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Text File | 1991-01-21 | 29KB | 536 lines

~~exerpts taken from cprofile.doc in chrchpr1.arc to give a brief overview of the program and style of writing, which is very clear and simple for non-computer-oriented operaters of a some- what extensive program. The program is written in dBaseII and is easily changed to dBaseIII to run in either a CP/M or MSDOS environment. A Hard disk is nearly essential. The programming style is extremely well documented. For changes, however, exper- ience with programming in dBase from a computer-literate member of the congregation or a local programmer would be suggested if major modifications were required. So far the program has run well in both the cp/m and msdos environments. tl/oly-znode. PS - the author has already converted to db3 for those interested in going directly with db3 - his address/phone is later in this doc file. It is a "freeware" oriented program whereby after you try it and like it enough to use it, you can then pay a nominal fee to be- come a registered user ($30). The program is far better than a similar $2500 dollar program I saw demo'd in the commercial market!~~ ~~Found on Olympia Znode 206-357-6757 - one of three sister systems. The znode rotates 30mb of C, dBase2 and dBase3 programs - the other systems specialize in basic and pascal source and in PC shareware.~~ C P R O F I L E A Computerized Church Management System Version 1.3 September, 1985 by Rod Williams This Reference Manual is the extension of the "Operator's Guide" that came with your program. Information in the Guide is not repea- ted but is written to be an extension of it. You can print out the Guide file yourself (file CPROF.DOC) in order to have computer- printed pages, then print out each of the extended manual files. When finished, you can merge the pages together by section in order to have a full manual that is continuous. ~~~~~~break~~~~~~ A. CPROFILE Introduction CPROFILE is truly a full-feature church management system, tracking all areas of the local church operation. The primary emphasis is membership management, with additional functions of church contributions, accounting, library management, bibliographic information data bases, special event planner, and church property manager. CPROFILE does not include a word processor program, as this is often included in the computer purchase. CPROFILE interfaces with word processors, such as Word Star's MailMerge, by creating external-readible text files of any CPROFILE data file. CPROFILE consists of text-format program files written in the DBASE II programming language. DBASE II, version 2.4 or later, is required to run CPROFILE. The data structures and program characteristics are quite strong, yet on the most part are easy to understand and use. There is an expanded User's Manual for CPROFILE, written on diskette files. They give detailed information on data characteristics and program operation. To print them, enter "TYPE manual.DOC" then press control-P before pressing <RETURN> (substitute the name of the manual file for "manual"). Each file is an extension of the corresponding section of this manual. The text file of this manual is named "CPROFILE.DOC". If you print it, then merge the extended sections of the full manual into it, you will have a more continuous manual to read from. Tutorials are provided, which use sample data files that are in place on the fourth program diskette. CPROFILE has few program limits - basically, the only limits are your computer disk space and the structure of the program data files. The CPROFILE program files, along with the dBASE II program, take less than 270 K-bytes of disk memory for any one program. This excludes the manual files, which are not required to be on the disk for program operation. Users with computers having less than 270K memory can divide the programs into sub-program diskettes, each diskette performing a part of the original program. See paragraph 2-F for program sectioning information. CPROFILE is established as Public Domain software. This means that it is distributed free of charge, except for a $30.00 materials and copying fee. Users are allowed to make copies of the programs and User's Manual for other churches. In establishing this program set as Public Domain, the author further establishes that it is forbidden for anyone to copy the programs or any program section for profit without a signed statement of intent from WaterWares. (Certain organizations are being authorized to package and market CPROFILE within specific price limits.) Such action is definitely illegal and can be prosecuted. But you may sell service to CPROFILE, such as charging for putting on a seminar about its use, or customizing program sections for specific results. Churches can distribute this program to other churches and organizations as they desire; however, WaterWares will only honor phone calls or letters for assistance from those who have received or registered their program copy directly from WaterWares. Users not receiving their programs from WaterWares are encouraged to register themselves with a letter to WaterWares, giving: 1) name, 2) address, 3) organization name, 4) computer type and/or disk format, 5) place or person you received the copy of CPROFILE from. Contributions to WaterWares are encouraged, which will help cover costs of advertising and of developing future computer products for churches. $30 is a recommended amount. You can receive assistance in using the programs without making a contribution. ~~~~~break~~~~~ Page 1-1 Section 1: CPROFILE Introduction WaterWares is a company of just one person - the author, Rod Williams - who has written these programs over about a three year period for use by his church. The author has another regular job, so is squeezing the supporting of CPROFILE into evening hours. WaterWares address is - ** ** 6115 10th Ave S. ** Minneapolis, MN 55417 ** phone: (612) 866-6332 answered on Monday and Thursday evenings ** from 6:00 to 7:00 P.M., Central Time ** Support from the author may require a little start-up time to answer initial user questions, plus an occasional response to special-case questions, as specific report needs arise. Special requests can often be explained in only one or two minutes. CPROFILE is quite adaptable to special requests. If more extensive customization is desired, custom programming service can be arranged or found. Computer programs are notorious for BUGS - program flaws that cause incorrect processing of data. CPROFILE is written in a rigorously structured form so that bugs are easy to see and keep out. But still there are literally millions of logic paths in the program. So the author will not guarantee error-free operation. The main bugs have been worked out at the author's church, from extensive, regular use. The processing of the data is quite secure. Operational irregularities might occasionally occur, though. This means that the program might occasionally not respond properly to user inputs, or will just display an error message and quit, not always having a smooth path out of receiving improper inputs, for example. This kind of fault will not hurt the data. You can just start the program up from the beginning and keep going from where you were. Some program errors can occur from incorrect program set up. You must have all program modules and data files on your active disk in order to operate all sections. B. CPROFILE Purpose and Philosophy Using a computer at a church can seem to be the opposite of what a church is all about - that of being personally involved in people's lives, encouraging them toward spiritual growth. The local church can certainly misuse the computer by using it to impersonally keep track of individuals from sketchy, computer-oriented data that locks people into set images. For example, the computer may continually note that someone is a single parent. Some people using the computer reports might not see through to who this person really is, as a person. So the computer outputs should always be understood for what they are - tables of compiled data, made from certain pre-defined input and processing rules. The church needs to understand these pre-defined rules for every report that CPROFILE puts out. For example, in the Attendance processes, a person is considered "Inactive" by the pre-defined rule that he/she has missed church, or their class, 3 times out of the last 6. This is as the computer reads these last six weeks of attendance marks. Since there are ways that the data can be entered erroneously, or be incomplete, the operator has to gain a rather high degree of astuteness to be able to manage the computer operations properly. A computer program, such as CPROFILE, basically just builds a file of information about a subject - people - and allows the operator to quickly search for, or re-organize that information. It is like filling a file cabinet with information, then managing that cabinet. Each file cabinet is like a disk drive that has drawers [computer files], and each drawer has folders [computer file records] with specific information on one subject. The parallel of pulling out a file drawer and looking at some information about an individual is to OPEN a computer file, and display the RECORD of their information, from the screen. The information that you can pull out is only the same as what you put in. How neatly it can be accessed is also dependent on how well it was organized (the CPROFILE program helps this) and how regular and accurately the information was recorded. The two major differences are that computer files are stored on a 5-1/4 inch diskette by an electronic machine, compared with storing papers in a heavy filing cabinet; and secondly, the input and output process on a computer is carefully controlled by the program for the operator. The computer that will now sit in the church office should not take anyone's job away. Most churches have so much work to be done that the computer will only enable the church's workers to concentrate on doing different, more important church work. The computer will really only be doing tasks that are slow, boring jobs that people don't want to do anyway. Such church work as marking attendance, producing contributions statements, and keeping track of church expenditures are greatly sped up by the computer. Some processing work is still there, but a good computer, with good programs and a receptive operator, make such tasks both interesting and enjoyable. The work that is left is more people-oriented, enabling a more significant ministry. ~~~~~~break~~~~~~ Page ---- 1 1. CPROFILE Introduction 1-3 1-B. CPROFILE Purpose and Philosophy Section 2: BASIC COMPUTER USAGE CONCEPTS 2-1 2-A. Rapid CPROFILE Start-up Instructions 2-1-1 2-A-1. Knowing your Computer Hardware and Operating System 2-1-2 2-A-2. Computer Start-up 2-1-3 2-A-3. Computer Components 2-2 2-B. Common Operating System Commands 2-3 2-C. Managing your System Files 2-4 2-D. Managing your CPROFILE Data Files 2-5 2-E. General DBASE and CPROFILE Operational Rules 2-8 2-F. Planning Your day-to-day Computer Usage 2-8 2-F-1. The Computerized Church Office 2-8 2-F-2. Initial CPROFILE Start-up 2-9 2-F-3. Planning Your Computer Personnel 2-10 2-F-4. The Computer Usage Log Section 3. MPROFILE - Membership Profile Page ---- 3-1 3-A. Overview 3-2 3-A MPROFILE Main Features 3-2-1 3-A.2 MPROFILE Start-up Sequence 3-2-2 3-A.3 MPROFILE Monthly Update Processing 3-2-3 3-A.4 Basic MEMBERS File Description 3-2-4 3-B1. TUTORIAL - MPROFILE Update Process 3-2-4 3-B1a MPROFILE Start-up 3-2-4 3-B1b MPROFILE, Update 3-2-5 3-B1c Adding two new names 3-2-8 3-B1d Changing a member information record 3-2-9 3-B2. TUTORIAL - MPROFILE Report Generation 3-2-9 3-B2a Make Full Information Report 3-2-10 3-B2b Make mailing labels of all choir members 3-2-11 3-B3. Setting up and Maintaining your church's Names Directory 3-2-11 B3a Program Start-up 3-2-11 B3b Initial MEMBERS File Create 3-2-12 B3c Names Directory Set-up 3-2-13 B3d Initial Church Activity Names Entry 3-2-14 B3e Maintaining the Names Directory File 3-5 3-C. MEMBERS Data Elements Description 3-8 3-D. MEMBERS Information Editing 3-10 3-E. MPROFILE Reports 3-12 3-E2 MPROFILE Secondary Files 3-13-1 3-E3 Full Church Reports 3-13-5 3-E4 Small Church Reports 3-13-8 3-E5 Special Activities Reports 3-13-11 3-E6 Interests / Abilities Reports 3-13-12 3-E7 Special, User-specified Reports 3-14 3-F MPROFILE SPECIAL PROCESS: Special File Creation, Reports 3-14-1 3.F1 Introduction 3-14-2 3.F2 Print/Display Reports from selected file and selected record criteria 3-14-3 3.F3 Create a new, separate file from a specified input file 3-14-3 3.F4 Create an MPROFILE secondary file 3-14-4 3.F5 Selection criteria description 3-14-5 3-G MPROFILE SPECIAL PROCESS: Attendance Marking, Reports 3-14-5 3.G1 Overview 3-14-7 3.G2 Attendance Marking Start-up 3-14-8 3.G3 Attendance Marking 3-14-10 3.G4 Attendance Reports 3-14-10 3.G5 YEAR-END PROCESSING 3-14-11 3-H MPROFILE SPECIAL PROCESS: Pastoral Calling Section 3A - Appendixes Page ---- 3A MPROFILE Files 3A-1 3A.1 MEMBERS File - all members, attenders 3A-2 3A.2 FCMEMBRS File - Families 3A-2 3A.3 MSCROST File - Small Churches 3A-2 3A.4 MACTIVTY File - Special Activities 3A-2 3A.5 MSKILLS File - Interests/Abilities 3A-3 3A.6 MDIRFILE - Names Directory 3A-4 3A.7 MPROFILE Working Storage Files 3A-5 3A.8 Church Membership Information Form 3B MPROFILE Reports Formats 3B-3 3B.1 Full-Information Report 3B-4 3B.2 Two-Line Report 3B-5 3B.3 One-Line Report 3B-6 3B.4 Monthly Attendance Check List 3B-7 3B.5 2-Column Roster 3B-8 3B.6 Mailing Labels 3B-9 3B.7 Changes List 3B-10 3B.8 Full Church Directory 3C-1 3C MPROFILE Programs, Process Diagram Section 3 - Figures 3-1 3-1 MPROFILE Main Menu 3-3 3-2 MPROFILE Set-up 3-4 3-2A Church Parameters Editing 3-4 3-2B Church Function/Activity Names Editing 3-8 3-1A MEMBERS Update Menu 3-8-3 3-1B MEMBERS Update-Add Format 3-13-1 3-1C MEMBERS Update-Edit Format 3-13-1 3-3 Full Church Processing Menu 3-13-1 3-3A Full Church, Special Dates Menu 3-13-5 3-4 Small Church Reports menu 3-13-8 3-5 Special Activities Reports menu 3-13-11 3-6 Interests/Abilities Reports menu 3-14-1 3-7 MPROFILE - Special File Creation, Reports 3-14-5 3-9A Full Church Attendance Marking, Reports 3-14-6 3-9B Small Church Attendance Marking, Reports 3-14-8 3-9C Attendance Marking screen 3-14-10 3-9D Full Attendance Report 3-14-11 3-H Pastoral Calling Section 4:1 - CFINANCE, MCONTRIB -Contributions Processing Page ---- 4-1 4:1-A MCONTRIB Overview 4:1-1 4:1-B MCONTRIB Start-Up 4:1-2 4:1-C TUTORIAL - MCONTRIB 4:1-6 4:1-D MCONTRIB - Names Directory Parameters 4-2 4:1-E MCONTRIB Processes 4-3-1 E-1. Initializing MCONTRIB for a new month 4-3-2 4:1-F Enter contributions amounts 4-3-6 4:1-G MCONTRIB Report Printing 4-3-6 4:1-H Direct Display/Editing of CONTRIB file, PLEDGED 4-3-7 4:1-I Contributions Analysis Process 4-3-8 4:1-J Special Funds Processing 4-3-9 4:1-K MCONTRIB SET UP 4-3-10 4:1-L END OF MONTH/QUARTER PROCESSING 4:1-19 4:1A MCONTRIB Appendix A Contributions page of entries Contributions Initialize Routine Contributions Monthly Office Report Contributions Individual Statement Section 4:2 CFINANCE, CFBUDGET - Budget Manager 4-5 4:2 Church Budget Manager 4-6 4:2-A Description of Main CFBUDGET Processes 4-7 4:2-B Screen Displays 4-7-1 4:2-2 TUTORIAL: Church Budget Manager 4-7-3 4:2-3 Start up 4-7-4 -3.1 Set Up 4-7-5 -3.2 Names Directory Editing 4-7-6 -3.3 Account Data Entry 4-7-7 4:2-4 Account Data Entry 4-7-7 -4.1 Church Received Amounts Entry 4-7-8 -4.2 Accounts Department Summaries Processing 4-7-11 -4.3 Department Accounts update Processing 4-7-14 4:2-5 CFBUDGET Reports 4-7-14 -5.1 Print checks that have been posted 4-7-14 -5.2 Post Accounts with amounts to be paid 4-7-14 -5.3 Display payment amounts from specified date 4-7-15 4:2-6 ACCOUNTS file Updating to a new Month or Year 4-7-15 -6.1 Start a new month's budget 4-7-16 -6.2 Start a new year's account 4-7-16 4:2-7 Special CFBUDGET Techniques 4-7-16 -7.1 ACCOUNTS File Extensions 4-7-17 4:2A Appendix A - CFBUDGET Files Section 5.1 - CUTILITY 5:1-1 5:1 CUTILITY Overview 5:1 CROSSREF 5:2 CLIBRARY 5:3 MUSICLIB 5:4 CTAPELIB 5:5 CSEVENT 5:6 CSURVEY Consider the following list of things that CPROFILE can and cannot do for a church. CPROFILE can . . . 1. Print Full Church and Sunday School class rosters. 2. Make lists of people who have missed three times in a row. 3. Make mailing labels of everyone in a certain voting district. 4. Tell you people who have birthdays or anniversaries coming up 5. Print individual contributions statements. 6. Tell you how many members there are; how many joined this year. 7. Tell you who hasn't received a pastoral call in so many months. 8. Print contributions statements, as a year-end report for taxes. 9. Tell you who is more than 20% behind in their giving. 10. Tell you who are the top 20% givers. 11. Tell you who is available do do neighborhood canvassing. 12. Print checks for bills, then adjust the cash-on-hand figure. 13. Tell the minister when he last preached on "(any subject)". 14. Find all books in the church library on the subject of "handicapped". CPROFILE cannot . . . 1. Smile and greet visitors warmly. 2. Bring coffee and rolls to committee meetings. 3. Assign committee members. 4. Do follow-up calling - you can get lists of people to call, from set attendance criteria, but somebody has to do the calling. 5. Work out disagreements between church members. 6. Prepare subject material for a talk or presentation - CPROFILE can be a great help, such as sifting through research materials but you have to form your own thoughts to present. 7. Tell you who is spiritually mature, and who is not. 8. Tell you who is having marriage or family difficulties - it takes listening ears and an open heart for this job. It is not good to try to use all the programs in CPROFILE. CPROFILE is set up to handle many different types of church operations, many of which are probably not relevant to your ministry. Also, many CPROFILE processes are of value only when there is enough volume of data for them, or when they are styled in the same manner as your ministry. You should only use the computer when you see that you have a BIG computer task to do. The Small Church / Sunday School reports section of MPROFILE is a good example of this. Some churches will only have six or eight classes of 8 - 10 children for Sunday School. It just isn't worth keeping printed reports for this few people. But if you have a little larger church with a sharp Youth Minister, and there are 50 or 100 young people attending, then the computer will be marvelous for making rosters for each young person to have, and for printing post cards to send out as event reminders. So each local church will tailor their particular manner of computer usage. ~~~~~~~~break~~~~~~ Section 2 - Basic Computer Usage Instructions F. Planning Your Day-to-day Computer Usage 1. The Computerized Church Office The computer represents two things in a church - rapid processing of information to make nice reports, and a very high degree of organi- zation in the office. In order to be able to put the computer to work, you have to get all your church information together. This means such things as determining who are valid church members and getting all membership data together - maybe sending out a member survey form for this information, planning a system and schedule for entering the Sunday offering amounts into the CFINANCE program, putting together a list of all your tapes from the tape ministry, sorting through all the music in the music library, deciding what might be used in the future, and so forth. This can all be quite a chore. You probably want to take on one task at a time. The computer requires you to do this before you start your real data file building. An efficient computerized church office will have a set plan for gathering all computerized church data, for making the updates into the computer, and for making and distribu- ting the reports (most CPROFILE processes make reports; only a few allow the operator to make ad-hoc queries for data). Everyone that is involved knows the sequence that is performed, and knows what the results will be. 2. Initial CPROFILE Start-up As you get into regular usage of the computer, you will need to settle on a system of maintaining the church data. As soon as you get it all entered, it will get to be out-of-date very soon. You need to plan how you will maintain the data even before you enter it the first time. You want to establish things like putting a basket in a central place that membership change information notes can be dropped, which is then used to make regular updates (maybe monthly) to the MEMBERS file and make new reports. You also will want to decide when to send out the contri- butions statement, and when to make a full church directory to make available to all members. Once you have your data together, you need to enter it all into the respective files. You might want to have a data entry party, where there is a marathon of selected people on rotation, doing the data entry for several days/evenings. In order to start data entry, you have to already know the CPROFILE processes. The data entry person that is assigned as the regular needs to learn all aspects of entering church information and what the CPROFILE processes are like. This person should try all functions that are anticipated to be used, and should enter data in as many forms as possible. In the MEMBERS Update process, you can only enter names in the format of: first letter is capitalized, followed by the remaining letters being in small case. If there is an error in this, you will never be able to access the record from CPROFILE, since it will be unable to make a match. This can be a problem when you only have a first initial. Also, it is good to make a lot of invalid operator errors on the sample data file, just to see what happens, so that you will not be worried about the consequences if you do so with the real data files. So when you are confident of your understanding of CPROFILE proceses, you can just start to roll. ~~~~~~break~~~~~ COMPUTER USAGE LOG October, 1984 DATE-TIME OPERATOR TASKS PERFORMED COMMENTS ======================================================================= Friday-10/22 | Gwen | MEMBERS update | All processes ran fine ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 10:30-1:00 | | | ======================================================================= Saturdy-10/23| Jim | Made tape labels | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 9:20-9:45 | | | ======================================================================= Saturdy-10/23| Bob |Fixed problem with |The printer is OK now, Sue ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4:00 P.M. | |the printer | ======================================================================= Sunday-10/24 | Glen |saved sermon notes | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 8:42 | | | ======================================================================= Monday-10/25 | Gwen | special rosters |Woops, we ran out of paper ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Some more coming by Tues /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ~~~~~break~~~~~ rest of manual follows.....