Rock v7.4 & v8

Version 7.4 is winding down with a few more bug fixes, and version 8 is underway!  V8 will have group history, event registration fee block for report/filtering that data, and many other smaller features.  The core team is striving to keep the scope of v8 under control so that it isn't a colossally large release like v7 was.

[editorial note: presently, all of the v7 releases are available only to Early Access organizations - these are organizations who support Spark financially. This is not only a "thank you" to those organizations, but also a way of being able to work closely with churches that we already have contact with, in the early days of deploying a new version of Rock. If your church isn't a financial supporter of Rock yet, hang tight for just a little longer, as broad access is coming soon. Learn more about Early Access or about being a financial supporter of Spark today!]

Life.Churchʼs Open Digerati has listed Rock RMS as a project on their project board. Although Rock isn't the responsibility of the Open Digerati team, itʼs just listed on their directory because of our close our two teamʼs goals align with the Rock project. This will give Rock more exposure to the secular world and increase Rockʼs discover-ability to the greater church community.

Another exciting announcement... Rock Star community member Garrett Johnson is joining the team as our new web designer. As many of you may already know, Garrettʼs been doing Rock work behind the scenes and will be starting with us in a few weeks.

Sparkability Group updates:

Some recently finished data automation tools are now being documented and will be included in an upcoming release of Rock. Tools such as automation to reactivating people who were inactive but have recently donated or checked-in (and vice-versa with deactivating people). Another can automatically update a personʼs campus based on where they give or check-in. And, another tool will automate moving kids who turn 18 out of their parents family and into their own household. All these tools will have extensive configure-ability so you can make them behave the way you need them to work for your church and are expected to make it into the Rock v7.4 release.

We're also working on an Amazon S3 storage provider for storing your large files off your server and/or database.

Events:

RX2018 $349 Early Bird pricing will end on March 30th. Don't wait until April to register -- otherwise you'll pay $399 (giving an extra $50 to the cause... not that we mind ;). Also, now that RX has grown up, the RX2018 FAQ page has a list of hotels with special pricing for you to take advantage of.

A change of plans! As we thought more about having a post-conference 'Deep Dive" track after the conference, we realized it needed to be accessible to more people and have decided it will be set-up as an online track that will take place at a later date. We'll give more details at some point in the future about that initiative. So, if you were waiting to book your travel pending that decision, you can now proceed to book your hotel and flight for the conference.

As mentioned before, itʼs really important that you not try to leave on the second night of the conference. If you did that, you would miss critical sessions and important networking time with the community and core team during dinner and well into the night. Don't leave early -- you'll regret it if you do!

Sponsors:

My Well Ministry
An industry leader in payment solutions, TransNational Payments’ My Well Ministry offers debit and credit card processing for churches at cost – that’s cost + $0. By partnering with TransNational you may save up to 50% on your processing costs, freeing up much needed resources for other areas of need within your organization. Gain significant savings and make financial stewardship a top priority when you choose My Well Ministry to power yours.

Protect My Ministry
Offering background checks that are fully integrated into Rock, Protect My Ministry keeps your risk management strategy simple. Protect My Ministry is committed to helping faith-based organizations maintain a safe environment so they can fulfill their mission, just ask any of the thousands of ministries currently served.