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A church will often keep its membership data--including addresses, phone numbers, emails, demographics, and all kinds of things that would never go into a register as a matter of polity or history--in membership management software, whereas its permanent record of membership--including baptisms, marriages, deaths, suspensions, and so on--will be committed to paper, often in register volumes spanning 25 or 50 years. Membership software facilitates a great many short-term actions, such as sending a mass mailing. The paper register is persistent across the long term and lets...

As I prepared for the recent arrival of a new baby in my family, and my maternity leave from work, I prepped lots of tools to ensure that the people and processes I support can continue smoothly while I'm away. Even though much of my work can be done remotely I wanted to ensure that only select information comes to me; others on staff are trained how to access the tools that I'm responsible for. This built in redundancy is good for the institution, as it allows for less disruptive transitions, but it's also for employees, who get more time to focus on their lives away from work...