Reporting Church activities

1. Reporting Church activities

2. Presentation outline • Why do we report? • When do we report? • Who reports? • What do we report? • How do we report? • Report process • Report format • Common mistakes

3. Why do we report? • To assess performance against set targets • To facilitate monitoring and evaluation • To provide information to church members and higher authorities in the church system • To help in decision making and future planning • To keep a record of events • To contribute to conf ,union and global reporting

4. When do we report? • Treasury: Weekly on remittances • Treasury : monthly to the Church Board • Treasury : Quarterly to business meeting • Other departments: Quarterly to Board and business meeting • Special Assignments : As provided in terms of reference

5. Who reports? • All departments to the Board • Church Board to Business meeting • Pastor to Central Zambia Conference • Central Zambia conference to ZBUC • Zambia Union Conference to SID • Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division to General conference

6. What do we report? • Activities done against planned work • Statistics relating to departmental interests • Activities not done and reasons for not doing them • Plans for the next quarter • Problems faced • Recommendations

7. How do we report? • Stage 1: Understand department’s purpose • Stage 2: Study Church strategic plan • Stage 3: Study 2010 activities and learn from mistakes. Be innovative. • Stage 4: Draw up objectives and annual work plans indicating budget and time for events. (Use dept. Council or committee)

8. Conference reports • CZC has own templates • Departments required to report will be given the forms and must complete and submit four copies quarterly • Copies must be obtained at the beginning of the quarter to facilitate data capturing • Reports usually required in the last week of the quarter and so cut of date may have to be end of 12th week

9. Illustration of reporting cut off dates • First quarter submission date : 25th March • Report coverage 1st January to 24th March • Second quarter Submission date: 24 June • Report coverage 25th March to 23 June • Third quarter submission date 26 September • Report coverage 24 June to 25 September • Fourth Quarter submission date 27 Dec • Report Coverage 26 Sept. To 26 Dec

10. Local University SDA Church report • Name the department and reporting period • State objectives • Do table indicating quarterly plans and activities for each objective • Do table showing what was actually achieved against what was planned • Provide useful comments in the table that will help the reader understand the report

11. Local University Church report contd • Do table on activities not done providing alternatives/explanations • Indicate plans for next quarter • Provide key statistics comparing the same with those of the previous quarter • Give recommendations for the Board’s consideration( if you have any) • Service calls will usually have been passed on to the Elders and may not be part of the report unless approval has been obtained

12. Process of reporting • Report must be compiled by departmental secretary and checked by the leader • Report must be endorsed by the departmental council or committee • Report must be signed by both the departmental leader and the Elder-in- Charge of the Department • Report must be submitted to the Church Clerk on the date announced by the church leadership • Dept . Must keep copies of all reports submitted • Electronic submissions sent via email are very useful for clerks

13. Common errors • No statistics • False/ wrong statistics • No data captured & no reference to previous report • Failure to plan work • Report not clear/ poor language/Spelling errors • Using own template which differs from prescribed format • Cut and paste errors (dates etc) • No liaison between Elder-in Charge and dept leader