Church Information Management System

From the ‘Topic’ newspaper (mailed as a section of the Anglican Journal) published in VOLUME 37, NUMBER 7 OCTOBER 2006

'Barbara Anderson, a parishioner at St. John the Divine in Burnaby, four years ago took a software development course and created a simple database program for St. John's to keep their parish list, mailing labels and merged letters. Since then, she has developed version 2.0 of Cims, the Church Information Management System. It's a 'Made in Canada' product and can be used by churches of all sizes.'

WHY Cims WAS DEVELOPED!

Cims was developed when Barbara Anderson, through Church participation and volunteering, realized that Churches had difficulty keeping track of their Church information. After many questions, it became evident that most Churches had no formal system for storing and organizing their information. Barbara learned that continuity of information was a problem; that out-dated lists were often used; that individuals relied mostly upon the computer keyboard and their memory when producing those lists. She noted that it was a labour intensive task to generate a Church Communication List; that producing Church statistics for Synod Reports was a chore; that providing accurate Donation Receipts was a challenge. Barbara wanted to help. For Barbara the realization became a concept and the concept became a passion, always aware that Churches are run mostly by volunteers, so the software program had to be user friendly and affordable.

Since Version 1.0, Barbara has worked with Robert Guest, to develop subsequent versions of the software now named ‘Cims’, an acronym for ‘Church Information Management System’. They have added many new features encompassing additional Church administrative tasks, and have just released version 4.5, and are now working on version 5.0.

Barbara and Robert are confident that Cims will save time and provide continuity of pertinent Church information. They are proud that Cims is developed in Canada by Canadians. They are sincere in their desire to help Churches organize their Church information and are committed to providing excellent client support.