St. Isaac Jogues Church – Jefferson Hills, PA St. Francis of Assisi Church – Finleyville, PA St. Benedict the Abbot Church – McMurray, PA Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Overview For a detailed step-by-step guide to join Realm, go to St. Benedict’s website at http://www.sbapeters.org/. There you can read and print, if you wish, the 4-page document “Getting Started with Realm”. Or you can view our “Introduction To Realm” video by going to www.sbapeters.org/realm-help-videos. There are also many 1-2 minute videos on St. Benedict’s website to help you understand & navigate Realm. Questions (Click on each question below to go to the answer) Realm: What, Why & How to Get Started 1. What is Realm? Realm Mission Statement? Page 1 2. Why should I join Realm for our Parish? Page 1 3. Does Realm replace our church website? How are these different? Page 2 4. How do I sign up to join Realm? Page 2 5. What should I do once I join Realm? What is the FAQ? Page 3 6. What are the starting steps once I have joined Realm? My Profile? Page 3 7. Where can I find videos and documents to help me with the use of Realm? Page 5 8. How can I get help with Realm ? Page 5 9. Does Realm have a mobile App? Page 6 10. Does Realm integrate with Facebook or Twitter? Page 6 People / Groups / Organizations 11. What is a Group? Page 6 12. How do I join a Group (ministry) on Realm? Page 7 13. How can I find a dedicated person and add him/her into a Group on Realm? Page 7 14. How can I add a person to my Group who is NOT on Realm? Page 8
Transcript
St. Isaac Jogues Church – Jefferson Hills, PA
St. Francis of Assisi Church – Finleyville, PA
St. Benedict the Abbot Church – McMurray, PA
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Overview
For a detailed step-by-step guide to join Realm, go to St. Benedict’s website at http://www.sbapeters.org/.
There you can read and print, if you wish, the 4-page document “Getting Started with Realm”.
Or you can view our “Introduction To Realm” video by going to www.sbapeters.org/realm-help-videos.
There are also many 1-2 minute videos on St. Benedict’s website to help you understand & navigate Realm.
Questions (Click on each question below to go to the answer)
Realm: What, Why & How to Get Started
1. What is Realm? Realm Mission Statement? Page 1
2. Why should I join Realm for our Parish? Page 1
3. Does Realm replace our church website? How are these different? Page 2
4. How do I sign up to join Realm? Page 2
5. What should I do once I join Realm? What is the FAQ? Page 3
6. What are the starting steps once I have joined Realm? My Profile? Page 3
7. Where can I find videos and documents to help me with the use of Realm? Page 5
8. How can I get help with Realm ? Page 5
9. Does Realm have a mobile App? Page 6
10. Does Realm integrate with Facebook or Twitter? Page 6
People / Groups / Organizations
11. What is a Group? Page 6
12. How do I join a Group (ministry) on Realm? Page 7
13. How can I find a dedicated person and add him/her into a Group on Realm? Page 7
14. How can I add a person to my Group who is NOT on Realm? Page 8
6. What are the steps to get started once I have joined Realm?
My Profile
1. Log into Realm at https://onRealm.org/StBenedictAbbot OR go to your saved bookmark. 2. In the upper right corner of the Realm page, click on the arrow (ˇ) next to your name then click
“My Profile”. From this screen, you will be able to provide and share as much or as little
information as you wish.
3. To add your Profile photo:
● Click on the circle to the left of your name.
● Now click “New Profile Photo”.
● Browse your computer files to the image you want to use.
● Click on the picture file, and click Open
● Browse to the image you want to use and select it.
● Drag the photo to reposition it and use the slider to resize it.
● Click Save.
4. Add Family: Click on the Add Family button on the right. In this area, you can designate other
members of your family. These individuals may be in Realm (e.g. your spouse), but you may add
other family members such as your children or those outside of our Parish, such as grown
children.
5. Edit Profile: Click this button to enter other information about yourself
a. Name: Here you can enter your name as you wish it to appear on your profile, an Individual
Label Name (typically how you are addressed casually) and a Family Label Name (how you,
your spouse and family would be addressed, as in addressing a greeting card).
b. Address: You can enter your home address. You may also wish to provide any other
alternate address. This may be done by clicking “Add Address”.
c. Phones: You can enter your phone number(s), then designate which should be the primary
number to be used to contact you.
d. Email: Here you see the email address used for your Realm account. You can add any other
email addresses you may want to provide.
e. Social Media: Here you may provide the web address of your Facebook, Twitter and/or
LinkedIn accounts.
f. Click Save when you are finished entering information
6. Personal Information: Click this button to enter the personal information screen.
a. Here you can enter optional information such as birthday, gender, marital status, allergies, family position, and date you joined Realm (which should be automatically filled in for you).
b. Please fill in your skills (click on the down arrow on the right and check any and all
personal skills you are willing to IDENTIFY). The skills area may be useful when your ministries or the parish may look for parishioners having certain skills.
c. Click Save once you are finished entering your profile data. You may return to these screens at any time to add, delete or modify your information.
7. Managing Privacy: Back on the main profile screen, there is another tab labeled “Manage Privacy”. If you click on this tab, you will go to a screen where you may determine who is able to see various aspects of your profile and personal information. You may also control the privacy of information relating to your other family members.
8. E-mail control: You can choose how much OR how little e-mail you wish to receive from each Group you are in. To do this:
● In upper right corner of the screen, click on the arrow (ˇ) next to your name, then click Notification Settings for each of your groups, select which type of posting, if any, you wish to be notified of.
● All content and replies: Choose this setting and you will be alerted by e-mail every time anything happens in a Group. This is a good choice for Leaders
● New content only: Whenever a new post is created in one of your groups, you are alerted. You will have to log into Realm to see the rest of any conversation (i.e. replies to any post in your group). This may be a good starting point. (You can adjust up or down your level of communication from your group at any time.)
● Nothing: You will receive no email notifications for anything that happens in this Group.
● Daily Digest: Is a hybrid between “Everything” and “Nothing”. It informs you of everything going on in your Group(s) in a single email that goes out each afternoon. Everything appears in one, convenient message, allowing you to quickly look through the activities in all of your groups and head right to the content that’s of interest to you, all without overloading your email inbox. This is simple enough to not overwhelm you, but at the same time, comprehensive enough to keep you connected with your community.
● You can change your Notification Settings at any time.
7. Where can I find videos & documents to help me with the use of Realm?
You will find a many videos (most 1-2 minutes long) and several documents on our churches’ website
at www.sbapeters.org/realm. Quite often when you watch a video or read a document, it makes
a seemingly difficult task much easier to do.
8. How can I get help with Realm ?
To learn how to use any software, you need to use it.
1. Ask your Group Leader or one of his/her assistants. Every Group should have at least one Realm
Assistant.
2. Click the Help button (the Question mark) in the upper right corner of your screen.
You can then select from the Help Center topics shown on the right side of the screen
Food Bank). There can be other types of Groups such as Leaders, Specific Project, Specific Event,
Connect, or Staff.
When you use Realm, please realize that you should almost always be navigating information
within a specific Ministry Group. Messages (essentially chat sessions or e-mails) are
accumulated for you from all of your Groups. On the left-side of your screen, you can select the
Group that you want to be connected with in order to:
Stay Informed ̶ Keep In Touch ̶ Get Involved
12. How do I join a Group (ministry) on Realm ?
1. Unlike social networks, Realm is about joining Groups or Ministries or Teams within a church, not a listing of individuals and their hour-to-hour status updates.
2. Log in to our Realm site.
3. On the left side of the screen, click Groups > Find Groups.
4. Click the group type.
5. To filter by meeting day, click a day of the week.
6. To search for a Group by name, enter your Group name in the Search text box at the top of the screen.
7. Click on the name of a group to see the Group description
8. Click Join Group, then click Send Request to let the group leader know you want to join.
9. a. When the Leader accepts you, you will see the Group name on the left-hand side of your home page.
b. Alternatively, you can merely send a message to a Group Leader and ask to join this Group
10. To manage how you want to receive emails, on the Group page, click the three dots in the circle next to the group name at the top of the screen. Click Email Settings. Here you can select from: All content and replies, New content only, Nothing.
13. How can I find a dedicated person & add him/her to a Group on Realm?
Group leaders, staff and administrators NO longer need to invite people to join Realm!!! The City required an invitation and then the inviter hoped and prayed that the
invitee would accept the invitation. On your Group page, click the circle with three dots in the upper right corner.
In order to update a group’s membership, you must either be an administrator, a group leader, or a staff member with permission to update groups.
Responding to a request: If an individual has requested membership into a group, a leader is able to approve the request.
However, group membership may also be specified as follows:
a. Sign in using a staff, group leader, or administrative login.
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b. Find the group and open its record.
c. On the group’s main page, click the Participants tab.
d. Click the Manage Participants button.
e. Click the Add Person button.
f. Enter the person’s name or select it from the list that displays as you type in the field. The person’s name displays below the search field. If you want to add more than one person to group at this time, continue to search for and select people you want to add to the group. If you accidentally select someone you did not want, you can delete them from the field by clicking the “X” beside their name.
g. Select to add the person. Choose one of the options to create a record for the person and add them to your group. You may or may not have this permission depending on your church’s security setup. Check with a staff member if you have questions.
h. Click Add. A message displays at the top of the page letting you know how many people were added to the roster or were already on the roster.
Staff members or volunteers with the permission to “Edit Groups” can also open a person’s profile, click the Groups tab, then click “Add to Group” to add new members.
TO FIND PEOPLE WHO MAY BE WELL-SUITED WITH YOUR GROUP’S MISSION
A person can simultaneously search our Realm roster using several skills, abilities, talents and God-
given gifts (charisms) to locate parishioners who might be inherently inclined to join your
Ministry Group.
You could contact him/her via a Realm message saying
that you think he/she would be a great addition to
your Ministry Group and that you will call him/her
(i.e., a preferred and proven methodology) in the next
few days. Matching a person’s skills, abilities, talents
and especially their God-given gifts (charisms) could
result in the proverbial ‘match made in Heaven’.
14. How can I add a person to my Group who is NOT on Realm?
Some Ministry Leaders communicate with their members via both direct email and via The City (the
forerunner of Realm) — duplicating efforts. To simplify Leader’s communication, consider
having the Leader convert non-Realm users into Offline Realm users so these folks are kept
informed of Ministry activities and have at least one-way communication with their Ministry.
This is done by a leader merely placing a person’s name and email address (and possibly other
profile information) into a Group. From the Group page, click on ‘Participants’, then “Manage
Participants, then ‘+ add person’, under search select ‘Add Profile’. You can put the person’s
name (required), street address, email address (required), preferred phone number and then
click Save.
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This could be an evolutionary vs revolutionary way to get
parishioners more involved in their faith by keeping
them informed of what’s happening in our very large Parish
via Realm. Off-line users could still communicate directly
to Leaders via normal email or easily join Realm to gain
two-way communication. In 2019, we may be able to
better serve less involved parishioners.
A link is included with each communique to an Offline User that makes it easy for him/her to join
Realm to establish two-way communication with a Group.
15. How do I know the members of a Group (ministry or team)?
Select the Group on the navigation menu on the left side and click the Participants tab. You will see pictures and names of all Group participants. We need to communicate with AND engage parishioners as we “Welcome All as Christ”, our Parish Mission Statement. When we become a more welcoming and loving community, we foster a hospitable culture where people feel they belong.
16. How can I find contact or profile information of someone in one of my
groups?
To find this information within one of your groups:
1. Select the Group on the navigation menu on the left side, then click on a group name (e.g.
Gardening Group).
2. Click the Participants tab. You will see pictures and names of all Group participants.
3. Click the person’s picture or name to get contact information – you will be able to see the
information that person has elected to share.
17. How do I find information about a person within our Realm roster?
1. Under Groups select the All Parish Group on the navigation menu on the left side of your screen
2. In the search box, at the top right of the screen, enter the name of the person you want to find.
You can enter first and/or last names or just part of one name. As you type, a list of possible
matches is displayed.
3. Click the person’s picture or name to get contact information – you will be able to see the
information that person has elected to share.
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18. How can we use technology to collaborate and help people get closer to Christ?
Electronic communication is here to stay. If our Church wishes to impact young people, we need to reach them the way they prefer to communicate, electronically.
Email is heavily utilized throughout industry, academia, charities and government to facilitate communication and get things done more effectively. Other popular electronic communication tools include Texting, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Even Pope Francis uses Social Media and has millions of followers while issuing a daily Tweet to the world.
How can we effectively collaborate? Whether you use Messages (similar to a chat or an email) or Posts (similar to mass emails to an
entire Group), recipients can collaborate by adding their thoughts, ideas and brainstorming responses via discussion threads which are chained communiques. Two or more heads are better than one!
Example No. 1: If you attach a file such as suggested specifications for our new church boilers and air conditioners, all recipients on Realm can review and improve these specs via their responses or replies. Storing such a file in a cloud drive with shared access could further improve collaboration.
Example No. 2: If someone has a need for people to work specific assignments and bring specific things to an event or meeting, an Event Post can do this very effectively. Entire meetings and programs such as ChristLife or Fish Fries can be established and organized using Realm.
Example No. 3: Leaders can more readily locate potential volunteers with specific “skills” or abilities (e.g. photography, carpentry, baking, IT, or gifts from God ‒ a charism such as caring) from our general population by searching all of these God-given gifts that parishioners have listed in their Realm Profiles.
Example No. 4: A Ministry can develop promotional materials collaboratively by sharing proposals via attached documents.
Example No. 5: If a Group such as lectors, religion teachers, or Eucharistic Ministers need to replace members due to vacations or sickness, replacements can be located very efficiently via a post on Realm merely using a title ONLY such as “Lector Replacement for 10 am Mass 4/14/2019”.
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Section 3: Chats (Messages / Emails)
19. What is a Chat / Message?
Consider a Chat to be like a message that eventually (in about five minutes) could turn into an email
which is a private communication between two or more users. Chats or messages can be used
to communicate with people inside or outside of your groups, to anyone on our Realm roster.
When you first open your Chat page from the navigation menu, you will see chats or messages
listed with the most recent one at the top.
20. How do I start a new chat / message?
● On the left side of the home screen, click Chats.
● To start a new chat / message, click the “+” sign in the circle next to the word “Recent”, then a
new message pane pops up
● In the “To” field, begin entering the name of the person you want to message (key in first name)
● Select the individual’s name from the drop-down menu.
● Enter your message in the Type a message field.
● Click send.
21. How do I reply to a chat / message?
● On the left side of the home screen, click Chats.
● Click the message in the “Recent” column. This displays the latest responses to the chat / message.
● Enter your reply in the Type a message field at the bottom of the screen.
● Click Send.
22. How can I initially add someone to a chat / message?
● When initially composing a chat or message, on the left side of the home screen, click Chats
● Click the “+” sign in the circle next to the word “Recent”, then a new message pane pops up
● In the “To” field, begin entering the name of the person you want to message (key in first name)
● Repeat prior step so you can add more than one person to the conversation.
● Begin entering the first name of the next person you want to add.
● Select the name from the drop-down menu.
● Enter your message in the Type a message field.
● Click send.
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23. How can I print a chat / message?
You can put your cursor on the content of the chat / message that you wish to print. Right click your
mouse, click Print and select your printer. Files that are attached to posts or messages can only
be downloaded on your computer and then printed. This may not work on the App on your
phone depending on phone settings.
24. How do I add a picture or files to a chat / message?
● To add a file or image to the message, click the paperclip icon and select the file.
● To add an emoji to the message, click the emoji icon and select the emoji.
● Click Send.
25. How do I mute (stop sending) audible message (push) notifications to my
phone?
● On your computer in the main menu, click Messages.
● Click a Group Name OR a specific message (chat) under “Recent”
● To mute notifications on your phone for the Group or a specific message, click .
● Choose a mute duration. You can select a certain time-frame, such as one (1) hour, four (4)
hours, until tomorrow or until you choose to turn it back on.
● Click Mute.
To unmute notifications for the message or Group, click .
● Click Unmute.
Section 4: Posts
26. What is a Post?
A post is like a Group email, a communique that is sent to everyone in a Group. In Realm a post can
be created under the News tab for a group. When you “post” information, you are
communicating with your whole Group. A post can be intended for either Group
conversations or one-way broadcasts (i.e., information only) from leaders or participants.
When communications are enabled for a group you can post to a group’s news feed, and comment
on, edit, or delete your posts. In addition to making a post, the NEWS screen includes options for
posting photos and events.
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So, the Post function in Realm is intended to be used for Group Posts (usually topics or prayer
requests), Photos and Events (which can also be used to generate a Need).
27. What do I see when I select “News” from the left-side navigation?
When you select “News” you see this screen and all of the posts from all of
your Groups.
Usually the most recent post is at the top and this will move down as new
posts are added.
As posts age, the person who made the post or a leader of that Group or a
an Administrator can remove it.
Please realize that your entire Group will see posts. So any replies should be professional, courteous
and Christian in nature.
As with any electronic medium, negative, confidential, insulting or derogatory
comments should NOT be posted.
28. How do I create a Post?
It is important to note that Posts may now be used for conveying “needs” as well as prayer requests. As an option, the functionality of a Realm Event can be used to generate a Needs request. As a change from the features of The City, all of these messages are produced via Posts.
Other differences from The City are: 1) there are no longer “featured posts” that stay at the top of a Ministry Group’s news feed and 2) Posts can no longer be shared with another group or an individual.
1. Sign on to Realm.
2. The screen will show a menu on the left and News to the right. You will see three icons below News.
3. Click on the first icon on the left which resembles a pencil and pad. NOTE: The middle icon is to post photos and the right icon is to post events.
4. Select the group in which you want to create a post. A leader for more than one Group can send a duplicate (not shared) post to more than one of his/her Groups.
5. Click Next:
6. Here you will have an opportunity to change the group with whom you wish to share the post.
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7. Enter the title of your post.
8. Enter your information where it says “say something”
9. You also have an opportunity to attach files
10. Attach a file to your post.
● Click the paper click icon noted as “Attach files”.
● Double click a selected file from your computer directory.
● Repeat this process to add more files.
11. When you are ready, clicking “Post” will transmit the information you entered to the selected group.
12. Clicking “Cancel”, instead of “Post” will delete the post.
29. How do I attach a file, a video or audio file to a Post?
Attaching a File
1. Once you have added a title and body to your post, click “Attach files” (see above also).
2. Double click a selected file from your computer directory.
3. Repeat this process to add more files.
4. Files attached to posts may not exceed 20 MB in size (e.g., from 5 to 100 digital photos, digital
size dependent). All files attached to group posts are saved and may be accessed via the Files
tab within the group. Files are stored via AWS (Amazon Web Services) which provides
encryption during storage to ensure privacy.
5. Files attached to posts should be named with features such as date as well as clearly describing
file content. This is a form of church Knowledge Management
6. Files saved within a group may be managed or deleted by the group leader or the person who
initially attached the file to a message or post to a group.
Embedding A Video or Audio File
1. Click in the body of your post.
2. Right click and paste the URL (internet address) of a video file that is on any website, such as a
YouTube video.
3. The video should appear in the body of the post and can be viewed once you have posted it.
Linking a Video or Video File
1. Click on the link button. Then click on Insert Link.
2. In the dialog box that appears, click or paste the links URL. Option: You can type text that your
audience can click to activate the link.
3. Click Insert. The link or the text you have added will appear in your post.
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30. How do I create an Event?
This type of post reflects a real-world group event including the specific time, date, location, and participant interaction. When you create an event, you have the option to ask Group participants to serve in a certain capacity. This feature allows everyone to be an integral part of making an event happen. Extremely Engaging When you create a new event, you also have the option to ask Group participants to contribute something.
You can view group events on your group’s news feed and in the Events section of the main menu. When event creation for group members is enabled, a group member in addition to group leaders can also create your own events for other members to RSVP to.
To add a group event, you must be staff, a group leader or administrator.
1. Sign in to Realm using a staff, group leader, or administrative login.
2. Click News.
3. Click the Events (looks like a calendar) button.
4. Locate and select the group and click Next.
5. Complete the fields for Title, Description, Date and Start and End Times.
6. For recurring events, select a frequency from the Repeats menu. For events that will recur into the indefinite future, select No End Date.
7. To request participants to bring items for an RSVP event, click + Add item to bring: then enter the item’s name and number of items you need (e.g., “three deserts each for six people”). You can also enter tasks (e.g., “Set up” (list 2 for 2 people) or “Clean-up” (list 3 for 3 people needed)
8. Scroll down to Advanced Option. If you select Allow RSVP in the Signups section, members can indicate if they are coming to this event with a simple yes/no. Please note that if a group member types a response to an event notice instead of using the RSVP, those messages go to ALL persons in the group. This action should be avoided to minimize emails that do not have to be viewed by all, so please RSVP either Yes or NO. Realm will track the RSVP responses of each person.
9. If the event provides childcare, you can indicate this by selecting Childcare provided.
10. Select Post to have the event display on the group’s News Feed to notify group members.
11. Click Save.
For Events such as Faith Formation classes, there are several ways for instructors to electronically and readily track student attendance on smartphones, a tablet or a portable computer for tabulation, tracking and issuing lack of attendance warnings via Realm. Church Staff can discuss options with Realm Core Team member(s), or ACS’ Help Desk or consultant.
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31. How do I create a Registration Event?
In addition to group meetings and events, you may want to create an event that requires registration. Once you’ve added the event, staff or administrators can edit, cancel, or delete the event as needed. All registration events appear on the Events tab.
To add a Registration Event:
1. Sign in as an administrator or staff member with registration events permissions.
2. Click Admin > Registration Events.
3. Click +Add Event.
4. Complete the necessary fields. Fields with a red asterisk are required.
5. Click Save & Close.
Event Registration can (a) manage registration information as well as (b) print or export CSV
lists of registrants and (c) generate name tags. Event Registration continually monitors the
number of people registered, can provide a registration form to people and possibly a method
for event payment. There is a capability of using customized registration questions via a tree
structure with resultant responses leading to different questions for different people. Realm is a
very powerful database!
32. How do I create a Photo Post?
Creating a photo file is a great way to remember and celebrate God’s work in your Group. The
Photo Album function in The City is not available in Realm. However, you do have the ability to
issue group photos in the Post function.
1. Sign on to Realm
2. From the NEWS screen, click the center icon which looks like a camera.
3. Select the Group within which you wish to post the photo(s).
4. Click Next.
5. Double-Click the photo which you wish to post from your computer hard
drive, cloud storage file, internet site or flash drive.
6. If you wish to comment, enter your message where it says “Say something
about your photo(s).”
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7. If you wish to enter additional photos scroll down to the “Add more photos” icon and repeat
the process.
8. When ready, click on Post.
SECTION 5: Leadership
33. How do I start a Ministry Group?
There are two different situations that determine how to proceed. If a church organization already
exists and is recognized by clergy and parishioners, a hierarchical approval would not be needed
to start a Ministry, Group or Team. For a brand new organization, getting the approval of the
Pastor would be required. In both cases having capable leader(s) is required.
For a new Group to exist, members must know its vision, mission and objectives and
whether it should be aligned with an existing Group. Should this new Group be
included in our weekly bulletin and/or on our church website? How can Realm
be used to identify those parishioners who could be willing members of this
Group? How could Realm functionality add value to Group members? How will
you invite members to join this Group? See the “Leader’s Checklist & Resources
for Realm” document on our parish website for a detailed step-by-step process
for initiating a Ministry Group.
Once these questions are answered, a Realm Administrator can electronically commission a new
Group. The Group leader(s) should designate an assistant(s) in their Group to help members
learn how to benefit from Realm usage.
34. What should a Ministry Group leader do?
For a Ministry Group to prosper, its leadership needs to be able to communicate, organize, delegate and follow a plan to achieve the Group’s mission. Realm is a tool to help Ministry Groups communicate with the entire group or with only select people in the group so they can accomplish their ministry’s objectives.
You will find a “Leader’s Checklist & Resources for Realm” document on our church
website that identifies a leadership process that a person can follow. There is a one-page checklist summarizing a suggested Realm process to:
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a. learn
b. lead
c. set up your Group pages on Realm
d. get members ‒ both already registered on Realm and those not ‒ into a Group
e. effectively use Realm to help leaders accomplish the Group’s Mission & objectives.
Realm videos (most 1-2 minutes in length) can also be found on our church website. Each of these videos are briefly described in this Leader’s Checklist document
35. What is engaging content?
One of the main responsibilities of Group leaders and Realm assistants is to motivate their membership via engaging content. Content on Realm should encourage growth in our relationships with Christ by living and working together in community.
Though some communication will be informational, we should be striving to make content engaging by creating content that expects responses (i.e., question-based, conversational, and as brief as possible). For example, a church bulletin is informational. Realm communique’s can be collaborative simultaneously involving many.
There is a one-page “Realm Content Creation” document on our church website. Once read and used a few times, Realm users will internalize this common-sense approach. Key questions for each communique include:
● Who needs to see this information? Will they value it?
● Who is likely to engage with it?
● Should it be sent via a message to any other Group Leaders?
● Can I make this post more engaging?
● When is the ideal time to post this information?
● Should I use a post to my entire group or a message sent to less people?
Engaging content possibly includes pictures, graphics, icons, video and internet web links. With The City, we used an assembly program called “Publisher”. It incorporates both graphics and verbiage for postings such as VIEWS from the PEWS, published articles developed by laity Guest Authors.
If a person gets a free Gmail address (i.e., an account for email capability), then it appears that the Google suite of programs or apps is also FREE. These programs are very similar to Microsoft Office programs that costs several hundreds of dollars. For example, Google Docs appears to be analogous to Microsoft Word. Google Slides appears to be analogous to Microsoft PowerPoint. Google Sheets appears to be analogous to Microsoft Excel. We are NOT promoting Google Apps here! However, we have been told that Google documents incorporating both graphics and verbiage can be directly cut and pasted into a Realm
message or post. Making It Easier To Engage Team Members!
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36. If I’m getting too many messages (too many emails), how can I limit this?
One of the easiest ways to limit emails is to select “Daily Digest” as your email notification setting;
you will then receive only one daily email each mid-afternoon for ALL of your groups. However,
if you are interested in getting information more frequently for a specific Ministry Group, you can
select your email notification for a specific Ministry Group as either
● “All content and replies”, OR
● “New content only” OR
● Obviously you can select “Nothing”.
Another way to limit replies going to all members of a group is for a leader, staff
or administrator to send a direct email in Realm to a person, specific people
or an entire group. Replies would then be returned to the sender (e.g., the
leader) and NOT the entire Group thus reducing the number of emails filling
up people’s mailboxes.
37. How do I change a Group name? From year to year?
Faith Formation is our largest church organization with 1,300 students and roughly 900 families.
Thirteen Faith Formation groups have been established at St. Benedict the Abbot Church at the
grade level (e.g., third or fifth grade). Our three churches have roughly 90 Catechists. Every year
students move up a grade level, however, we primarily need most Group members to remain
intact. To accomplish this, we merely change Group names every year and add or delete specific
students.
As a leader, you may want to edit or change the name of your Group. Ask an administrator for
Realm to do the following:
1. Sign in using an administrative login.
2. Find the group and open its record.
3. On the group’s main page, click Edit Info.
4. Update the field(s) as needed.
5. Click Save.
SECTION 6: Advanced Capabilities: Pathways & Mobile App
38. What are Pathways?
Pathways let you set up procedures to formalize spiritual and personal growth. The initial and
paramount step is to define a specific process that is to be followed by specific
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people during specific time periods. For those familiar with ISO (International Standards
Organization) requirements:
● “Say what you do, then
● Do what you say”
For any process, a Pathway will help you (a) define the series of steps, (b) identify who is assigned to
complete each step, and (c) to assign participants into the process and
(d) manage participant progress. Akin to Project Management
Both ‘Manage Pathways’ and ‘View Pathways’ permissions are needed
to establish a Pathway. The Manage Pathways permission ‒ a list of
permissions is shown later in a table ‒ is designed to Allow action not
merely View actions (e.g., one can see ‘Create Responsibilities’ in the
Administrator’s Help Resources website). At this time, Pathways cannot be accessed using the
Realm mobile app.
Pathways assure that actions within a process cannot be overlooked or delayed, as the Pathway
manager receives a daily summary of activity for each participant as well as steps that are late.
Overview of the Pathway process
1. Staff member sets up pathway and names pathway leader (anyone who has a Realm login).
2. Staff member or pathway leader adds steps to pathway and names leader for each step.
3. Staff member, pathway leader, or step leader adds people to the individual steps of the
pathway.
4. Staff member, pathway leader, or step leader marks as complete participants who successfully
finish each step (i.e., an overseeing function).
5. Staff member or pathway leader can then assign a participant to another step in the pathway.
To better understand how Pathways can help you, there are several video tutorials available in
Realm Help under Create and Edit Pathways. Please realize that all personal notes stored in a
Pathway are date stamped. Alerts are possible for tasks that are overdue according to pre-
established time table.
39. How do I create a Pathway?
1. Sign in as an Administrator or staff member with pathway management permissions.
2. Click Admin > Pathways.
3. Click Add a Pathway.
4. Name the pathway and, optionally, its campus and leader(s).
5. If, when participants complete the pathway, you want them automatically enrolled in another
pathway, specify an Add to Pathway selection.
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6. Click Add a step. Enter information for the step and click Save or Save & Add Another to include
additional steps in your pathway.
A Pathway Administrator / Leader can perform one of these three actions: (A) edit, (B) delete, or (C)
add steps to a Pathway steps by first signing in as a Staff member or Administrator, click Admin >
Pathways and next select the specific Pathway.
Then select either (A) Edit, (B) Delete, or (C) Edit and then click Add a step / Add another step,
One must select whether the step is ordered or unordered. You can always move people to
unordered steps; they are simply not numbered. Like other steps, however, they must be
completed for an individual to finish a Pathway.
Enter a Step Name and, optionally, Description, and Step Leader(s). Setting a Step Duration can
encourage quicker completion of steps. When participants exceed this range, it will be noted in
the digest email to Leaders. Click Save.
To reorder Steps (D)
Note: since steps are often ordered, moving one might mean some participants have to go back and
complete it before continuing on their Pathway. Upon moving a step, you will be notified how
many participants are affected.
A Pathway Administrator / Leader can (D) Reorder steps by first signing in as a Staff member or
Administrator, click Admin > Pathways and next select the specific Pathway. Click Edit and then
on the left side of the page, click and drag a step to another location in the list. Viewing videos
will help! This written summary sounds complicated ‒ as would one describing how to start a
car and then back it out of a garage onto a busy street ‒ until one constructs his/her first
pathway.
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What permissions are available? Below is list of pathway permissions.
Staff member with Manage
Pathways permission
Staff member with
View Pathways permission
Add a pathway x
Delete a pathway x
View participant’s status on profile
Edit a pathway x
Move participant to another pathway
x
Remove participant from pathway
x
Add a step x
Delete a step x
Edit a step x
Move participant to another step
x
Add people to a step x
Mark a step complete x
Add/edit notes
A pathway leader can only make changes to a pathway he or she leads, not to other pathways.
A step leader can only make changes to a step that he or she leads, not to other steps.
Step Duration If a participant remains in a step beyond this period of time, a notification will appear in
the task list of the step leader and included in digest emails to leaders.
Allow Step Leaders to make assignments If selected, step leaders will be able to assign a step or
