The Open Source Ministry Blog

We had a presentation from Arena several weeks ago and I never got around to posting about it. Since I need to clean out my queue and their official release is just a few short days away I thought I should post what I have.

Have you wondered just what Arena ChMS is? As far as I can tell, it is really a container for nuts. Well, at least that is what they sent us. They were some very large cashews, and my daughter thought they were yummy. I took a picture to commemorate the nearly empty container.

Maybe the jar is accurate, perhaps we are full of nuts. However the problem is that we aren’t full of cash. The presentation was good, and we are convinced, but pulling the money together for a system this expensive while our money is tied up in ministries is a bit difficult. It’s too late to call off the building projects here in the US and in our missions.

Reasons we are interested in the Arena system:

• We have been using Shelby for ages. While many other systems have come and gone they have reliably stuck around.
• Many of the headaches we experience with Shelby look to be overcome in Arena. No more updating every client system when the server is updated.
• More usable
• More features
• I like the community of developers they are trying to grow in order to expand the system in ways a company going it alone could not. I love Open Source, and even though this is not Open Source it is close enough to get some of the same benefits.
• We hold the data. Sure, it would be nice to not have to worry about the server, but it is nice to know that our data is within our reach.
• Arena and Shelby are conjoined twins when it comes to their databases. It seems a bit awkward at first that they are completely separate, but joined via APIs, but it does add a secure feel that should we stop using Arena at some point we still have Shelby. Conversely, if and when the Shelby Classic is dropped then Arena will be able to continue running without the old legacy code (just cap off the system hooks).

There is a definite perceived need for Customer Relationship Management tools for churches, and as more geeks get influential in ministries there is more openness to technically sophisticated systems. We have been approached by numerous churches offering similar systems developed in house. I even went to college with some of th people involved with them. Nothing has given us the fuzzy feeling like Arena’s partnership with Shelby Systems though.

Now, I am going to hit a few highlights of things I have not been hearing around the net very much.

The client systems can be low powered. I checked with them about the system requirements and it sounds as though you can run the check-in clients on pretty much anything that will comfortably run Windows XP. We are already socking away systems that were on their way to being decommissioned. Add on a $350 touchscreen from TigerDirect.com and a printer and you have saved enough money to build a nice kiosk to hide the ugly computer.

It maps, and it has Geocoding! I was commissioning a Google maps based system for our Small Groups ministry when this news came around. Definitely a very needed feature.

Linkage to web site. I don’t believe the staff at our church really takes the web site seriously, it has had a horribly mismanaged past and our communication structures are functionally non-existent. Hopefully this link will encourage the staff to put stuff online and then people will visit the site.

A Health Meter. Arena looks at the involvement of people in the church based upon their attendance at events and their volunteer positions to give them a HealthRank (not the actual term). We supposedly have something like this in Shelby, but if it isn’t used properly then does it really exist? I wonder if we could use this number like Google PageRank. Maybe we could get people to attend and volunteer simply to get their number higher. Then we can give out lapel pins.

Other Tracking. Spiritual gifts, number of places they are involved, personal notes, attendance, and event participation (so long as there is a kiosk handy).
Once we scrape together the money I’ll know more about the details.

Update: Jon Edmiston has announced the Release of Arena.