☕🍩 Coffee/Fellowship – How do you schedule it?

[Krista Kutz]

Hi everyone,

Does your church serve coffee after Sunday services? ☕

At my parish, we recently added “Coffee & Donuts Fellowship” as its own ministry in MSP—alongside Readers, Greeters, etc. When I mentioned this to a neighboring church, they lit up and said, “We use MSP too, but never thought of scheduling coffee volunteers in it!”

So I wanted to bring the idea to this group:

• Does your church host a coffee/fellowship hour? Weekly, monthly, or just now and then?

• Has anyone else tried scheduling this in MSP?

Since MSP already helps with worship ministries, it could also help make fellowship easier. Look forward to hearing about your experience!

Warmly (like a fresh mug),
Krista

Krista M Kutz, MDiv
Rotunda Software

[Violette DeSantis]

Both of our services host coffee hours. We use the auto-scheduler for the 10am service but our 8am service goers prefer a manual sign-up. I still have the ministry in the system for that service but I add them manually after they sign up so they can get reminders and at least use sub feature if they need to. 

[Gail Assenmacher]

Good Afternoon.

We have been using MSP to schedule both our Pizza & Pop (1st Saturday of every month) and Coffee & Donuts every weekend after 2 Masses.    For Coffee & Donuts, we also schedule donut pickup people and set up people.  We have been doing this for a few years now.  It works well since people are familiar with MSP.

Gail Assenmacher

    St. Joseph Church

   3430 Dover St.

   Dexter, MI 48130

   (734)426-8483

   www.stjos.com

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[Ginger Bitikofer]

We are scheduling our Coffee Hour volunteers using MSP starting this month (fellowship after 3 services), for the first time this Sunday!

 

I appreciate the notes you all are sharing, with what has worked for you, especially Violette’s note about the early service members preferring to sign up themselves.

 

Ginger Bitikofer

(she/her)

Associate for Congregational Life & Membership

216.774.0407

trinitycleveland.org

2230 Euclid Ave. | Cleveland | Ohio | 44115

 

 

 

 

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[Alicia Sturdy]

I'm the coffee hour volunteer and scheduler at my church, so I couldn't resist chiming in!

We host a weekly coffee after the service, and I manage the schedule quarterly. We do self-signup the two features that have contributed most to the success is automatic reminders and sub requests. I include the pastor's cell phone number in the auto reminder in case they want to coordinate ahead of time to set up the percolators mid-week and have the pastor plug them in on Sunday morning, along with any other information they might need if they encounter any issues with the setup.

We've been using this scheduling method since January (before, it was pen and paper, which of course falls apart as soon as something changes). I sign up for the empty Sundays after my volunteers have claimed the spots they want first. I have to say, I don't need to sign up for many Sundays anymore because my volunteers take as many shifts as they can!

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Alicia Sturdy
Marketing Specialist
(415) 513-5852

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/CALqXo8NCxqfJow94xohwz8ZawBFqVCaPKc6dWCwajGTtm4hYxQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Christine Warloski]

We have hospitality (coffee and fellowship) after every mass. I have it set up as a ministry so people are scheduled with all of other ministries. I then go in and manually edit them to make sure no one got scheduled too often as it is a big job. 

The downside is that our hospitality ministers are often teams of families, whose members do other ministries. it's hard to schedule them as if the team is listed as belonging to one of the families, the members often get overloaded with ministries that conflict for that mass. There is no way to prevent one member of the family being scheduled for greeter for example and the team scheduled for hospitality, even though those two ministries can't be done together. If I don't include the team as belonging to a family, they will often be scheduled for back to back masses. so it requires some manual adjusting for the ministry no matter how I set it up. 

[enwi...@gmail.com]

I have been scheduling our coffee "maker" for several years as part of our Sunday MSP schedule. The coffee maker duties include coffee cup clean-up following services.

And here is a fun, "non-service" service we schedule seasonally (mid-November to early April): Snow Captain. We have a snow removal service the clears the parking lot and entrance, but sometimes they come very early in the morning, and the entryway needs a little clean-up and de-icing before services. Our snow captain arrives a little before our coffee maker arrives to make sure the entryway is cleared for everyone.  Our snow captain volunteers know to check the weather early before they make the trip to church. 

We also schedule a Gluten Free Communion Bread Baker separately from worship service volunteers. We schedule the GF bread to arrive about 45 minutes before services begin.

Emily Wixson

Madison Christian Community

Madison, WI

[George Bounacos]

We made a ministry called Java Junction and split it into three sub-ministries: Brewing [coffee], Host, and Clean Up. There are some people who only want to do one or two of these things, and it's the perfect solution for them. 

The same person in our church also runs our Bee Ministry to save the planet and harvest delicious honey. Those are split into task groups as well: Inspecting Beekeeper, Apprentice, Sugar Water, Shed Manager/Safety Captain, Equipment Building. 

This system works well for us to keep everything in the same group but account for different skills and preferences.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/41ea4b2d-446c-4e92-87cf-ff2ba18e5c4cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Krista Kutz]

This is wonderful! 

I’ve loved reading through these creative ways you are using MSP to support so many ministries. From Coffee Hour and Donut Pickup to Java Junction to Snow Captains to Bee Ministry—it’s inspiring to see your examples of how flexible MSP can be for fellowship and hospitality.  ☕🍩⛪ ❄️ 🐝

So grateful for this community and all of the ideas you share. Keep up the great work!

Warmly,
Krista

[Ginger Bitikofer]

George:

 

That’s a clever idea, to split up the sub-ministries, maybe worth copying. Thanks for sharing.

 

We have another ministry, our weekly hot lunch program, for which we schedule volunteers according to their time availability— if they are available in the morning, they prep for the meal-- and if they are only available later, they can provide kitchen support during the meal and clean-up afterwards.

 

Ginger Bitikofer

(she/her)

Associate for Congregational Life & Membership

216.774.0407

trinitycleveland.org

2230 Euclid Ave. | Cleveland | Ohio | 44115

 

 

 

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/CAKSN7AicvyVJmakA5vO0hrLiEMrVk5jLV1ssXn%2BbQxT-A91q2g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cathy Jenney]

Hi Everyone,

Would anyone know how to schedule a deacon for 3 masses for Cup only? I have him scheduled for Sunday at 10:30 but am not sure how to add him weekly for Saturday pm and Sunday 8:30 am.

TIA,

Cathy

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[Alicia Sturdy]

Cathy - is it a repeating assignment or one time? If it's a one time thing, I'd just schedule him manually! If it's more complicated, I recommend sending your datafiles to Support so they can give the best advice.

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Alicia Sturdy
Marketing Specialist
(415) 513-5852

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/CAF3ZU7Grk6-aLKqHw4XwBe%3DYvNk_Pq0VTeuo7f1T%2BPmHNGkKGQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cathy Jenney]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply:)

Yes, it would be for 3 masses. How do I submit my data files?

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[Cathy Jenney]

And repeating!

[Violette DeSantis]

If it is always the same Saturday and Sunday each week, schedule as the deacon as a Team of 1 and then assign that team to the 1st Saturday or Sunday etc. I don't know why you would be able to assign the same team to the 2nd, and 3rd, as needed. If you manage each service as its own set of ministries, Cup for Saturday, Sunday 8:30am, and Sunday 10:30am, not sure if the scheduler would want you to create a team for each service. I do think you can get the scheduler to do this, you might need to tweak something in the ministry settings. Make sure your Cup has a setting of Never schedule with the other ministries you are trying to avoid scheduling against. 

[Krista Kutz]

Great conversation and feedback! Thank you for sharing, Violette.

For Cathy and others looking to send data files to tech support for personalized recommendations, here's how: What does “unlimited tech support” include? 

• From MSP desktop installation: Go to Help > Send Data Files to Tech Support 
• From Web Admin view: Click on your name (upper right) > Contact Us
• Fill in as much information as you can regarding your question in the box provided, and tech support will email you back.

Hope this helps!

Krista Kutz
Rotunda Software

[Cathy Jenney]

Thanks Violette!

I will try what you suggested. 🤞 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/f2608eb2-05bd-482b-9777-53ad189ea0efn%40googlegroups.com.

[richard.brehove]

Wouldn't simply creating preassignmenta work?

Richard

St Margaret Mary, Lomita 

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone

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[Cathy Jenney]

Yes, preassignments worked!

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[Krista Kutz]

Hello MSP community!

I wanted to share a small MSP success story that was inspired by this group's earlier conversation about Coffee & Donuts!

This summer, our church's longtime donut supplier could no longer deliver on Sundays. To keep our Coffee & Donut fellowship going, our parish staff needed to recruit volunteers to pick up and deliver the donuts at 7:00 a.m.

Emily's "Snow Captain" example stuck with me and got me thinking about these behind-the-scenes ministries that happen before the first service begins.

So we added a Donut Delivery ministry in MSP,
created a new 7:00 a.m. service time called Donut Pickup & Drop Off,
and included the bakery address and instructions in the Location/Description field.

We announced it in the bulletin and parish e-blast, and thankfully, there was a great response—people really love donuts with coffee after church!  Last week, we added 13 new Donut Delivery volunteers to MSP (a baker's dozen) and several people said how excited they were to help with something so specific and doable. We ran the auto-scheduler, and every Donut Delivery spot for next quarter is filled! (And the parish staff is thrilled for the help!)  🍩

One thing I especially love is that many of our new Donut Delivery volunteers weren't yet serving in other ministries. Now they're in MSP for the first time, receiving reminders and being included in the schedule just like other Sunday volunteers. It was a good reminder that MSP isn't just for the volunteers everyone sees in the sanctuary on Sundays—it's also a great way to schedule the people who help make Sunday mornings happen, even when they're finished volunteering before most people arrive.

Are there any other "behind-the-scenes" Sunday ministries you include in MSP or might think about adding? It's always great to learn from your ideas!

Blessings,

Krista

[STM Office Manager]

That is great Krista!  

We haven't put our Donut delivery in MSP and that is a good idea.  We've done a separate sign-up for that as our Parish and Finance Council members were volun-told that was part of their tasks but they can sign-up when it works for them.  

We have a couple of different volunteer opportunities in MSP outside of the usual ministers needed for Masses:

- We have our Art & Environment person that waters the plants scheduled in MSP 

- Teams for community dinners that we provide food/volunteers for twice a week.  

- Library volunteer during coffee & donuts or Knights of Columbus Breakfasts.

Alysia Baumann

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/ad191127-9cea-4bd5-ab22-7c526cd5b8a5n%40googlegroups.com.

[Violette DeSantis]

I set up our floral guild as it's own Saturday service to make sure our guild gets reminders. I customized ministries by if it was one or two for one or more altar. 

[Lisa Weis]

Hi Krista,
We’re looking at using MSP to schedule our Ministry to the Sick and I’m wondering if there were previous email threads about this topic or if you have any suggestions. I’m looking at subdividing ministers according to the aspects of the ministry in which they have been trained or prefer (hospital, home bound, etc). Any insight you can provide would be very helpful!
Thank you!
Lisa

[Krista Kutz]

Hi Lisa!

This is a great question and a wonderful idea.

I found two older Google Group discussions about EMHC ministries to the homebound, linked below:

• https://groups.google.com/g/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/c/s2A1y-M8rzM/m/Sojkl91TAwAJ
• https://groups.google.com/g/using-ministry-scheduler-pro/c/uKPGDjXhdiQ/m/TdJyIPyHGgAJ

Within the thread above, Lynn from All Saints shared her experience (thank you again, Lynn!): 

We actually set that up when we set up the Sunday and weekday EMHC ministries. I have each nursing home and hospital set up as a subdivision under the EMHC ministry since they are coordinated by the same volunteer. Each subdivision is titled with the name of the nursing home or hospital, i.e. "Continuing Care - Birmingham Green" or "Hospital - PWH." I set the service time at midnight since there is no set time for the visit and the volunteers just know that they are scheduled for that date. They could also be set up as a separate ministry, which is what we did with the volunteers who visit the local jail since they have a different coordinator.

If you're also scheduling Ministry to the Sick, please reply with your insights too. These ideas really do live on and continue to help others in ministry!

Blessings,

Krista

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