Kids

Is your Sunday morning check-in process simple and clear?

Hundreds of children are enrolled into a small group and attend UpStreet every Sunday. We have learned to be as efficient and as streamlined as possible to make this a smooth process for kids and parents.

We’ve learned that keeping things simple and clear helps us create a much more inviting environment than creating systems with more detail and extra bells and whistles. Remember, the more simplified the system the easier it is for MANY different volunteers to implement.

Steps for ENROLLED child check-in:

Step 1: Child and parents arrive at their classroom door. A Greeter is waiting to welcome them.

*Greeter’s Job Description: There are typically 2-4 greeters at every classroom door. They are the same volunteers every week. These volunteers get to know the parents and kids and are soon greeting them by name as they walk up to the door. Their job is to welcome children to the classroom, answer any questions for parents, share any information for the day, administrate the security and check-in process, complete the roster, and turn in all paperwork for that classroom.

Step 2: The Greeter check’s the child’s name on the roster and shares any necessary information with the parents.

Step 3: The Greeter gives the parents one part of the security tag and clips the matching tag onto the child.

Step 4: The coach (Coaches Job Description) is standing at the classroom door during the check-in process waiting to help receive kids and make sure they get to their small group. Returning kids are usually running in and joining their small group on their own!

Check-in is one of the most important opportunities you have to make a great impression on parents. Since parents are not in the classroom with their child seeing and experiencing the rest of the environment, they make many judgments of your environment based on this brief interaction.

So what does your check-in process say about you? Are you friendly? Organized? Efficient? Welcoming? Helpful? Frustrating? Confusing? Chaotic? Incompetent?

It’s a great practice to observe the dynamics of your check-in process on a regular basis. You might even consider asking a family to walk through your check-in process and give you feedback.

Getting this right is important. You never want parents to walk away feeling like it’s just too complicated to go to your church. Instead, you want them walking in looking forward to a great day!

How do you observe and evaluate the check-in process in your environment?

You might also like: UpStreet GUEST Check-In Process and Checking Kids In On Sunday Morning