Industrial Process

Archive for March, 2010

6 Keys To Successfully Screening Church Staff And Volunteers

Whether you are in the process of formulating a screening policy for your congregation or already have a screening program in place here are some tips to help you with your efforts to protect your church family.

1. Get your house in order.

1. Decide who will oversee the screening process and keep track of the paperwork. This person must be well respected in the congregation be trusted to handle confidential information be well organized and if possible have human resources and management experience. Recognize this ministry within the life of the congregation. Place an announcement in the Sunday bulletin and bless the ministry within the Sunday liturgy.
2. Set up a filing system. All screening documents should be stored in a locked file cabinet (within the congregation or offsite) for an indefinite period of time. Files should never be left out in the open or in a readily accessible location.

2. Assess risk and determine the screening requirements for the position in question. Assess the level of power authority and control of those who minister the level of vulnerability of those being ministered to and the risk that harm could be committed by sexual harassment exploitation assault emotional verbal physical spiritual or financial abuse. Screen appropriately for the level of risk inherent in the position.

3. Gather information from those to be screened including the following:

1. A well crafted Application Form that contains key questions concerning past incidents of inappropriate behavior.
2. A Reference List of all the candidate’s schools employers congregations and religious supervisors over the last five years. A minimum of three references should be checked.
3. A broad Release Form to permit these references to freely divulge information about the candidate and allow you to perform other investigative inquiries.

4. Check with the candidate’s references preferably in writing. Ask them a series of key questions to reveal any past history of inappropriate conduct. Well worded inquiries will reveal the most information about a candidate.

5. Check appropriate public records. Based on the candidate’s residential address history perform a criminal history records check at the state level (almost all states have a central repository available) and the county level (all are available) going back five to seven years. Similarly check with the appropriate state Sex Offender Registries (most state’s now have free online checks available). If the candidate will have access to church financial assets include a credit bureau check. If the candidate will be driving for church related activities include a driving record check.

6. Comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Employers that use outside agencies to assemble background information on their candidate’s must comply with certain disclosure and notice requirements. Consult your legal council or link to http://www.oxforddoc.com/pdf/fcra.pdf for an overview of the FCRA requirements and free samples of the disclosures and notices.

About the writer:

Glen Johnson founder of Oxford Document Management Company has worked exclusively with denominational leadership legal experts and risk management professionals for over 14 years to create and administer screening programs that are the “standard” in the religious community. For more information about the screening of church personnel call 1.800.801.9114 or visit Oxford Document’s web site at http://www.oxforddoc.com.

A Presidential Debate

Talk about a controversial topic!

The recent debates were something else.

The interesting thing is this if youre like me youd probably already decided who you were gonna vote for long before election day ever came.

And then as you watched the debates the guy who aint gettin your vote tended to get you a little riled up.

Yesterday afternoon I was reading an article that really got me going.

Try as I might I couldnt figure out where in the heck this guy was coming from so Ill let you draw your own conclusions.

Heres the content Im referring to in his own words.

= = =

There is no need for my readers to get more out of life by doing less.

To start with this is a ridiculous concept. We all know that the more you put into anything the more you get out of it. For instance if Bridget Jones had not put that blue string in the pot all she would have had was soup.

I say cram your agenda. Cram. Cram. Cram. Put as much as you can into life so you can gets lots out of it. Never mind wasting your time eating sleeping or showering…OK maybe showering but get as much done as you can today. You would not want to die with windows unwashed now would you?

= = =

Now

I dont know how you feel but let me tell you my thoughts.

I used to be a serious workaholic. I spent seven years fishing in Alaska prior to owning my own business which I began in 1996.

So trust me I know what its like to cram your schedule full.

I also know what its like to work your fingers to the bone putting in long hours for very little pay while you get your business off the ground.

The whole time youre holding out hope that youll figure everything out and things will improve soon.

But meanwhile you know the statistics.

You know that most businesses fail within the first few years.

And the fact is in the back of your mind you keep wondering if yours will succeed.

Now lest you think Im getting off tack I tell you this to make an important point.

Working hard has absolutely no correlation with how successful you are (although I firmly believe it affects your health in a negative way.

And working hard has absolutely no correlation with how much money you make.

Most people would tend to argue this fact with me and who can blame them.

I used to think there was a link myself.

Why else would I work so damned hard?

But heres the truth

I now work only a fraction of the time I used to yet I make more money than I ever have in my life.

Now dont get me wrong I do put in my time and yes I have to be disciplined.

But the fact is many days I now quit working around 2 in the afternoon.

I no longer work weekends.

I take more time off to enjoy life.

I take no less than 8 trips each year because I love traveling.

And as a result Im a much happier and healthier person because I have so much less stress in my life.

So heres my theory

The concept of getting more out of life by doing less is far from ridiculous.

Its too bad more people dont understand the theory.

I have to admit I wish Id picked up on it long ago. But even at that I sure am glad I understand it now.

Ill be sharing more with you in the coming weeks and months and who knows I might just show you a thing or two that will drastically improve your life and your health.

About the writer:

Kevin Thompson is the owner of the massively popular Health Articles website. If youre ready to find out how you can start living the longest healthiest and most prosperous lifestyle possible Almost Overnight just go to www.healtharticles.org/subscribe.html

Getting Out Of Debt Is A Decision And ItS The Right Decision! Get Yourself Out Of Debt Today!

Our society encourages debt it really does. How so? Simply put we are encouraged to borrow money to live beyond our means to gratify ourselves now so that we can have it all and be happy. But are we happy being in debt? Do we truly get gratification from spending now and paying more money in interest later? Or have we all been brainwashed into living a life full of debt so that somebody else could make their money from our debt?

The answer to these questions are yes we indeed have been brainwashed into living a life in debt and its high time you realized this so that you can start taking steps today to get yourself out of debt once and for all and live a life without all the stress and actually be truly happy not caught up into the illusion of the short term gratification of material things.

Its a very wise lesson to learn how to save up for something and pay cash for it as opposed to the lure of having it now and paying much more for it over time in interest. You should know though its really not entirely your fault at all we are constantly being told that we should have that expensive car or use this or that credit card as if it were some sort of status symbol. You need to realize this is called marketing its the explicit attempt to brainwash you into believing that you need a certain thing in order to be happy in order to be better or simply to measure up.

But is this true? Actually its completely untrue and many rich people who thought they should be happy because they are rich are actually very unhappy people. Because if you think that happiness will come once you have a bunch of money or once you have that car or expensive item but then after having it you still dont find yourself happy where do you go from there? Become even richer? Get an even more expensive car? Get an even bigger house? And if after you do that you still dont achieve happiness then what do you do?

Thats the trap thats the illusion thats the mousetrap you cant seem to get yourself out of unless you first realize that you are indeed stuck in a mousetrap only then are you in a position to get yourself out of it. They say knowledge is power and indeed this is true. You need to come to this truth and realize you alone have the power to make the decision today to take the first steps necessary to get yourself out of debt and keep yourself out of debt. Make the short term sacrifice to strategically lower your bills consolidate them into an affordable monthly payment pay off all your debt and then start a new smarter life by saving your money and buying things that you want and paying for them without having to borrow money.

You cant imagine how much better your life will be if only you would start doing this. Your stress levels would go down a great deal and you would free yourself from debt once and for all not only in terms of your finances but also in terms of your mind. Free yourself of debt and free yourself of the brainwashing of debt once and for all.

There are many ways you can get yourself out of debt and fix your credit the first step is to evaluate your options and then take some action and get started.

If you would like to view some very good options that can help you right away and get more information on how to get yourself out of debt once and for all click on the following link now! http://www.debtcreditrepair.com

Empower yourself and live a life free of debt forever!

About the writer:

David Kuvelas is the owner of Debt Credit Repair website at http://www.debtcreditrepair.com.