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Managing Your Team

Check out the content below to learn how to lead your volunteer team with excellence on a regular basis.

Sending Weekly Emails

It’s important to communicate with your team on a regular basis. One of the primary channels of communication will be your weekly volunteer email. In this guide we’ll teach you what belongs in that email and provide step by step instructions on how to send them.
WHAT BELONGS IN YOUR EMAIL
SHARING WINS: Keeping the vision in front of your team is vital. Look for things that are happening in your ministry that you can celebrate publicly in your email and in team huddles. These could be stories of life change, a volunteer that stepped up in a big way or encouraging words from a parent in your ministry.
THE BIG IDEA: Share about what your kids will be learning this weekend. Give a short preview of the lesson and explain why it’s so important for kids.
LINKS TO CONTENT: Make sure your leaders have access to the upcoming content by pointing to move.sc/lessons. This link should already be pre-loaded in the templates we share with you.
UPDATES: If there’s something important that your leaders need to know, make sure you include it in your email. Perhaps there’s an event coming up at your campus or a specific piece of training that you want to highlight with your team.

Now that you know what belongs in your email, check out the next page to find out how to send it!
There are two ways you can send your email:
Using CCB, our church-wide database.
Using MailChimp, a professional emailing tool.

You’re welcome to use either one. Here are some pros and cons for each.
Why should I use CCB? This is the most simple and efficient option. Your volunteer list is already in CCB, which makes using the email feature in CCB that much easier.
Why should I use MailChimp? This is the most robust email tool you can use. It will allow you to send professional-looking emails with full graphics. The downside is that you will have to maintain a separate email list in the MailChimp platform with your active volunteers.

USING CCB
We have created a step-by-step demonstration that will show you how to send an email in CCB. You can watch that video by
clicking here
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.
If you want to add custom graphics to your emails, you can find our full library of assets in the Admin Kit.
Admin Kit → Graphics folder → Email Graphics folder
USING MAILCHIMP
To get started, you will need to create a free account on MailChimp.com. Before each new series in our curriculum, our Network team will share a MailChimp template for each week in the upcoming series. When you log in to your account, you will see those templates in your library.
Each template is already locked and loaded with the information about the Bible story that we’ll be sharing in the upcoming weekend. We would encourage you to customize it however you need to with any campus-specific information that you think your leaders might want to know.
Feel free to contact Joell Holland if you’re not receiving the templates or if you want to learn more about how MailChimp works.

Scheduling Volunteers

Manual Scheduling

This is where you and/or your team leaders confirm which volunteers will be present for the upcoming weekend.
Pros: adds a personal touch, more accountability for your team members
Cons: dependent on good communication and clear expectations

BEST PRACTICES
Create a roster. You can use the following templates to get started: the
standard version
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formatted to print on an 8.5x11 sheet or the
digital version
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formatted to fit the screen size for your iPad. Once you open the template, you can click File → Make a copy to start customizing your own roster.
Share the roster. Whoever is responsible for scheduling should have access to this spreadsheet. Make sure that your team leaders can view and edit this doc so that you're all of the information is in one place.
Keep all scheduling notes in one place. When someone texts you that they'll be out this weekend, add a note on your roster so that all of your team leaders have eyes on it. Our recommendation is that you place it in parenthesis next to their name or add it in the Notes section if you're using the iPad version.
If there is a future date that they say they'll be out of town, you can add that note next to their name. Example → John Doe (out 4/13)
If this weekend is when they will be absent, we recommend keeping their name on the roster and placing a note. Some leaders even make it red text so it's more visible. Example → John Doe (out this weekend)
Start with a weekly ask. When people join your team, it's easy to settle for any commitment you can get. Serving once a month is better than nothing, right? Not necessarily. Make a bold ask and challenge people to serve on a weekly basis. There are many reasons for making such an ask but the most important one is that consistency is the most critical ingredient in building meaningful relationships with kids. Additionally, you can make the shift from asking, "Will you be here this weekend?" to "Let me know when you won't be here."

Automated Scheduling

This is feature in CCB where you can schedule people to serve in specific roles at each service. You can send an email to everyone that's scheduled that prompts them to Accept or Decline their assignment for the upcoming weekend.
Pros: saves time, trackable data
Cons: can be impersonal, more call outs because of less accountability, last minute cancellations are more common

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Instructions for Staff
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Instructions for Volunteers
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Leading Huddles

A huddle is a short gathering with your leaders before each weekend service. Your campus might call it a "30B4". This is where we’ll share the vision for the day, any pertinent updates they need to be aware of and set aside some time for training.
Check out the content below to learn how to lead a huddle with your team!

START WITH THE FUN STUFF

Each week, there will be some routine elements we start with.
Ask a question of the day. We’ll provide a fun question that you can ask your team to get them to open up a little bit.
Introduce new teammates. If someone will be serving with your team for the first time, make sure you give them a shout out during 30B4.
Celebrate wins. We want to build a culture of celebration on our teams. Not only does it boost morale, but it also reinforces to each and every team member what matters most by what we choose to celebrate.

SHARE THE WHY

“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” - Proverbs 29:18a (MSG)
Kids ministry can be tough sometimes. That’s why it’s so important to constantly keep the vision in front of our teams. We want to consistently remind them why we do what we do. Otherwise, our team members will be far more likely to lose sight of the impact they are making in the lives of the kids and families in our community.
This is an opportunity to share the big idea you’ll be guiding your kids through that day. Don't just share what they will learn, but also why it's valuable for their faith and their future.

TAKE TIME TO GROW

“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” - Archilochus
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been serving with kids for ten years or ten weeks, there will always be areas that we can grow. That’s why we want to dedicate time for training each week in 30B4.
Each week we’ll share a Pro Tip with our team. This is a bite-sized training piece that you can guide your team through in two minutes or less. Some weeks it will be a portion of our vision that we want to share, other weeks it may be a specific skill related to their role or a policy that we want them to be aware of.

SHARE THE DETAILS

Communication is a form of appreciation.
Stuff comes up all the time. That’s why we want to make sure we keep our team members up to speed by sharing any information they’ll need to know. If there’s an event coming up or something special going on that day, we want to make sure we communicate that to our team in 30B4.

END WITH PRAYER

We want our team members to know that we care more about them as a person than the spot they fill on our roster. Make sure you leave time at the end of 30B4 to pray with your team. Ask them how they’re doing and how you can be praying for them by asking questions like…
What can we celebrate?
What can we be praying for?

Volunteer Gatherings

While a lot of what we do is Network-driven, volunteer gatherings are entirely yours to own. You can host as many as you think your team needs and you can choose what each event looks like. With that in mind, we think there are three types of volunteer gatherings you should focus on:
Train
Celebrate
Appreciate

TRAIN

Training isn’t just a one time thing. Even though volunteers completed their online training when they first joined our team, we want to continue investing in them by providing ongoing training.
Keep a pulse of your team so you know where your team needs additional training and development. For example, if your small groups are getting a bit rowdy then it might be time to revisit some classroom management tips.
This might also be an opportunity to cast vision about something your campus will be focusing on in the upcoming season. For example, if your Campus Pastor chose to highlight “3 Things in 2020” then you can help your team unpack what each of those things looks like in your kids ministry.
SPECIAL NOTE: Our Network team provides one of these training meetings for your team each Fall. They will plan, promote and host one combined gathering with all of our Kids and Youth volunteers from all campuses to cast vision for the upcoming season and provide practical training.
IDEAL TIME: Beginning of a semester

CELEBRATE

The most common reason people join a team is to find community -- and community starts with having fun! Events shouldn’t always be about “business”. Help your volunteers create connections with each other and give them opportunities to have fun together.
One of the easiest opportunities to celebrate with your team is Christmas time. And it doesn’t even have to be a separate “event”! You can have a mini-celebration before each service in a Huddle with some simple ideas:
Invite everyone to wear an ugly Christmas sweater to church.
Set up a hot chocolate bar in your volunteer lounge.
Decorate your volunteer lounge with Christmas-y things.
Host a themed gift exchange. For example, everyone can bring a silly Christmas mug. Then set a timer for 3 minutes and pass around a pair of dice. Anyone who rolls a pair can steal someone else’s mug. Whatever you have in your hands when the timer stops is yours to keep!

IDEAL TIME: Holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas or even Cinco de Mayo!

APPRECIATE

Your volunteers make sacrifices to be here. And without them, our ministry doesn’t happen. Make sure you’re finding ways to appreciate your team members on a regular basis.
While most of your appreciation efforts should be on an individual basis, we think there’s also value in getting all of your volunteers together from time to time to let them know how much we value them!
IDEAL TIME: End of a semester

ADDITIONAL READING (OPTIONAL)

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Building Community On Your Team
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Creating a Yearly Training Plan
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Growing Your Team

Structuring Your Team

Strategic Placement

At some point, someone will sign up for your team and say something along the lines of, "Put me wherever you want me!" That's a trap. I'm sure that person means it when they say it. But it's your job as a leader to place them in a role where they can be successful. Too often, we hear a new volunteer say those words and we immediately place them where we need them most. While that may fill a short-term need, long-term it will lead to volunteers who don't stick. Eventually, serving will become a chore to them because they are volunteering in a role that's not their sweet spot. They are serving there because you asked them to and it fills a need, not because it's a role that brings them joy and fulfillment. That's why it's important to prioritize the right fit for each person rather than defaulting to the area with the biggest need.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Place people in a role where they can thrive.
People like doing things they are good at.
Build a culture of people enjoying what they do.

Design for Scale

You are an awesome human being. You were called to kids ministry and most likely have a ton of experience with kids. Whether you are a killer small group leader, energetic host or even a talented team leader, you probably could do every aspect of kids ministry by yourself. However, if that is the approach you bring to running a great kids ministry, you will quickly learn that you cannot do everything by yourself. We all have weaknesses and those will be made clear if we do not build and structure a team around us well. Every person has their own unique set of gifts and talents.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
It's impossible to do all of this on your own.
Building a team around you allows you to expand your influence and do even more.

Prioritize Relationships

As you build a leadership team around you, you will be faced with the difficult choice between structuring your team based on skill vs. relationships. Here is an example of each one:
Skill: You recruit someone to lead the Nursery team members. They'll be responsible for everyone who serves in this area across all of the weekend services. You do the same for each of the remaining age groups.
Relationships: You recruit someone to lead all of the volunteers at the first weekend service. You do the same for each of the remaining weekend services.

Structuring according to skill ensures that the team leader has experience and expertise with their age group and/or role. They can be a valuable resource for their team members. The challenge with this structure is that it limits their presence and availability. At some point, they will have to attend a service, which means they can't be present with every team every week.
Structuring according to relationships has its own pros and cons. For starters, you can't guarantee that the team leader has expertise with each age group. They may be more experienced with one age group than another. However, what they lack in skill they make up for in presence and availability. They have the ability to be with their team members each and every week. This allows them to invest in their team in a much more meaningful way.
Between the two options, we must always prioritize relationships. That does not mean, however, that we neglect the skill component. Rather, it means that we start with relationships and grow into skill. Here is an example:
When you launch your campus, you might start with one team leader for each weekend service. As you grow, you can create separate teams within each service. At each of your services, you might have one team leader for Early Childhood and another for Elementary.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
We prioritize relationships over skill when structuring our teams.
We start with relationships and grow into skill.

Leadership Levels

Level 1: Team Member

Scope: Someone who is responsible only for themselves.
Training Required: Complete the online training for their specific role.
Examples: Small Group Leader, Real Friends, Check-in, Host, Worship Leader

Level 2: Team Leader

Scope: Someone who leads others.
Training Required: Meet with their Ministry Leader for coaching and complete ROGO School (recommended).
Example: Team Leader for the 9am Service volunteers

Level 3: Ministry Leader

Scope: Someone who leads people who lead people.
Training Required: Meet with their Ministry Leader for coaching, complete ROGO School (recommended) and go through new hire training (if applicable).
Example: Ministry Partner who leads the 9am and 10:30am Team Leaders

Communicating with Team Leaders

If you have a team leader or Ministry Partner who reports to you, we would encourage you to go above and beyond to communicate with them so that they’re always in the know. Perhaps the most effective way to do that is by sending them their own weekly Team Leaders email, just like you would do with the rest of your volunteers.
What sort of thing do we share in that email?
This is the place where we share a behind the scenes view of our ministry, such as things that will be coming up that we need to prepare for or things to share with our volunteers. We want to go into full detail so that our leaders can explain to their respective teams why we’re doing the things that we’re doing. If they know the why behind the what, you will be far more likely to get them on board and turn them into ambassadors who can make the vision a reality.
When do we send it?
We shoot for Thursdays. We want to give our key leaders time to read it and prepare accordingly before the weekend.
TIP #1: Share the full picture.
When you’re writing to your average volunteer, your goal is to share only what they need to know. If something doesn’t directly affect them in their role, then leave it alone.
However, when you’re writing to one of your key leaders who leads a team of volunteers, pull the curtain back and let them see what’s going on behind the scenes. Share about the things that are coming up and why you’re doing things the way that you’re doing them. Going beyond the what to share the why behind it will go a long way in showing your key leaders that you value and trust them.
TIP #2: Write it like you’d say it out loud.
If you are going to list something in an email or in 30B4 Notes that someone will have to share with their volunteer team, make their job as clear and simple as possible by telling them exactly what to say. If you simply list a bullet point, they have to 1) read your mind and figure out what you mean and 2) they have to figure out a way to share it in their own words with their team.
TIP #3: Don’t be too redundant.
Don’t get me wrong, repeating stuff is part of the job. That’s part of how we communicate well. But if you’re copying and pasting what’s in your all-volunteer email then it’s not worth sending an extra email.
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