gain from throwing a snowball, farming, or SUPER walling. Some of the utility applications are good, but don’t waste your time with games. I’ll post a recommended list of must have applications and utilities at another time for both facebook and your computer.
Use personal status updates with care. Don’t fall into the trap of sharing your deep personal life on facebook (especially if you minister regularly with youth). I know a number of youth pastors who seem to forget that all their youth have added them as a friend and share about dumb things which only make them & their ministry look stupid. It is most important to show that we are human, but keep the dirt to a minimum. Share your life as well as the gospel.
Address facebook etiquette/behavior with your youth & young adults. Why is it that so many of our young people seem to live an alternative life online? THEY FORGET WE’RE WATCHING! You really start to see the true character or the character they WANT to be through their social networking comments and photos. Use it to develop their character and deepen their discipleship. That may well mean rebuke!
Bulk messages in Social Networking Sites – I generally try to use Nspire to bulk message my youth & young adults. Why? Because I can track the correspondence individually. I will always post a link to the facebook page or our website. If it’s really urgent, I SMS them.
Groups & Events- Probably the most utilised facebook tool by me. Give them a connection point with a group and then make sure you have your upcoming events in there. Always try and create an image for your group and event to spice up your page just a bit and cross link it to your group’s or church website with more details etc.
Use a third party tool for status updates – If you have multiple accounts then using a third party application to update your status saves a bucket load of time. I quite like the Yoono add-on for firefox which updates Twitter, Facebook, AIM, Messenger, and more. It sits on the side of my browser and let’s me update my status in one place and feeds me my friend’s status updates. On my iPhone I use StatusTIC to update Twitter and Facebook status’ quickly and with only a couple of keystrokes.
Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket – Try and utilise multiple connection mediums (email, social networking, SMS, webpage, personal contact, phone call, snail mail, etc). A young person will need at least 3 contacts each week to maximize their discipleship (ie Small group + Email + Phone call, OR Small group + Facebook + Visit, etc).
Find someone else to champion your online presence – Let’s face it, we didn’t get into ministry to update websites. We were created to dream, plan, develop, train, recruit, seed, and grow ministries for the gospel. If we get caught up with maintaining a facebook page or a website, we are being distracted from what we have been called to do. Always be looking for the champion to promote your ministry etc. Guide them, grow them, and then let them do it while you keep the main thing the main thing.

What are your sucesses and insights into social networking and your online presence?

Dan

Share your life as well as the gospel

No related posts.

Even CUSTODIANS love NSpire

uthpastordave — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:11:14 +0000

We had a unique situation crop up this week and Nspire came to the rescue, this time for the benefit of our church custodian. It seems there is an outside group, a community college, that is having their commencement ceremony in our new Life Center this Friday evening. He had to set up 500+ chairs for the event, set the stage and make sure everything was ready for this group. This was a LARGE job for one man and we realized he needed a little help. Since I already had my regularly scheduled midweek Student Ministry worship service scheduled, we ended early and about 20 of us made our way over and helped him get the room set up in about 20 minutes. (I failed to mention that he had already spent an hour setting up 120 chairs. Had he continued at that pace the job would have taken him 5 hours).

Here’s where Nspire made a happy custodian: Some of our staff realized that he was going to have to put 500+ chairs away on Saturday. We decided we would shoot a quick email out to the adults in our congregation. The result? We sent over 300 emails out to the adults in our congregation this morning (using the mail-merge feature). We inserted some tokens to make it personal, and asked them to come and help put everything away at 9am this Saturday. He had no idea we had done this, but was SO EXCITED to hear that we had a crew that was going to be here to help him get the job done!

In 2 minutes we put together an email that took 10 minutes to send out, we got about a dozen responses and saved HOURS of work! Beyond that, we have a very, VERY happy custodian who often does a very thankless job. Our people were made aware of a need and they responded! Nspire saved the day again!

No related posts.

Tracking Ministry Resources

uthpastordave — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:17:12 +0000

In my ministry I have resources that get borrowed a lot. I’m sure anyone out there in the trenches like me has the same scenario. The problem I had for quite some time was finding a system that worked. I did card files, lists, and a whole bunch of other methods, but none really worked for me — I couldn’t follow-up easily. Then, about 7-8 years ago, I had a student enter all of my resources into the Nspire library.

We now track board games, recreation equipment and Cd’s, as well as books and magazines from my personal library. For the last 12 years, I have been a subscriber to Interlinc. They send a shipment of music to my church once a quarter (usually there are a dozen Cd’s in each shipment). We literally have HUNDREDS of Cd’s in our music library, students are constantly wanting to borrow them.

The library function works very well for us and allows us to track our resources. As soon as I get a new shipment, I give the box to a volunteer who writes a call number on the Cd and Jacket with a permanent marker. She does the same for new board games, or other resources we acquire. If a student wants to borrow a Cd, they simply find one of my volunteers and we check it out for them.

I also used to have problems with students getting board games out, but they would often “forget” to put them away. (Anyone else out there share this problem? Can I get a witness?!?) There is now some accountability built into borrowing a game — if it is left out, all we have to do is check who signed out the game! All of a sudden, this “problem” went away! The same scenario has played out with cue sticks, ping-pong paddles and any other loose items (like video game control paddles, game disks or cartridges, etc.).

How did we do it? We created several categories: Recreation Equipment, Music, Books, Magazines. Then we gave each item a call number, Cd’s currently have a 5 digit number starting with Cd (ex: CD001), we can easily look up the item, then click on check out, find the student’s name and viola! It’s done! Their name shows up in a column to the right of the resource, along with their phone number.

We don’t have nearly as many problems with missing resources — all we need to do is make a phone call, or send an email and our resources find their way back home! When we notice that a bunch of resources are out, we’ll do a contact blitz and ask that our resources come back home to our Teen Center. I’ve been very pleased with this system because it allows me to share our resources with our students without the worry of them never coming back. Yes, occasionally something will get lost or damaged, but with the ability to follow-up, we don’t lose nearly as many resources as we did prior to initiating this system. My limited ministry dollars are no longer spent on replacing missing items!

Cool Youth Ministry I just ran across an interesting article over at www.churchrelevance.com...
Sunday School Curriculum and Resources If you haven’t heard of Serendipity House it is...

New Office Hours

Brandon Gross — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:00:40 +0000

We have been making a lot of changes at Nspire over the last month. A couple of those changes have been in our address and office hours.

Our new office hours have been designed around the times the average church organization is available to contact us. The most notable change in our business hours occurs on Mondays. Starting July 6th our offices will open at 1:00pm instead of 8:00am (CST). During this time our staff will be coming together to share ideas and continue to create the best experience available for our customers.

We have many development plans to be implemented over the few quarters and we are excited about what the next few months hold; we believe our customers will be as well.

As always, our commitment to our customers and FullAccess Support Members is unwavering. We appreciate your support and feel privileged to be a part of the ministry God has placed each of you into.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by calling 1-888-297-6495 or submitting your request through our online contact form at www.nspiresoftware.com/contact

Please take note of our new office hours and address below:

Office Hours:

Monday: 1:00pm – 5:00pm CST
Tuesday thru Friday: 8:00am – 5:00pm (closed 12pm – 1pm) CST

*Please be sure your business office is notified of this change.

New Address:

Nspire Software, LLC
#264
2020 Fieldstone Pkwy, Suite 900
Franklin, TN 37069

No related posts.

Resource Store Now Available in Version 4.41!

Brandon Gross — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:00:26 +0000

We have been excited to bring you this release since the beginning of this year. Our friends over at Simply Youth Ministry have made their resources available for you to access directly from Nspire, Youth Assistant and Children’s Assistant software.

In version 4.41 you will see a new icon in the left menu called “Store”. Simply click on this icon to access the Simply Youth Ministry Resource store. Here you will find the latest and greatest from Simply Youth Ministry.

Now for all our customers who are not youth ministers, don’t worry. We will be adding new resources in the coming months that will meet a wide range of your ministry needs.

As always, if you have any questions call us at 1-888-297-6495 or email us through our contact form at www.nspiresoftware.com/contact

If you are into twitter you can also shoot us a tweet: @nspiresoftware or go to our direct twitter page at www.twitter.com/nspiresoftware

What’s Your Most Valuable Resource // by RJ Droese // My senior year of college...
New live online training classes now available We are excited about the release of our new live...

Assignable Barcodes Just Released! Watch the Video

Brandon Gross — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:16:06 +0000

Take a look at how you can now assign your own bar-codes for tracking attendance.

Benefits of Assignable Barcodes:

1. No hassle about lost key tags or id cards since you can simply assign a new one
2. You can have key tags and id cards printed in bulk
3. Increase speed of registering new individuals

Nspire 4.42 Is Released Just a quick technical bulletin to let everyone know about...
Why Biometric Fingerprint Attendance It was back in late October that we first announced...
Biometric Fingerprint Attendance Coming in October! Over the last few months we have been working...

Geo-map all your database families

Bart Hardison — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:42:18 +0000

You can download the .PDF of this article by clicking here

How to Use www.batchgeocode.com

Geocoding is the term used for converting a street address to a latitude and longitude value. Once you have these values for an address you can plot the information on maps.

One tool for doing this is www.batchgeocode.com. Following their instructions you can use an exported set of addresses from Nspire to create a map that shows multiple addresses mapped together. What follows are instructions for using www.batchgeocode.com to create a map showing where all your households are located.

Note: There is a limit to the number of addresses you can geocode per day. The current maximum is 5000 per day per ip address. The site recommends that you not do more than 500 at a time. We have done more in testing but it does take time. Expect to take about 10min per 500 addresses or so. Time may also depend on your internet speed.

Step #1 – Create an export file containing the addresses you want to map.

Open Nspire and go to View Households. In the Household window you can use a query to limit your list of addresses. Next you need to click the Print button in the top right corner of the screen. In the Reports window Click the Export button to create a text file containing the addresses.

In the Export Template window, click the insert button to create a new export template.

In the update window we will create a new export file template for our geocode file.

Name: Name the template Batchgeocode

Description: Whatever you want here. You can leave it blank.

Check the Use Header record check box so you can identify your columns on the geocode web site

Next you need to select your tokens. Click the Modify List button.

In the Find control type Address. Select the Household Home Address in the list. Then in the Token Format list, you can double click Address, City, State, and Zip Code tokens. Your list should look like the one above. After you have your tokens, click the Ok button.

Now we are ready to export. Click the export button and chose to save your file to your desktop. If you take the defaults, the file should be named export.csv. You can change this if you want.

Step #2 – Get you data into the www.batchgeocode.com website

Next you need to open your file in Excel. If you have Windows Excel installed, the export file should already be associated with Excel. All you have to do is double click the export.csv file located on your desktop to open the file in Excel.

Once you have opened the file, select the first cell and click Ctrl-A. Just hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard then click “A”. This will make Excel select your entire data set. Next click Ctrl-C to copy the data to your clipboard.

Now, point your web browser to http://www.batchgeocode.com.

Under step #2, click the text field and then click ctrl-a to highlight all the data already in the text control. Next press Ctrl-V to paste your data into the text control. Once your data is in the text control click the validate source button to test your data.

You should see information about the number of columns and rows you have in your list.

Step #3 – Select your columns and create your Map

Under Step 4 on the batchgeocode.com web site you need to match your columns up to the correct fields. In Address, select your address column, then set your City, State, and Zip code. The other fields can be used to create more descriptive maps if you choose to import more data.

Under step 5 on the web site, click the Run Geocoder button. A processing message will appear as you step through your records. Once complete your map will appear in Step 6.

You can save a link to your map that you can share. However, note that it will save your address data on their site and it is visible on the page with the map.

There you go. You have now created a map that shows where all your households are located.

Have fun making your own.

Remember to Backup Part – 1 I am amazed at how many churches I come in...
Blogging and the Church??? I read an interesting article today about church blogging and...
creating a church website with an apple – Part 2 – iweb Yesterday, I gave a top ten list of why...