How to Handle Class Promotion or Graduation
Summary
Each year, children and students need to be promoted from their current group/class into their new class. This article outlines a few different ways to accomplish this depending on how you keep track of your classes in Shelby Next ChMS
Promotion Using Groups
The most common way to keep track of your classes is by creating Groups for each age group represented at your church.
Watch the Screen Capture showing the promotion of a Group or follow the written steps below
NOTE: It’s extremely important to work from the oldest group down to the youngest group or else you’ll mix age groups and not be able to promote properly. When beginning this process, we recommend creating an empty group to move your highest grade into.
From Groups > List, open the group for the oldest students you’re wanting to promote.
Check the box at the top of the list to “Select All” and then, from the tri-dot menu, select “Move to Group”. On the next page, you’ll choose which group you’re wanting to move these individuals into. If you don’t already have the new group created, select “A New Group” from the dropdown menu to create the new group. Once your group is selected, click “Move”.
At this point, the group you started with should be empty and ready to accept the new individuals. You’ll follow this same process for each class until you reach the lowest age group.
Example Summary:
Move 12th Grade group into College and Career group.
Move 11th Grade group into 12th Grade group.
Move 10th Grade group into 11th Grade group, etc.
PRO-TIP: Use naming conventions as a group name prefix to help keep your groups together in a large list. For example, for your Sunday School Classes you could use, “SS-1st Grade - Boys“, “SS-2nd Grade - Girls“, etc.
Promotion using Configurable Fields
If instead of Groups, you can use a Configurable Field to keep track of what age group or a class an individual is in. Then use our Mass Edit tool powered by the Advanced Search or Import tool to accomplish class promotion.
Mass Edit
From the main Search page, click the Advanced tab to open Advanced Search. Locate your configurable field and search for the oldest age group you’re wanting to promote. (Ex. If you have a configurable field for “Class Grade”, begin by searching for 12th Grade individuals)
NOTE: It’s extremely important to work from the oldest group down to the youngest group or else you’ll mix age groups and not be able to promote properly. When beginning this process, we recommend creating an empty group to move your highest grade into.
Once the search returns your results, using the tri-dot menu, select “Mass Edit”. Take action on “These Individuals” and select your configurable field in the Field dropdown menu. Use the Value field to choose the next highest grade for promotion and then select Mass Edit Individuals”.
At this point, there should be no one in your database that has a value equal to the highest Class Grade you’re promoting. You’ll then begin to follow this same process for each Class Grade until you reach the lowest age group.
Example Summary:
Mass Edit individuals with a “12th Grade” Class Grade value to have a “College and Career” Class Grade value
Mass Edit individuals with a “11th Grade” Class Grade value to have a “12th Grade” value
Mass Edit individuals with a “10th Grade” Class Grade value to have a “11th Grade” value, etc.
Import
You can export all of your individual data from Settings > Export. Once you have the .csv file, you can make your edits in Excel to the configurable field column holding your age/class data. Once the edits are finished, use our import tool to quickly update that information in your database. Click here to see how our import tool works...
Related Topics: