One of the first requests asked of me by the Personnel committee when I was hired was to find a replacement for PowerChurch. PowerChurch is our Church Management Software (ChMS) that allows us to track membership, pledges, donations, and contact information. I was told it was cumbersome, very user-unfriendly, and generally unliked amongst its users. After a long period of getting familiar with PowerChurch and its capabilities and searching for a better alternative, I am pleased to announce that we will be moving to a new church management system called Breeze ChMS. Breeze is highly rated by its users for ease of use, customizability, and interactivity. Many of our fellow UU congregations use it and are very happy with it. Best of all (at least to me as DAF) it is actually cheaper than PowerChurch.

Some of you may be wondering why am I telling you this. After all, most of you have had no interaction with PowerChurch in the past as it was more of an administration issue. Our new system Breeze now allows you to go online and view your own profile, and make changes as needed. You can see if your contact information is correct, check your pledge status, see your donations, and access the church directory.

This Saturday, please look for an email from me regarding Breeze ChMS. It may go to your junk or spam folder. This email will have a link to let you open your account and view your information. If you did not get a link, please contact me at DAF@UUCharlottesville.org or Caroline at Office@UUcharlottesville.org with “Breeze Issue” in the subject line and let us know you did not receive the email. Please let us know which email address it should have gone to if you have more than one. If we do not see you activate your account and do not receive an email from you by Friday, 6/19, a church representative will contact you soon by phone to see if you need assistance.

Creating this account is imperative to help us ensure that your information is correct. We will use this information to send out our Congregational meeting notices. We have several congregational meetings coming in the next few months, so please help us make sure all of your information is correct.

If you would like more information here are a few video links to guide and inform you:

If you want to check out the website before you join:
https://www.breezechms.com/

Member’s Video on how to set up your account
https://support.breezechms.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007855153-Member-Tutorial-Video

Link for the TJMC’s Breeze site after you create your account:
https://uucharlottesville.breezechms.com/

Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions you may have. Thank you in advance for your support in this move for the church.

Respectfully,

Sean T. Skally
Director of Administration and Finance, TJMC-UU
DAF@UUCharlottesville.org
Office Phone:434-293-8179 Ext: 6
Office Hours: Sun through Thursday, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Please make an appointment if you need to see me