Realm

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Realm Connect

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church has moved to a new kind of church record keeping software called Realm® Connect. It primarily serves the administrative needs of our staff, but it also offers some exciting opportunities to support the way you are involved in our church. Not only will this improve work life for our ministry staff, it will make it easier for our church family to connect with each other, keep up with what’s going on, and grow as a connected community of believers.

Realm Connect is a real ministry tool.

Realm Connect is an online ministry tool designed to help keep us in touch. It provides an electronic church directory, a method for monitoring and controlling your giving, enhanced methods of communication, and the ability to get the latest news. You can easily keep in touch with the ministries and committees of which you are a member – in Realm, they are called “Groups”.

What about my privacy?

Realm Connect is safe, private, and secure. Your privacy is one of our greatest concerns. Realm Connect is only made up of the people in our church - it’s not like a social network that’s open to everyone. Realm Connect keeps your data safe and gives you control over what information you share and who can see it.

Your information is your information

  1. You have complete control over who can see your contact and personal information.
  2. Contact information is never public or searchable on the Internet. Any information you elect to make visible to your church family is always protected behind a login.
  3. Authorized staff will have access to your profile information.
  4. You and certain authorized staff may update your profile information. In some cases, your group leader may update your contact information if you have made it visible to group leaders.
  5. For safety reasons, sharing contact and personal information for children under 18 is limited. Parents determine whether or not to display their child’s name in the church directory.
  6. Children under 13 may not participate and will not be able to sign in.

What People May See

By default, the viewing of your contact and personal information is limited to members of groups you are in, group leaders, and staff members. If you choose to, however, you can make your information visible to the entire church. But if you prefer to be more private, you can customize how people see specific information*.

  • Contact Information: Name, Address, Phones, and Email.
  • Personal Information: Marital Status, Family Position, Member Status, but you also have the option of sharing your birthday, gender, allergy information, and skills with people in your church.

    *If you are a group leader or host an event, certain contact information will be visible regardless of the settings you choose.

Privacy Settings

  • Everyone - Like a church directory listing, everyone in our church will be able to see whatever profile information is marked as visible to everyone.
  • My Groups + Group Leaders + Church Staff – This setting means information will only be shared with the people you are involved with at church.  This is the default setting.
  • Group  Leaders  +  Church  Staff - You  would  use  this  setting  if  you  wanted  to  keep  some  profile  information  hidden from  anyone  who  is  not  a  group  leader  or  on  staff.
  • Church  Staff  Only— This  setting  effectively  removes  you  from  the  church  directory.  Your  information  will  only  be  available  to  authorized  church  staff.**
  • Custom  Privacy—Choose  different  privacy  levels  for  specific  contact  fields  and  personal  information.  You can do  this  in  two  places:  when  you  edit  your  profile  information  or  when  you  manage your privacy  settings. ***   

    **While  you  can  hide  the  majority  of  your  information  from  most  of  your  church,  you  should  know  that,  regardless  of  your  settings,  contact  data  will  still  be  visible  to  church  staff.     

    ***The  Directory   page  shows  all  individuals  who   have   a  login,  along  with  individuals  without  a  login  who have been opted into the directory. Currently,  individuals  with  a  login  cannot   opt  out  of  being  listed  in  the  directory.  

Family Privacy

A  family  member  with  a  primary  position  such  as  "Head"  or  "Spouse"  can  change  privacy  settings for  other  members  of  the  family  and  opt  family  members  into  the  church  directory.       Birthdays  are  required  for  children  (as  a  means   to  prohibit  access),  but  it’s  up  to  you  if  you  want  to share  the  birth  date  with  your  church  family. 

What about Giving?

Realm Connect gives you control over your giving. Giving should be easy, and Realm Connect places giving right in the palm of your hands. You may set up recurring gifts, view your giving history, and make changes at any time. Realm Connect automatically records all electronic gifts and adds them to your giving record making it easy for you to give, and easy for our financial assistant to track.

Click here to get started with Realm