Sundial Initial Setup
The following information has been written to help guide you through the initial setup and use of the Sundial-CEF program within your church’s structure. For the program to operate and function correctly within your particular facility, you will first need to survey your facility and compile the needed detailed information related to your church. Once you have the information available, you will need to input the data into the program before you will be able to accurately schedule events and manage your church facility. This process will only have to be done once -- at the time of your initial setup of the program. The information can always be modified at a later time if necessary.
There are three major areas you will need to survey or define within your church to get started.
1) List all rooms, buildings, and centers that could possibly be used for a class, meeting, or event. Room numbers and room names will be needed when available.
2) Determine the different setup style options (i.e. banquet style, classrooms, theatre style, etc.) which are available for each room, building, or center within your facility. Also, determine the maximum seating capacity for each possible setup style within each facility location, that you have identified above.
3) Determine all of the different resources available for use with a meeting or event such as TV’s, DVD’s, sound systems, video projectors, and tables etc.
Listing Rooms and Determining Setup Styles:
We recommend you begin by listing all of the available space you have for meetings or events. This could include buildings, rooms, or even member's houses. Once this has been completed, you will need to determine the different setup styles that might be available for each particular room or facility at your church.
Next, we recommend that you survey your overall church’s rooms and facilities and determine the different options for setup styles that may be used if needed for each. You must also consider the maximum seating capacity for each particular room based upon different setup styles.
For example, let’s assume we have a room that could be setup for a conference or meeting in one of three options like Banquet Style, Theater Style, or Classroom Style. (You can define these styles to be any name you like; we're simply using these 3 styles as an example.) Perhaps this particular room could only seat 50 people with a room setup of Banquet Style, 75 people with a Class room setup or possibly 100 people when using a Theater Style setup.
Note: it is good to do this, but is not essential that every room or facility have a style. If not defined, then you can simply register as many people as you like, for a given facility.
Once you have completed your survey as explained in the above example for every available room or facility at your church, you will have compiled the needed information to input into the program. With this information now available, you are ready input this data under the administrator’s main control panel in the program.
You will see a line of buttons that look like this:
Select Manage Facilities; then select Define Setup Options. Referring to the information gathered from your survey; enter each possible setup style and the maximum seating capacity for each area. (Note: When doing your survey you may have determined that more than one room had the same possible styles and capacities available. You would only need to enter that style and capacity in the program one time.)
Entering Rooms and Setup Options:
Now that you have determined and entered all of the possible setup styles and
capacities, you will see these available choices when setting up an available
rooms or facilities.
For example let’s say you are setting up a new room that
is available at your church. First you would open the administrator’s panel of
the program and select Manage Facility. Next you will need to select Add a
Facility, and a page will open where you will enter the needed information for a
particular room or building available for events or meetings at your church. You
will see a list for all of the setup styles and capacities that you have
previously entered, and then just select the ones that are available and may be
used for this particular room or building when scheduling a meeting or event.
Once you have entered the needed information and selected all of the different
setup styles available, you simply click the button at the bottom of the page
that reads Add Facility and you’re done. You would need to complete this
process for each and every room and building available at your church.
When setting up a new Event or Meeting you will be required to first select the room or building you are requesting to use followed by a button that reads Setup Options. Next, when you click this button only the available setup styles for this room that you have selected will be displayed. You will then select the setup style you require for your specific event or meeting which you are scheduling. Should no particular setup style be required for your meeting or event, you will need to select the "As Is" option from the displayed list.
Entering Equipment or Resources
You should have determined and identified all of the available equipment or resources you have available for use when completing your survey as described above. You will need to enter this information for available access when scheduling meetings or events. You will first need to select and click the "Manage Meetings/Events" icon. Next click the "Setup Equipment Available" button. Once this page opens you will see the fields where you will simply enter each and every item. The equipment you have entered will then be available for use with a meeting or event needing to be scheduled.
That’s it! You should now be ready to start scheduling meetings and events.