Through the many trials of my church as a seminary director, I have found solutions to some of my seminary questions and insecurities. For those strong [and influential] enough to run a church seminary, you may find yourself not knowing where to go for directions and ideas, just as I didn’t know where to go. Since I now know how difficult the subject of a seminary director is going to be, I have written this article more fully with some advice or need or need. I really hope the following pages can help you in your seminar directory. While I certainly don’t have experience running a seminary, I certainly have had some experience in the past year as a church seminary director.
Set up workshop volunteers: One of the hardest things I had to do when I started the workshop was ask for more workshop volunteers. He called probably more than half the women in my church, asking if he would consider volunteering at seminary once a month. Even though I made it clear that I really needed more help and that their help would be a huge blessing, I probably got turned down 75% of the time. But I asked – and prayed – and the needs were always met!
Be confident and pleasant when asking someone to offer a seminar. I don’t think I make recruiting calls very often, but it could still be a call. One way I tried to sound pleasant on the phone was to smile. Even though the ladies I spoke to couldn’t see my smile over the phone, I hoped that my smile would help me balance my voice gently in the way my words came across.
Remind Workshop Volunteers of Shift Down: When calling workshop volunteers to remind them of an upcoming shift, call at least 2 days ahead of time. If the seminary worker is scheduled for Sunday morning, call saturday night instead. If you call on Friday, they will probably get the message on Friday, and if they can’t be there, they still have Saturday to let you know and let either of you find a volunteer replacement. Since too many volunteers have called me on Saturday night saying that they forgot about their shift and are not in church. The next day I realized that I needed to remind them that they should go more than one day before their shift.
Find replacement volunteers: The director of the previous workshop told me that the rule was that if a regularly scheduled volunteer could not make it through the same schedule, she had to find her replacement. Although this is a great and sound idea for a seminar directory to listen to, it will not always require your work with your volunteers.
As always there will be some people you know you can count on and certain people you know you can’t count on. Because there are usually both types of people volunteering at the seminary, you can quickly find out which ones you can find in the submission, and which ones you can’t find under the number. I say that because I have often [found] a volunteer who needed to be under, forget everything about finding a store once she left the phone with me. Because some volunteers do not take their duties as seriously and seriously as in the nursery, I am. [sometimes] he chose to treat me by finding a supplement.
Finding a permanent replacement for the workshop schedule worker was more work for me, but I could guarantee that it could be done – and probably a lot faster than almost any volunteer could do it! I had a lot more in use than them, as well as more names and phone numbers that could be submitted. Whether you want to find a replacement yourself or find a volunteer yourself, make sure it’s done and not shortchanged.
Be early at the nursery: If you arrive at the nursery at the same time that the parents< /a> arrive with the children , you won’t find yourself running around for more than 20 minutes, or until it’s a drip. Make sure to arrive at the nursery 10 – 15 minutes before the nursery opens. With your extra minutes in whatever way you need, you can clean and tidy, as well as prepare pages and stamps and locate lost pens. If you have a few parents who would rather try to drop off their child before spring opens, keep the nursery. the door of the gate is closed until the exact time the nursery opens. Those parents will have an idea after a few times when the gate is closed when they get there.
Turn on the Music: My classroom was sometimes too quiet (that is when the babies weren’t screaming!). Because of the silence I decided to bring some relaxing music. I found a CD player and some baby playing CDs in the nursery. When parents parents drop off their children in the nursery, or when workers quietly carry, perhaps sleeping, the baby; The room no longer seems cold or too quiet – it feels quiet, which is good for the children and good for you.
Have a Back-up Plan: It is a good idea to have a back-up plan to ensure that volunteers end up in the nursery. Ask a few friends who are regular churchgoers to stay in the seminary every time there is a service, just to make sure you are not stuck there with no help at all. Also, don’t be afraid to ask the mother to stay with the child until another worker shows up. Technically it is not allowed to have only one employee. At least two adults must be present while the nursery is open.
If volunteers don’t show up: If for whatever reason they don’t show up or not enough of your efforts, a page from the regular seminary behavior count will help you. When you have shown the mom(s) that you have paged them, ask them to stay with the nursery while you go into the service to grab the emergency volunteers. Who are the emergency volunteers? There are those you see in the service that you think will want to help you and the seminary at the right time.
Unless absolutely necessary, don’t stay in the nursery! The previous seminar director told me the plan, and it was great to stay! By organizing, cleaning, and with the shift in the nursery to the individual beginnings and to the individual goals of each seminar, you have done quite a seminary ministry! You need to worship others well. I take some chances to bring volunteers to the nursery, moms go back to the service, make sure everyone’s needs are met, and walk out of the room.
Smile! Laughter! Laugh!: When you feel like crying, laugh instead! When you feel that everyone is getting off their little bums and your employees haven’t arrived yet, laugh. Do what you can and smile while you do it. You will be shy, but if you can act calmly, even if you don’t feel anything, the children will calm down more easily. It will help in some way; You just have to be calm enough to figure it out.
Pagers & Signing In: The way my church seminary works is this: the cubby holes are under pressure against each other, so that every morning/evening I put one page in each cubby hole. When a parent is going to come with a child, I will touch below and look at the page, before that football. the parent so they both knew it worked, and then tell him the number to write on the page on the child’s sticker.
Children’s Identity & Info: When dropping off a child, each parent/caregiver fills out the child’s information on a sticker that the child will use on their back. The sticker collects the following info about the child: child’s name, parent’s name), parent’s place in church, allergies, special affections (such as blanket or pacifier), and any feeding or sleeping times. The sticker has two sides: one part goes on the back of the child to identify it, and the other part continues in his bag. Both have the child’s name and the pager number on it.
Communicate with parents: While parents usually want their child to drop off quickly, they often don’t fill out all the requested information that the barrier asks for. That information is vital to the nursery workers, though! So go ahead and just ask the parent every day if there are any special instructions, if the child needs to be fed or to sleep at a certain time time if the child has a cup or a bottle. If it has a cup, immediately take it out of the bag and label it. (I’d like to use masking to write his name and stick it on the cup – it’s cheap and easy.) After this drip process it is done, take the child in your arms, and look around to look for another child or toy for the distraction of leaving the mother or father.
Separate Babies from Toddlers: If you only have one place to contain both babies and toddlers in large numbers, you may find it unwise to trample the little ones on the road. If so, you may want to buy a room divider, depending on the number of children attending. your nursery My church divider was chosen to be long enough to divide the entire room and had a door on one side for workers to go in and out.
What to have for babies & Toddlers: You will need to have diapers of all sizes on hand, baby wipes, diaper rash cream, diapers and ointment (for the occasional “owie”), trash, changing station, “I changed stash sticker with a pen, facial tissues, a few other body size in case of diaper accidents, cleaning supplies like smegma soap, paper towels, & Lysol, dishes and towels, and several sliding shelves for volunteers.
What to have Especially for Babies: You want to have one or more of the following: a baby swing, a kind of manger, I set out, blankets to throw them, soft books, and teething toys.
What Especially for Kids: You may want to have one or more of the following: a small table and chairs, play stations (such as a play kitchen), a plastic slide, a toy bouncer, a rocking horse, and a toy box filled with appropriate toys. On the desk you want to keep puzzles, crayons and coloring pages (Print coloring pages once a month at home for the nursery), a TV/ VCR combo, videos, snacks, maps, cups, mugs, music shakers (shake in song time), and books.
Always HaveSnacks On Hand: Before you go, you should give snacks just as toddlers whose parents/care givers should have done it well for you. Click on allergies first. Some good snacks to have at all times are hippie crackers, animal crackers, and graham crackers. I don’t bother with paper charts – but I bought paper maps to do the plates. At snack time, one of the volunteers sips all the cups to fill them with water (if they are empty). Toddlers will be thirsty after eating snacks! For if the toddler falls without a cup, Lily has a drink under the sink. Paper cups are just not that easy to give a toddler.
End of Shift: Return to the nursery before the parents/caregivers take care to collect the children. There, at the end of the nursery, the entrance allows certain diapers to be returned to the nursery, as well as all free bags and cups with the child they are going home. Plus, when there are children-parents”>children to help with their parents to help, the nursery volunteers have the opportunity to clean up toys. Once the children have gone home, thank the volunteers for their help you would like
Assistant Seminar Director: Perhaps you are the type of person who never gets sick or leaves town. However, if you’re anything like that, sometimes you can’t make it to every church service. In this case it would be helpful to find someone you trust to help you. Tell her what to expect of her and what kind of help you need she can do, and then do it. My assistant seminar director ran the Wednesday evening seminar shift, while I ran the Sunday morning and evening shifts. Running the Wednesday evening shift as well as the Sunday shifts was just too much for me. Plus, when my family got sick or when I was out of town, I just knew who to call the nursery to take care of me.
Although this is a lot of information to digest (at least there was a lot of info to write about!), there is definitely a lot more you need to know to run a seminar. I recommend the book Serving in the Church of Solensis, by Julia A. Spohrer; It’s a quick one that calmed a lot of my fears, and it can really help you if you have a lot of questions about your seed business. In addition to the book, I remind you not to forget to ask God for help in your service. If you ask him, he will not leave you! And let me tell you from experience that running a church seminary is definitely not something you want to do alone!
