What’s currently in the box?

Templates, Resources and Tips

• Aliya Cards
• Free Software
• Group Emails
• More coming soon…

• Files: All source files are shared via a Google Drive folder; feel free to download whatever you would like.
• Fonts: To get the exact look of some files will require the fonts we have used. Fonts that are in the public domain have been uploaded here. For other fonts, please substitute with what you have. (This is only relevant for the Excel files, we recommend the Google Sheets version.)
• Scripts: All scripts for the project can be found on GitHub. Click here to open the project in GitHub.
• Screen Shots: We will include screen shots to illustrate how to setup and use these files. In an effort to keep these pages clean, when a screen shot is necessary it will be included as a link. Click on the link and the screenshot will open in another tab in your browser.

Introduction:
Creating Zmanim charts is a big job, but using a Google Sheet or an Excel spreadsheet can greatly reduce the time and increase accuracy. We have shared the spreadsheet we use for our Shul.

• Google Sheets (Newer and Maintained) Click here to access the file.
  • Please note that this sheet uses some custom “Named functions“
• Excel (Older and Deprecated) Click here to access the files.

Features:

• Automatically calculate Zmanim based on Shkiah
• Prepare Shabbos Zmanim for the whole year in 20 minutes
• When printing a chart for Shabbos simply choose the Shabbos from a drop-down list
• Keep an organized list of all Zmanim sheets in one file

Introduction:
Before we can bill for pledges we need to know who owes what. To record on Shabbos or Yom Tov what members pledged for a kibud, many Shuls use cards with numbers and paperclips. We have our version available here. Click here to access the files.

Files:
It consists of an InDesign file which is the template for the design, and we use a data merge to pull in all available kibudim and generate a PDF with all the cards.

• Aliya Cards – this is a template which creates a card for each Aliya or Kibud. Use this to mark what an Alyia was sold for.
• Member Cards – this is a template which creates a card for each member; it is used to record what a member owes and is attached to the Aliya card

There is some repetitiveness between the above card types, and different Gabboim have different styles on how to use them.

Other:
An additional feature we have built in is the ability to print on the card all the names a member usually uses in a Mi Shebeirach; this facilitates the Mi Shebeirach process and saves time for the Tzibur.

This is the cornerstone for most of the items on this site. While keeping an organized list of all members and information relevant to them is quite basic, we introduce a way to manage that data. The best way to illustrate this is with a before and after.

Before:

• Multiple lists need to be managed, e.g. Contact Information, Gabbi List, List for Aliya Cards (see above), Membership Drive, etc. While there is some overlap, each list has either unique fields or a specific layout
• The same data was often on more than one list; corrections needed to be made across all relevant lists

After:

• Only one master list contains all relevant information
• That list is used to generate any other list needed in any format
• E.g. if a name is added to the “Name for Aliyah” cell for a member, the Gabbi list gets updated with that name, as does the List for Aliya cards.

Automate your billing and receipts.

• Enter the line items of what each member pledged
• The system will send out the bills for you
• Once paid, mark as paid and the system will send out the receipts
• Bills and receipts can be sent via email or SMS
• Follow up – the system will send a follow-up message every 30 days for unpaid bills.
• If you have a payment site to accept credit cards, the email will contain a button with a link to the site and it will fill in the form for the member; all they need to do is enter their credit card information.

Accounting and Reporting

• Once a receipt is sent out the transaction gets recorded in the system for future reference and reporting purposes.

Automate your membership sign up and reminder. [Full documentation coming soon]

• Send out monthly receipts automatically
• The system will send email reminders to members whose membership is expiring or their credit card is expiring
• Send out emails occasionally to regulars who do not pay membership to solicit membership
• If you have a payment site to accept credit cards, the email will contain a button with a link to the site and it will fill in the form for the member; all they need to do is enter their credit card information.

Automated messages about upcoming Simchas or events. [Full documentation coming soon]

• Send out email or SMS messages to inform members about an upcoming Simcha or event
• Simply enter the Name, Event Type, Place and Time to a spreadsheet
• Using pre-built logic the system will send out the appropriate messages at the appropriate times

Group messaging via email or sms. [Full documentation coming soon]

• Send out email or SMS messages to shul members. 
• You can create multiple lists from the same contacts
• Supports adding an attachment
• Schedule messages to go out on a specific date or time 

If you have a 501(c)3 you can get many great software titles or services for free or at a greatly discounted price. Sign up at https://www.techsoup.org/

Sample Offers:

• G Suite (formally Google Apps) – free
• Office 365 (Microsoft) – free and greatly discounted options
• Microsoft Office – greatly discounted
• Adobe Creative Cloud –  discounted
• QuickBooks –  discounted

Sending out group emails to Shul members is something most of us do and is fairly simple.

Use Messaging app above!

Copying all members: This is typically done by copying everyone on the email. If you use this method, the best practice is to use the bcc line in order to not share all email addresses with all recipients.

Groups: If you have G Suite or Office 365 then a better way to handle this is using groups. Below is a suggested way of handling this with groups. When sending an email you choose the email address for that group and an email is sent to the entire distribution list.

• Members Group: [email protected] -This group includes all members excluding the Rov. Why? Because every once in a while we send out an email that specifically excludes the Rov, e.g. we are collecting money to give the Rov a gift.
• Shul Announcements: [email protected] This group is used for all announcements. This group has only two members, the Members Group and the Rov.