User Forum Facilitator Guide

What is a user forum?

ChurchSuite User Forums exist across the UK, helping churches and organisations to maximise their use of ChurchSuite as a ministry tool. Forums are intended to be a place where ChurchSuite users can enjoy additional support from other users in their locality through networking and encouragement.

The vision for establishing each User Forum is to gather a group of like-minded ChurchSuite users in a particular town or region to meet periodically - usually once a term, three times a year. Forum meetings enable users to:

• share ideas and experiences of using ChurchSuite
• discuss solutions to real ministry issues
• share best working practices
• encourage and support one another in ministry in their respective churches, organisations and areas of responsibility

User Forums are suitable for both administrative and pastoral team members and are a place for people to belong. Whether someone is a new user looking to learn more or an experienced user willing to share their knowledge; whether their church or organisation is big or small, forums are open to all ChurchSuite users.

Looking for a forum?

If you're a UK church or charity looking for a local user forum, click here to browse and sign up for an active forum.

Interested in starting a new forum?

If you're interested in starting a new user forum, get in touch with us here.

I run a forum

Forum meetings

At each User Forum meeting the aim is to provide a welcoming environment where ChurchSuite users can network, share and discuss ideas, experiences and working practices. Here are some pointers you may want to consider when hosting a User Forum:

First Meeting - We’ve created a short video to be played at your forum’s first meeting. It covers the vision for forums as well as some of the practicalities and can be found here:

Venue - if you plan to meet in person rather than online, it’s helpful to hold the forum in a venue that’s easily accessible with good transport links and parking nearby if possible. Some forums choose to use a different venue each time - perhaps meeting at the churches of different members - while others meet at the same venue to keep things simple!

Aim to use a room which has a large TV or projector and screen, so that people can share their screens if they wish, perhaps to help visualise something they’re presenting or would like help with. Forum members are expected to use their discretion if sharing something from their own ChurchSuite account. ChurchSuite also provides login access to a user forum training account. Group members can use this to simulate a scenario with example data, rather than using their own data.

User Forum Demo Account - a demo account will be made available to you at https://userforumdemo.churchsuite.co.uk so that you and your forum users can log in to the User Forum account for demonstrations or case studies.

WiFi - guest wifi access at the venue is essential. Meetings are more enjoyable if they’re interactive and often people learn by being able to experiment, either on the User Forum Demo account or on their own church's ChurchSuite account.

Refreshments - starting the forum with refreshments helps people to mingle and chat, so it’s worth turning up with a packet of biscuits! It can also be helpful for people to have name labels to identify each other, especially in the early days. You could print labels for sign-ups from the Calendar module or take some blank labels so that attendees can write their own name labels.

Introductions - as you may have several people at the forum who don’t know one another, it’s a good idea to start with introductions. Asking people to describe their church and role and how long they’ve been using ChurchSuite can help to give some context to later discussions. Take time at each forum meeting to welcome newcomers.

Content and case studies - the forum sign-up page asks people to indicate topics they’d like to cover. It also allows attendees to present a brief case study - perhaps about a particular aspect of ChurchSuite that they’re finding helpful or some ChurchSuite experience which they think others could benefit from. At existing forums, users have talked about things like their experience of rolling out My ChurchSuite and the benefit of getting Small Group leaders to record group attendance. Short ministry-based case studies like this help to showcase different features and generate discussion.

Questions - attendees will usually have come with questions that they’d like to discuss but it can also be helpful to have a few discussion starters in mind. Which features or ‘hidden gems’ are people finding most helpful and why? Is there a module not currently being used that someone would like to explore and ask others about? What challenges are forum members facing (administratively or pastorally) that others in the group may have some ChurchSuite-related wisdom on?

Remember that, as the host, you’re not expected to know the answers to people’s questions. The User Forum is about members helping one another and sharing their experiences. If there’s a question that members can’t answer, encourage the person who asked the question to contact ChurchSuite directly, perhaps sharing the answer afterwards with group members via My ChurchSuite.

ChurchSuite Support Team attendance - if you think it would be helpful for a member of the ChurchSuite Support team to join one of your forum meetings via Zoom for a 30-minute Q&A slot, please do get in touch. While we can't make this available for every meeting of your forum, we would love to join you occasionally!

Feedback - please tell forum members that the ChurchSuite team is always happy to receive suggestions about new features or improvements to current functionality. If people make suggestions at the forum, encourage them to email support@churchsuite.com with their thoughts for the ChurchSuite developers to log in and consider further.

Continuing the conversation - the end of a forum meeting doesn’t have to mean the end of the conversation. Remind people that they can contact one another via My ChurchSuite. If some forum attendees aren’t members of the User Group, encourage them to sign up via the ChurchSuite website support page while still at the forum so that they can keep in touch and hear about future meetings.

Pray - you may want to pray if that seems appropriate, perhaps at the end of the meeting before people leave.

Encouraging people to join a forum

For new forums, we’ll promote your forum to the account contacts of churches in reasonable proximity to your User Forum.

If you become aware of new people interested in joining a User Forum you can direct them to the Support section of the ChurchSuite website where they can sign up by selecting their local User Forum.

Once they have signed up, a forum moderator from the ChurchSuite team will review/approve their sign-up and send them a My ChurchSuite invitation, giving them the ability to see forthcoming events and communicate with other members. You’ll receive a notification of their sign-up, should you wish to extend a brief welcome or send an invite to the next forum event (optional).

Adding and promoting forum meetings

• To create a new event in the User Forum account’s Calendar module (called "Forum Events"), go to your most recent event, click on the Sequence tab and select Add to Sequence:
  

• Alter the relevant information e.g. date, time, location; edit the event description as necessary e.g. adding in location details such as parking; check the On Sale date for tickets; check the confirmation email
• Ensure you’re an event overseer so that you can also view event sign-ups in My ChurchSuite
• Use Send Invite to advertise the event to forum members. The Send Invite functionality means that members can easily RSVP using the Accept/Decline buttons, rather than having to log into My ChurchSuite. You’ll need to override communication settings to ensure that all forum members receive the email:
  
  

When you Preview Email, click on Add recipient and type in the name of your forum which will enable you to select a tag of your Forum Members.

• It’s a good idea to send invitations as soon as you create the event and also as a reminder a week or so before the event. For the reminder email, you can edit the text within the invite to say “If you haven’t already replied, please use the buttons above to RSVP.” Use the Send Invite functionality, rather than sending the event page URL to people as this would enable people to sign up for the event without being forum members, meaning they won’t receive communication about future forum events
• If you need to communicate important news about your event (e.g. a change of venue or cancellation), ensure that you email event sign-ups rather than just forum members. A forum member may have signed up a colleague who is not part of the forum so emailing event sign-ups will ensure that all sign-ups will receive key information about the event

When your event is set up, it will show in the Forum Events section of My ChurchSuite. Forum members can sign up by logging in or by responding to the Send Invite email you generate.

You can see the event sign-up list in both ChurchSuite and My ChurchSuite. Use View sign-ups to see question responses e.g. the topics people want to cover or offers to do a case study.

Communicating with forum members

To email forum members from ChurchSuite, go to the Small Groups module (called "User Forums") and select your group. You can then use the Communicate option or select Communication on the grey menu bar.

To email members within My ChurchSuite, go to Forum Members and select your forum. You can then click Email members:

Recording forum meeting attendance

Our privacy policy explains that attendance will be recorded at forum meetings and why. When your User Forum meets, you can record attendance using the event check-in feature. In ChurchSuite, go to Forum Events, select your user forum and click Go to event check-in where you’ll be able to tick names as people arrive:

Event check-in can also be accessed using My ChurchSuite. As the forum gatherings are part of a sequence, you’ll see a record of attendance over time.

Someone wants to change their details - what do I do?

If a member of the forum contacts you to ask for their details to be updated or changed, you can advise them to log into My ChurchSuite with their email address at csuserforum.churchsuite.com and update their details from there.

A member of the forum has left - what do I do?

If a member of the forum contacts you to say that they want to leave the forum, or no longer work in their previous role, you can head to the User Forums module, then click your forum, go to the Members tab and remove the relevant person from the group.

Resources for use at forum meetings

If you're planning on presenting information on screen at your user forum, you may find these templates helpful:

User-forum-presentation-template-2023.key

User-forum-presentation-template-2023.pptx

I'm moving on - what do I do next?

If your time as a user forum facilitator is coming to a close, and someone else will be taking the mantle of user forum host/facilitator, you'll need to update your ChurchSuite User to reflect the new person.

To do this, click your avatar, then click your name:

Next, click Edit and update the name and email details to that of the new host/facilitator and Save:

You may also wish to change the password to something that you're happy to pass on to the next host/facilitator:

Pass these login details to the new facilitator so that they can now manage the forum, and suggest that they change the password.

Next, head to your User Forum Members tab and Edit your role to show you're no longer the User Forum Facilitator/Host, and Edit the new person's role to show that they are now the User Forum Facilitator/Host:

If your time as a user forum facilitator is coming to an end, and no one else from your forum has volunteered to facilitate, it may be time to close your forum.

My forum is no longer running - what do I do?

If your forum is no longer required, is no longer running, or forum members have agreed to close the forum, simply head to User Forums in ChurchSuite and Edit your forum to add an End date and deselect Website:

Then, send us an email to support@churchsuite.com to let us know that the forum has closed.

Terminology

User Forum - a group of users that meet together periodically.

User Forum members - the group members who have signed up to join the User Forum. Forum members will be provided with access to My ChurchSuite, enabling them to see upcoming events and communicate with other members of their Forum.

Forum Facilitator/Host - the person who oversees/hosts forum events - arranging termly gatherings, promoting these to forum members and facilitating discussion when the forum meets. The forum may meet at the facilitator’s venue or elsewhere. Using My ChurchSuite and with access to the ChurchSuite User Forum account, people with this role can:

• Create new forum meetings in the Calendar module and advertise them
• Communicate with forum members
• Record attendance at forum events
• Manage their forum member list, removing members when necessary

Forum Moderator - a member of the ChurchSuite team who you can get in touch with for support and resources. Moderators are currently responsible for approving new forum members and sending My ChurchSuite invitations when someone signs up for a forum.

Data Protection

We’ve produced a simple privacy policy for the User Forums network. This is available at the point of sign-up to a forum or forum event and within My ChurchSuite. It’s intended that only very basic contact information about forum members is processed - name, church/organisation name, role, email and optional contact number.

Forum members can manage their own personal information within My ChurchSuite, including their privacy options which determine which contact details are visible to fellow forum members. By default, only name, church name and role are visible to others. Within My ChurchSuite, members are only able to access information about their own User Forum. Within ChurchSuite, facilitators can only access information relating to their own User Forum. Moderators will be able to access and manage information about all forums.