Presbytery Office Manager’s Assistant (POMA)presbyterianchurchusa.com/poma/pdf/brochure.pdf ·...

Presbytery Office Manager’s Assistant (POMA)

Would you like to:

Save time when updating clergy, church, committee and laity information

Obtain immediate access to information Print labels and directories effortlessly Send emails to churches, clergy and committee members,

effortlessly

Then review the remainder of this document. Developed by: Interlink Media 250 Kings Highway Haddonfield, NJ 08033 Phone: 856-427-7263 Fax: 856-427-7266 Email: [email protected] Contact: J. W. Gregg Meister, President


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Introduction Every presbytery needs a system to organize all the information that is required to communicate with, and keep track of, pastors, laity, churches and committee membership. Some presbyteries still use only word processing programs to manage their volume of data and some of that data resides in four different files that are not connected. Other presbyteries use a data base created by someone local either for free or at some nominal cost but all too often the developer eventually either loses interest or leaves the area. Still other presbyteries use a database designed for churches and it doesn’t address the specific needs of a presbytery. POMA is the only organization software designed specifically for presbyteries. The following information will demonstrate how unique POMA is and why more presbyteries are signing up each year. Think of these questions:

• Does the presbytery staff feel overworked? • Do you lose track of which pastors are active, but not serving on a presbytery committee? • When communicating with presbytery individuals, do they receive multiple copies of

materials? • Are there times an office administrator has to take work on vacation in order to get it

done? • Do you have the means to find a small group of pastors or laity with a specific skill? • Do you have the need in an emergency event to notify all churches and/or clergy or even

specific committees by email? If you answered “yes” to any one of these questions, or many others you can think of, then you are ready for the Presbytery Office Manager’s Assistant (POMA).

The Presbytery of West Jersey has used POMA for some time and their former Executive Presbyter, Rev. David Cassie, summarizes POMA:

“POMA has become a vital part of our daily work as well as of our long-range mission planning. Its use has saved us countless hours and improved our communication with our churches. From this one data source we can now publish and keep current our Presbytery Directory, generate many kinds of reports, organize our mailing labels and execute comparative analysis for many of our committees. I cannot think of a single more important tool assisting us in the work we do on behalf of Christ’s Church!”


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POMA Description The Presbytery Office Manager’s Assistant consists of four components; database maintenance, reports, labels and history. Each of these is described below with examples; however the first screen in the system contains the manner in which you get to each of the components.

From the above screen you can get to any of the four components of the product by just clicking on the box to the left of the requested function. Each of the four components is described below.


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First Component - Database Maintenance (With Screens) Database maintenance allows you to add, modify, and delete data pertaining to Pastors, Laity, Churches and Committees. This is done using easy to use and understandable screens. The following examples show parts of some of the screens. Where possible selection lists are provided so that a minimum of effort is needed to maintain the database. For example, whenever it is necessary to associate a church with a pastor or lay individual, you just pick a name from a list.


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Second Component - Reports There is a set of standard reports, many of them used to build a presbytery- wide directory. For example, there are directories for Clergy, Laity, Churches and Officers. The following is the beginning part of the Church Directory:

You can also print this report with the home address of the pastors and if an asterisk appears to the right of the pastors name, then all mail is to go to the church to the pastor’s attention and if there is no asterisk then it goes to the home address shown on the report. The presbytery staff, however, needs not worry about this when labels are generated for whatever purposes (presbytery packets, newsletters, specific committee meetings, etc.), as the desired address is always and consistently used. When printing the Directory of Clergy you can choose from multiple formats including one which is a pictorial directory. You can print a number of other reports such as a Pulpit Supply List, Birthday and Ordination Dates reports (by selecting a date range), Laity Reports based on a title such as “Clerk of Session”, “Commissioner”, “Mission Advocate”, “Treasurer” (you get to set the titles), a report for the Nominating Committee that list all clergy not currently serving, and many more reports.


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In addition, there are reports generated specific to committees: when they meet, the committee members, and a specific report used by the Nominating Committee with more personal information to ensure committee balance. The following is an example of the top portion of the summary list of committee members (you can obtain detailed committee reports with addresses, phone numbers, etc., as well):

Third Component - Labels The third component of the database consists of label processing. One of the primary functions of a presbytery is keeping all members informed, usually by mail – as this requires many and various lists and types of labels. With POMA this is an easy task. You keep an individuals address in only one place. The desired address will be used, whether it is to send everything to the church, the individual’s home or even to an alternate address. Standard labels can be generated for target mailings, such as all churches, all active pastors not retired, all retired pastors, all members-at-large, all laity, recipients of the presbytery newsletter, recipients of presbytery packets, specific committee members, church officers, clerks of sessions, and many more. You can use different label types as well as print on envelopes. Further, you can generate labels only for those without email addresses and send an email to those with email addresses. The following is an example of a set of labels:


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Fourth Component - History The fourth component of the POMA consists of retention of history information. Each year, information is stored in a history component of POMA. This includes individuals, and their associated church, who has participated on a committee and whose term is complete or that they held a position in presbytery such as moderator or president of the trustees and has completed service. At any time a report can be produced, by individual, listing all committees and positions served, or, by church, listing all individuals and their service. Summary As you have reviewed in the preceding pages, some of the features of POMA include:

• One place with all presbytery addresses and phone numbers • One place with all presbytery data on individuals • Fingertip access to information • Church, pastor, laity and committee directories – up to the minute • A comprehensive, fully normalized database • Continual tracking of historical information on committees and presbytery positions • Many predefined reports • Many predefined sets of labels • Ease of inputting and maintaining data with simple-to-use screens • Online, immediately available, help • Ease of sending emails to various categories of individuals • Mail/Merge capabilities feeding data from POMA into word processing

Some of the benefits of POMA include:

• Easy access to specific request needs • No duplication of address and phone number information • More responsive to phone requests • Improved staff moral • Fewer errors

The minimum configuration of computer and software you need is:

• Microsoft ME, XP, or Vista • Microsoft Access 2000 or higher • PC with minimum of 800 MHz, 256 RAM and 10 Gig hard drive

Here is how Debbie Dawson, Administrative Assistant for the Presbytery of Central Washington, summarizes POMA:

“The POMA program is the first place I turn for information. Everything I need is quickly accessed at the click of my mouse. Whether I just need specific information about a church or need to print labels for a presbytery meeting mailing, the database is clearly laid out for easy use, and no more duplicate labels. The technical support is wonderful as well. Your technician can easily speak to the database-proficient user as well as those more technically challenged. I love this new program and would highly recommend it to any presbytery office looking to make their database more proficient.”


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About the Author and the Company The author of POMA is Henry Heidler, a software professional with over 40 years of development experience. He has personally developed software packages currently in use by hundreds of companies. Mr. Heidler began his career working with a large computer-manufacturing firm and ultimately co-founded Value Computing, Inc., which was acquired by Computer Associates, one of the world’s largest software companies. He has managed various R&D groups including development, support, technical writing, and quality assurance. Beyond his work experience Mr. Heidler has served as an elder in his local Presbyterian church, chaired several committees, served as treasurer and was president of the Board of Trustees. He has also served on the Presbytery Nominating Committee and the Committee on Preparation for Ministry, as well as being a commissioner to Presbytery. Mr. Heidler’s combination of being an active and involved Presbyterian and an experienced developer of world-class software has resulted in the development of the outstanding POMA software product. The distributor of POMA is Interlink Media. Founded by Rev. J. W. Gregg Meister in 1988, this award-winning multimedia production company specializes in video programming and web site development. One of Interlink Media’s productions is a popular video series for training church officers. This training video series, featuring “John Calvin,” is used in every Presbytery and by more than 5,000 congregations. Throughout the 1990’s Interlink Media also produced all of the videos for the Board of Pensions explaining Plan Benefits. Rev. Meister, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, subsequently earned a Master’s degree in Radio and Television Production from San Francisco State University and a Master’s degree from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

Presbytery Office Manager’s Assistant (POMA)presbyterianchurchusa.com/poma/pdf/brochure.pdf ·...

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