Have you ever been in a church youth group that went on an overnight trip? If so, perhaps you remember meeting at the church parking lot at the crack of dawn – sleepy-eyed, but excited about the upcoming adventures.
I can still smell the fumes from the chartered buses that our youth group would use when we would go on an out-of-town excursion. I can also remember the excitement I felt as our buses would pull away as we waved to a parking lot full of (mostly sad) moms and dads.
Unfortunately, I also remember the disappointment I felt when on one trip we had to leave without my best friend. We waited as long as we could, but finally had to leave her behind. Later, we found out that while she had remembered the trip, her parents had gotten the dates mixed up and thought the departure was a day later than actually planned. Consequently, the entire household overslept, and by the time they awoke, we were long gone.
Today, a simple and easy-to-use technology can help youth leaders avoid situations like this – a voice messaging service. It’s quite elementary. Your church subscribes to a voice messaging service that offers a plan that fits the size and budget of your youth group.
Next, you upload (or manually create) a list of the members of your youth group, including home phone and mobile numbers. Finally, you use your telephone to record a message. This message can then be delivered at the time you request. You can even record a sequence of messages, scheduling them to go out a certain pre-defined times.
By using voice messaging technology for your youth group, situations like I described earlier (about my best friend missing out on our youth trip) would be few and far between. And not only can you use this service to remind youth and parents to be on time, you can also use it to inform parents when you are NOT on time -- which means no more arriving back from an out-of-towner to a parking lot full of angry parents who have been impatiently waiting hours for you to arrive.
