Last night was the karaoke night at the ACS Convention. What a fun experience. I sang a couple of songs and led a dance. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the singers. It was so cool to see the human side of the people that support our ministry on a daily basis. I already knew Dean was a goof-ball, but the others are pretty goofy too. Just check out the photo above of the ACS girls “singing” It’s Raining Men.

Click to see all 64 photos from Karaoke Night.

Somehow I always end up being the center of attention, even when I try to fly under the radar. Today, a not-so-random selection process took place that landed me on stage in front of the entire convention doing some goofy dance. It was a lot of fun, but Cindy - it’s on. When I come to Florence, I won’t forget it. :)

Click to see the whole set with me, the other guys, and the comedian grannies in action.

I was a bit embarrassed by Darci Shelley yesterday at the Enterprise/Megachurch Luncheon. She’s a driving force behind ACS’ Facility Scheduler product. I mentioned to her that several of the people at ACS don’t look like I expected them to.

It’s kind of like listening to the radio. You hear the DJ every morning and you get some subconscious image of their appearance. Working with all of these people from Florence, South Carolina by phone, I began to get this impression in my mind. I’m thinking that those beautiful southern accents contributed to this image of grey-haired grannies who love to make delicious dishes, like Paula Deen (at right).

Well, I told this to Darci who saw it fit to tell it to the entire megachurch luncheon that Matthew Irvine thought that all the ACS employees were 50-60 year olds. She made me look like I had a problem with those more mature than myself. However, I love Paula, so I think Darci and the rest of the ACS crew should be encouraged.

This is what Darci really looks like (at left). I think she enjoyed making me squirm just a little too much.

So, the name Paula Deen was circulating around the convention center for the rest of the afternoon.

Our largest area of need for enhancements was in the Checkpoint product.  Thankfully, a number of changes are on the way with this product in the July release.  One of the R&D guys told me that I was the reason for a number of these things.  I think they’re just trying to make me feel good, but it’s so encouraging to know that ACS really does listen to their customers.

Now, there are many changes that still need to be made, and those are on the list to be done.  I’m looking forward to seeing this product in 2009 with the 11.0 release.

Some of the changes that are coming this year in 10.0 are:

• “Background” Image - It is now possible to add a custom image to the express check-in screen so that it looks more personal and professional.
• Bigger buttons - The buttons on the express check-in screen are now bigger and have more space between them to make the experience with the touch screen easier.
• Add person from express - Now, the ability will exist to add people to the database from the express screen (unmanned) rather than the manned screen.  (I probably won’t use this)
• Sessions - Major changes have been made to the sessions setup.  Sessions are the “events” that you are checking in at one time.
  • Now, you can use different sessions for the same master group.   You can use Sunday School Children and Sunday School Adults at the same time on the same day in different ways on different machines.
  • Also, the big change that we’ve been pushing for is the number of security badges that can be printed.  With 10.0, this can be changed.
• Badge Design - It will now be possible to change the layout of the visitor badge!  Also, you can include a barcode on the label for use in check-out.
• Visitors - one-time visitors are now included in session statistics.  They’re still not posting to attendance though.
• Offline check-in - It’s now possible to run Checkpoint disconnected from the church database.  You sync the database with an offline machine, run check-in, then sync back with your live data.  Pretty cool stuff.

The boys at ACS have created this proof-of-concept digital signage app that show data being pulled directly from Facilities Scheduler and AccessACS for use in your church lobby (or wherever else you may desire).  Pretty interesting ideas.  Check it out yourself at http://www.churchlife.mobi/upcomingevents