Parish Support

Family Statuses, Member Statuses and Church Registration Status

There are three essential statuses pertaining to records in GabrielSoft. 

1. The Family Status denotes the relationship the family has with each individual parish. 
2. The Member Status defines the individual person’s relationship to the overall church (Active Catholic vs. non-Active). 
3. The Registration Status defines which church counts the family as a Registered family.

See below for a grid of suggestions for setting Family Status, Member Status and Church Registration (Churches Tab) Status.

1. Family Status Defined

The family status applies to the Family as determined by the relationship your parish has with a family. When deciding what status to set a family to, you should ask the question, why is this family here? A family can have different relationships with each parish they are associated with. To see the many parish relationships, click the Churches Tab.

1.1 Active – A family that participates with your parish through Mass attendance, contributions, religious education, school attendance, and/or ministries of the Parish. The family you most likely will reach out to when in need of help in some fashion. 

1.2  Contributor – A family that comes to Mass sometimes and drops a check in the collection basket. They may or may not be active participants or registered at another Parish. 

1.3  Deceased – A family where all family members are deceased. Retain the current family status if other family members are living. 

1.4  Inactive – A family you have tried to contact several times with no response. They stopped donating. Phone calls go unanswered. They've stopped attending Mass or functions. They may have informed you they no longer wish to participate at your parish any longer. They are not active participants in the Mass, RE, School, or ministries of the Parish. Many parishes use a benchmark that if the family hasn't contributed for 3 years, they can be inactive. (If a family has no other parish relationships - making a Family Inactive will also make all the Members Inactive and drop them from their Committees.) 

1.5  Moved – Family that moved out of the area, especially out of the diocese. Mailings come back an undeliverable. You know a family has moved but don’t know where they moved.

1.6  New Register – A family that has registered through the online portal, or that you've pulling into your parish from another parish. New Register is meant to be a staging area for the family until they can go through the Parish onboarding new family procedure. Once they have gone through the onboarding process they should be updated to Active status. (When using +New Family they are automatically set to "Active".)  

1.7  Outreach – A family you believe has left your church or the church altogether that you want to continue to reach out to thru mailings or calls in hopes they will return. They should have Inactive Member status and not currently registered at another parish. If you are using "Outreach" to denote needing a pastoral visit - the Status should be set to Active - and the member being visited would have their Member status set to "Homebound". You can find these members using Member Explorer and/or add them to a Family Tag.

1.8  Parish Staff – Is used for a staff person who is registered at another parish or is non-Catholic. This status will allow you to include the non-member in your Parish Staff Standard Committee. The parish staff status is not a replacement for keeping your Parish Staff Committee updated.

1.9  Prospective Family- A family, possibly new to the area, that expressed a desire to join your church but hasn’t decided to join yet. Could also be prospective at more than one parish. The use of this status is optional. The members should be inactive and not currently registered at any parish.

1.10  Religious Ed Only – A family that is active/registered at another parish but sends their children to your parish for Religious Education. Use Religious Ed Only as a family status in order to manage the RE students for the Religious Ed program module and Students Committee.

1.11  Sacrament Only – A family that has come to receive the Sacraments only, for one or several family members. For example, a wedding where neither the bride nor groom are active at the parish but are friends with the priest or like the location/church and would like to get married by him or at his parish. They have come to receive the sacrament of marriage only.

1.12  School Only – A family that has a child (children) in the Catholic School associated with your parish. The family is not registered with your Parish. It is intended to manage families that participate in your parish primarily because they have children enrolled in your school.

1.31  Seasonal – A family that is registered at another parish out of the area and is active or attends Mass in your church for a season, usually winter. Often referred to as snowbirds. They would be registered somewhere else and consider members at their other church.

1.14  Visitor – A family that comes to serve in various ministries and committees. The family is not looking to be registered at your parish but are more than willing to lend their talents in various ministries of the Parish.

1.15  Unknown – Please do not use - this was created for another diocese. The Diocesan perspective is that Family status is based on the family relationship to the parish, therefore if the relationship is unknown - there is no relationship. We suggest using visitor, prospective or inactive status. 

2. Member Status Defined

The Member Status is controlled by the Active/Registered Parish. The Member Status defines the individual person’s relationship to the overall church (Active Catholic vs. non-Active). A person can be a member of an Active Family but be listed as an Inactive Member. But an Inactive Family should not have an Active Member. If only one member of a family is Active, then the family status is determined based on the Active Member’s relationship to the church. For instance, Mom and 2 kids are active Catholics, their member status is Active, but Dad who is of another faith would have an inactive member status. Or, if the family is inactive but a child enrolls in Religious Ed, then that child would have an Active Member Status (and the family should then be Religious Ed only).

2.1 Active – The member is regularly involved in their Active/Registered parish.
 

2.2 Inactive - The members is no longer involved with their Active/Registered parish, or any Parish. May also apply to family members who are of another faith.
 

2.3 Deceased - The member has passed away. (The member should also have a Date of Death noted in their Misc. tab.)
 

2.4 Homebound - These members are unable to leave their homes but otherwise are or would be participating in your parish. Often used to assist with Pastoral Ministry and visits to the sick/homebound.
  

2.5 Seasonal - These members live elsewhere for part of the year and registered at another Diocesan parish. They only participate at your parish during certain times of the year.

3. Registration Status Defined (Churches Tab) 

3.1 The Registration Status defines which Parish counts the family for purposes of membership. Only Active families should be set to Registered. The Registered status can easily be determined by the Registered Church ID column in the Family Explorer, or by going to the Churches tab in the family and viewing which church has the “blue button” set to their church. The Registered Church Status is set by going to the Churches Tab and selecting the button to the left of the appropriate church. If another church has the Family Status set to Active, then that church should have the “blue button” set to that church. Registered families are counted for purposes of the Annual Report, the Official Catholic Directory, Catholic Foundation uses, and statistical data.

The Family Status with Registration Status (in the Report Library) will help determine correct Family Status to match to Registration Status. 

1. To find the group of families in Gabriel to correct their Family Status and/or their Registered Status (Church status).
2. In Family Explorer, 
3. Filter the Status Column for the status, and Filter the “Is Registered” column for the Registered status.
4. Select the family from the list, make the corrections. 
5. Go back to the first Tab “Families- GabrielSoft ChMS” with your Search and choose the next family to correct.
6. Do this for each status/registered Status that needs to be corrected.

Note:  

• Family Status is set by each Parish and denotes the relationship with that specific Parish.
• Member Status is determined by the Parish of Registration (the blue button in the Churches tab), unless not registered anywhere. Member Status is based on the member’s involvement with their registered church.
• Registered Status is set to the Active Church (in the Churches Tab, the Blue button). If not Active/Registered in any church, then they should be Unregistered.