Yearbook and Directory Online for 2010 – ALEX Training Set to Start

Alex is a database that will be shared by the whole Church. General Minister and President Terri Hord Owens set this as an objective early in her tenure, knowing from her earlier experience in corporate settings that business intelligence (data) is key to making informed decisions. Alex will position Disciples to finally have a real-time directory and picture of churchwide trends that has been impossible with the current yearbook system.

This work is only possible if we have good data. The Alex database will draw in select data from our current yearbook legacy system and the financial database maintained by Treasury Services. Congregations and regions can spot trends in real-time. Congregations will update their contact and staff information in real-time for submission to the regions for verification before pushing it out to the existing databases housed in general ministries.

A single e-mail and password will be assigned to your congregation. Each congregation will have just one e-mail address/password combination shared among the pastor, administrative assistant, and whoever is designated to enter attendance and/or financial data. This username and password can be changed by your congregation as staff changes. The warehouse can be accessed on the web via a computer or mobile device.

Once a year, a snapshot of all data will be taken for historical records (like the yearbook does now). Alex, however, will allow for an online interface that will be updated in real-time. Your congregation will be able to submit staff changes, address or select other information as changes occur, and your region and the general ministries will get the information in real-time.

An added benefit of Alex (the database) is that your giving to Disciples Mission Fund and the special offerings will be updated by Treasury Services so you will have accurate records of your tithing to the whole Church each month. (No more digging for the Easter and Week of Compassion totals in January the next year!)

Please have the person(s) in charge of preparing and submitting your congregation’s annual Yearbook and Directory information to the General office attend one (or more) of these introductory sessions. Pastors are also encouraged to attend the training to become familiar with the new system for processing congregational data.

Please use this link to register for one of the training dates for ALEX.
https://disciples.org/alex/training-for-alex-database/

For FAQs: https://disciples.org/alex/alex-faqs/

Download a copy of the yearbook instructions.