I'd like for those who are using some sort of system or process for managing Pastors/Ministers On-Call to discuss what they are using and pros/cons of the one they are using.

Thanks!

Voicemail and Pager pool

(davidl) Currently we use an old Nortel system with an Automated Attendant for after hour calls. There is an option to leave a message for the Pastor On-Call, after they leave a message it sends out a notification to a pool of Pagers. The Pastor that is scheduled then calls in to check the messages and determines how best to respond. The idea is that there is a pastor available to talk 24/7.

Cons: Pagers!? Carriers are hard to find. Poor signal means that some of our pastors never get the page (which can be devastating). Carriers come and go leaving us scrambling to find a new one.

Pros: Cheap, easy setup, works with our 15 year old Nortel system.

We are looking into new systems; Google Voice, Call Center, Web Based - Medical Staff Scheduling/Call-routing systems. We field about 2-3 calls a night, ranging from people who are lonely and need to talk, to deaths and suicide attempts.

Any ideas out there? Thanks, Dave Lopez

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(JasonLee) We are using an Avaya IPOffice PBX and have built an auto attendant with an option for Emergency Assistance which directs to a call route one of two places:

    - during the day the call routes for 2-3 rings to a admin assistant then for 2-3 more rings to a group of staff in our care team then if no answer to the Pastor's on call cell phone

    - during the evenining the call routes directly to the POC's cell phone

We configure the POC by two elements

     - the POC calls a number and selects the individual on call by pressing the corresponding # in the greeting. This sets that person's value as true.

     - the second element is the acual call route, when the call comes in it does true false processing until the system finds the person with the value of true and then makes an outbound call to that cell phone number pre programed for that person.

pros:     - as automated as possible short of setting a schedule for who is on call...

cons:     - requires staff to change voicemail greeting while on call from normal cell phone greeting to something a little more helpful to a 'crisis' caller

            - caller ID of call to POC is the CallerID of the Church not the inbound caller's Caller ID, so if the caller leaves a message without phone # we are not able to contact them.

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