What the group chat does well
A group chat is quick and everyone already uses it. A question like "who can do the coffee on Sunday?" is asked in a moment, and often someone answers within a few minutes. There is nothing to install or learn, it costs nothing and it feels familiar. For a small team that knows each other well, that is sometimes enough.
Where the schedule gets lost in the group
A group chat is a conversation, not a schedule. Arrangements sit between congratulations, photos and other questions, and anyone who does not look for a few days misses them. The work stays with the person making the schedule:
- Searching back: who said they could make it again? It is somewhere higher up in the group.
- Availability is picked out of separate messages and put into a list by hand.
- Reminders you send yourself, or you hope everyone remembers.
- Swaps happen in the group, but afterwards someone still has to update the list.
- Always the same people respond fastest, so they do more and more while others drop out of sight.
- Privacy: everyone in the group sees each other's phone number, including people who do not know each other.
Side by side
| Group chat | KerkPoint | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | From €9.99 per month, first month free |
| Asking a quick question | Yes | No, the group chat stays useful for that |
| Overview of who serves when | No, spread over messages | Yes, one up-to-date schedule |
| Passing on availability | Through messages, processed by hand | Yes, volunteers tick it themselves |
| Fair turns | No, whoever answers first | Yes, automatically |
| Reminder for your turn | No | Yes, by e-mail or notification (from Plus) |
| Swapping | Through messages, list updated afterwards | With one click, schedule updated straight away |
| Schedule in your own calendar | No | Yes (Premium) |
| Phone numbers shared with the whole group | Yes | Not needed, log in with a link by e-mail |
Together works best
You do not have to choose. Many churches keep the group chat for keeping in touch and put the schedule in KerkPoint. That way the group stays friendly and the schedule is in a place where everyone can find it, with reminders that go out by themselves.
When switching pays off
If you regularly scroll back to see who could make it, chase people who missed the message, or the same volunteers always do most of the work, the group chat costs more time than it seems. That is the moment to take the schedule out of it. From the Plus plan you import your volunteers from a list, so you do not start again.
Working with a spreadsheet next to the group? Also read KerkPoint or Google Sheets and why a church schedule in Excel gets stuck. Or try KerkPoint in the demo.
