Diocese hosts Logos training in Sioux City

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
June 23, 2005

Several people from throughout the Diocese of Sioux City attended the Logos training sessions held at the Central Catholic Offices on June 14 and 15.

The two sessions were held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. According to Joyce Kizzier, director of information services for the diocese, there were about 25 people who attended the first day and 20 the second day. There were 14 different parishes and the Webster County Team Parishes represented.

"We have made the decision to go with Logos at this point in time," said Dave Vaske, the director of finance and operations for the Webster County Team Parishes. "We are scheduled, in the latter part of July, to do a conversion."

Those attending were either furthering their knowledge about Logos, learning about it for when their parish converts to the program or finding out what Logos can do for their parish. There were also a few employees that attended from the Central Catholic Offices so that they could be familiar with the software when they worked with different parishes.

"It was well received," said Kizzier. "There were a lot of questions and a lot of questions were answered for the parishes that they were struggling with. We had a couple of parishes that weren't sure they were going to move to it or not."

Employees from Logos Church Management Software traveled to Sioux City to present the training.

During the two days, those attending learned several things about the Logos II program. The main functions of the software were described including entering people, their families, children, grades, skills or ministries they can offer and how to do mailings and print labels to send things out to parishioners.

"The big advantage that we see for us as a team parish is that we will have the parish data of all eight parishes into one, but still have the ability to locate individuals within that parish," said Vaske. "We have the best of both worlds. We will be able to have all the data of an individual family in the whole broad data base, but still be able to designate what parish they belong to."

The attendees learned about quick updates, which is a way to update everyone in the parish or a group of people in the parish, and about the maintenance of the system.

They also worked on the sacramental registry that keeps track of baptisms, marriages, holy orders and any information regarding any sacraments.

The ministry scheduler was a function of the software that was part of the training. The scheduler arranges for people to perform ministries at Masses such as Communion ministers, lectors, altar servers, ushers and gift bearers.

"I needed help in learning the software," said Mary Jane Fields, an attendee from St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson. "We maybe had it a month or six weeks before the training."

Fields commented that she gained a working knowledge of how to use Logos II. She hopes that this program will help the person who will eventually take over her position.

Kizzier noted that she gained a better knowledge of the software and a better understanding of what it can do for the parishes. She continued that she learned how the parishes can get more out of the system than just being able to track different people.

"What I learned is going to be beneficial because I am going to be able to support the people out in the parishes better," said Kizzier. "I had very little understanding of the software to start with. I have gained a lot of insight about how it works and where people might have some issues that I can do research to help them through."

Training will be available to those in the diocese that would need it for their respective offices. The Webster County Team Parishes have already scheduled training to start Logos for their parishes once they get their software installed.

"We are excited about making a conversion," said Vaske.