 16 August, 2008 Wow. We finally got to Phase Two. Phase two is where five lucky IFB Churches receive Church Commander, before anyone else. Hopewell Baptist Church, in Napa CA, is our home base church, and they were first up. To say things have gone well and everyone is very excited ... is an understatement. We need to find four more churches that want to be part of Phase Two. If you are interested in being a beta tester for the software when we begin Phase Two, please send us an email.
So what is Phase Three? Err, um, well...thats where we turn Church Commander loose to any IFB Church that wants it. Slight problem. We have no idea how to fund the labor for this activity. We have a fundamental objection to charging churching for our services, or for the software. So if we can't charge for it...then how do we roll it out everywhere. Thats the million dollar question. I am open to suggestions. To make the introduction of any software package effective for a church, the church has to have "some level" of hand holding from the "computer pros." These computer pros are students at Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, CA, or from West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster, CA. Students can't work for free, so there is still a financial issue that has to be addressed. On top of that, "any old student" cannot do this work. It takes my company 4 to 6 months of training before any student has a minimal skill to help a church. So you see...we have a bit of challenge. - Richard Carlton
|
Church Commander is a Ministry which we have felt “called” to execute. Implementing Church Commander is not entirely FREE since there are computer hardware costs, internet connection charges, etc. That being said, the database system, and the hundreds of man hours involved with its creation are made freely available to IFBC. There are zero licensing costs. Only costs which RCC cannot mitigate are born by the IFBC, specifically computer hardware costs, and the FileMaker software license, which should be about $100 per work station. This FileMaker cost is a one time fee that must be covered by the IFBC. If the Church Commander project receives outside funding, the management team will work to determine if this cost can be offset. RCC does not expect to be able to offset the hardware costs at anytime.
|