Josh GriffinMore PostsInteresting New Youth Ministry Software
I’m intrigued by Youth Assistant, a new resource that was added to SYM … wish there was a demo of it so I could give it a trial run. Either way, it is a promising youth ministry software that tracks communications, manages attendance and much more. Check it out – and if you’re using it, post a review of it in the comments.
JG
Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [read more]
Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
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Their website has a demo that you can check out
Anyone know of a less complex, more affordable option? This software looks AWESOME but working for a small rural church there’s no way I could squeeze it into the budget.
I am with Sara. This software sounds like it would be extremely helpful. What I do with 5 or 6 different programs it will do in an all-in-one package. But the price tag is a little too much. Any cheaper alternatives out there?
There is a new(er) online program at YouthTracker.net that looks intriguing. It’s a subscription-based online program. A little pricey but worth a look. I currently use one called Youth Track (see youthtrack.com). It needs some updating but it might be up your alley. Definitely cheaper.
I have a subscription to youthtracker.net and I love it. It is such a huge resource for us. It allows you to not only keep track of students attendance and involvment but it allows you to contact them via texting (free) or email and also is a web based program so there is nothing to download which makes it accessible on any computer with an internet connection! You can even allow your leaders to update certain things like contacts when they have made them so you don’t have to ask them. They can update it themselves and you just see what was updated. It is really great for only $20 a month!
Yo Josh,
What do you guys use at HSM?
Hey Josh I have used Youth Assistant for the last few years. Its a great program and has been worth the money for the accounting side alone. Easy to use and worth checking out.
Hey all, I’ve been looking into this software for some time but never could afford it at our church either. Lo and behold, I just found out I already own a version “Youth Assistant Special Edition.” Apparently it comes on the cd included at the back of the book “Youth Ministry Management Tools” put out by Youth Specialties. So, if you’re looking for an inexpensive version of this program, you can pick up a copy of the book and get it as a bonus.
What a deal!
anyone know if it is mac compatible? couldn’t find it on the website
I’ve used the software for several years & like it a lot. I use it for my stuff instead of our church’s fairly lame stuff. It’s easy to use and very useful for managing events, kids $ for events, and a lot of other stuff. You can easily locate very specific or general groupings of kids: ‘Jr high boys who went on the ski trip who were visitors and came back to youth group’ If you have a lot of kids pass through your ministry, it’s a great tool. It’s the only reason I use a PC at the office as it was not MAC compatible last I checked (but hey, with the new macs, they can do anything!)
I recently bought the Youth Assistant and have been using it for about a year now. It’s a fantastic program! It is a little pricey, but we simply got 4 people to donate 50 bucks and our budget could cover the rest. The highlights of the program are: -personal e-mail messages for each youth, -great organization for events, -easily add parents, teens, and guests to the program, -great attendance records, -and great ability to track finances and student accounts for events. I also love the little things it does such as: remind me when birthday’s are coming up, and when a student hasn’t been in attendance in a couple of weeks. The only thing I would say is a negative is that some things are not quite worked out if you use Vista. Peace!
YouthTracker.net is Web-based so it works with Macs, in fact the designer said they actually do their development on Macs. Works great in Safari on the desktop, iPhone, and iPod touch and I’m assuming Internet Explorer on Windows.
Youth Assistant is only mac compatible if you have a paralleling software that can run windows on your mac. There are several options for running windows on mac, and I actually ran the trial version of the youth assistant on my mac while running vmf fusion, which runs windows based programs on mac without having to run windows. There were a few glitches but it did what it needed to do. For those using a cheaper option, I highly reccommend ENVISION Youth Tracking Software. I am It is the best I have seen for follow-up, and has only what you really need. You can check it out at http://www.suberspace.com. They also have a link to a tool called trillian which can chat with most popular chat programs at the same time, while only running the one software. Very helpfull if you use instant messaging alot. If anyone else comes across a good tracking software for mac, let me know.
I use the same software Erica talked about, “Youth Assistant Special Edition”. It came free with the book and has kind of suited my needs, but I find it has many glitches and is not as user friendly as I would like it to be. On the other hand, it was free, so I shouldn’t expect too much. There are alternatives out there, including NSpire made by the same company that made the Youth Assistant Special Edition, but it comes with a hefty price tag that I could not justify. If you know of an alternative that is not so pricey, please let us know.
I have an “old” version of Youth Assistant that a former YM purchased at least 9 years ago. I don’t like the way you add parents in another catagory and have to retype all the phone and address info to print a mailing label for them. You can’t just add parents names to the student “card” and choose who you want the mailing label to go to. Does anyone have experience with the old and new version and can comment on any upgrades?
Dena, I think you would like the new way of adding parents better. We do still have an area that can be used for parent names but I find more and more users are just entering parents in with the youth and using searches to separate them. We have a feature called Households (think of it like a family listing). Once you enter a students info and create a quick household, every other member of the family added to the household has their address automatically filled out. This makes it very easy and quick to enter accurate records. If you have any other questions, please contact us by going to our website and clicking on the contact link. We would love to talk with you and answer any questions you have.
I’ve used nSpire and Youth Assistant a few years back — pretty good stuff. You might also want to check out the web-based http://www.jabbergroups.com. I have been building this from the ground up for use in the small youth ministry that I now volunteer with (I used to be a full-timer). Not quite as feature rich as Youth Assistant or nSpire, but I’m making it available for just a few buck each month to help out small-town youth groups like ours.
We are using youthtracker.net. I posted a review of our experience with youthtracker at http://wp.me/p1iF9w-I
One of the key benefits of the ministrytracker.com OVER Youth Assistant is that it is ALL ONLINE. Why is this great? Because we can check kids into events, take attendance, etc. right from an ipad, or anything (phone, etc.) that has web access. Youth Assistant is still tied to the old system of having to install resident software on an actual computer/network in order to use it. I don’t have time (or the patience) to mess with that if I do not have to. Ministry tracker is also more cost effective. Check them out at ministrytracker.com
THANK YOU! To everyone who posted and continues to comment on this page. The comments were extremely beneficial in researching possible tracking tools. Thanks!
So glad it has been helpful! AwesOme!