Record Keeping – Essential

“Dear Rally Leader, When we moved house we lost our sons Rally badges. Please can we have another set.”

“Why didn’t my daughter get a gold attendance star at the prize-giving? I’m sure she never missed a Rally night this year.”

“Can you tell me again the memory verse I am doing this week at Rally? I lost the paper I wrote it on.”

These, and many other scenarios can be common occurrences. If you are the senior Leader, then your assistant leaders, Rally members and even their families, will expect you to have ‘records’ that will solve their dilemmas! So keep good records.

The following is a guideline to basic record keeping – adapt it to suit your Rally programme and needs.

What to record:

- Rally members details –

* Their name, address and phone number - always essential information for emergency contact, ringing to remind of a new term/year starting etc. Email can also be useful.

* Their age and year at school – this is particularly useful if you have a junior and senior Rally. You need to know when they are of age to advance to seniors, which are your ‘oldest’ members so you can choose from them for team leaders or team seconds.

* Mum/Dad’s names – if you learn them – it’s friendly if you can call them by their name when you ring their home. Sounds like you really know and are interested in them and their child/ren.

* Badges earned – record all their badges, then you can see who is eligible to sit for the efficiency, receive Junior star or sit for Awards. Rally members don’t always realise that they can earn these, so Leaders can encourage this by suggesting who can sit them – and help them to do this by making time to go over the badge requirements/encourage memorising with them. (I always record the year on the card, then the badges earned beside that year. Then I know in any given year who has earned the most, as we give prizes for the most earned each year.)

- Rally programmes –

* Leader -have your programme book – Record each week/fortnights programme. This helps you remember what notices to give out etc, as well as your programme eg, parade, singing, game, memory verse, devotion, hobby/badge – or the timetable for the activities.

* Who is in each hobby group – If you have a larger Rally, you will have more than 1 hobby going at a time. Leaders can do the same hobby the next term with different members. When the next term comes along you will know who has already done each hobby if you keep a record of groups.

- A Prize-giving book –

“Where is the winning shield? Who won it last year?”

“Who won the top prize? I need to get the cup back for this years’ prize-giving.”

These questions can cause concern or cost money if you have to replace them!

Record all prize winners and who has any cups/ trophies etc. A whole year is a long time to remember! It does depend on if/what prizes/Awards you give out at the end of a year as to what you need to carefully record.

- Team Marks –

A ‘Team’ book – Here you record attendance, memory verse learnt, behaviour, wearing uniform (if you have uniforms), Bible, wearing badges etc. A Rally Parade at the beginning of the programme allows for attendance marks, memory verses, behaviour etc to be recorded. It is essential to keep GOOD RECORDS of these if you want your members to receive gold stars for attendance, or to choose fairly who has earned the most points for the year. If you give a trophy/cup or similar at the end of the year to the top Rally member, it must be known to be fair. Good records are the only way to achieve this.

- Receipts –

You do need a receipt book to issue receipts to parents for fees paid, Rally uniforms, camps etc.

Using your records:

Many uses of your records have been included above.

Rally Supplies has a card that is suitable for this. Or you can purchase ruled ‘system’ cards in various sizes from stationery shops. Keep in alphabetical order for easy reference.
If you visit Rally parents, record this on the member’s card. You might not want to revisit them for the same reason as the last visit!
At leaders meetings, issue each Leader with a ‘term card’ that records every rally night for the term, along with your basic programme, and who is leading/preparing for each. Eg. open prayer, game, memory verse, devotion, activity (or hobby/badge), supper, closing prayer.
As senior Leader it is important to note down what devotions are happening on which night and what the memory verse is – even other leaders can forget which night they are doing the verse or what it is!!
If you are an Assistant leader, try to keep your Rally term plan handy, a list of members in your hobby group etc. It is always helpful if your senior Leader needs this info or you want to ring your group to remind them to bring something to Rally.

Good record keeping helps towards an efficient and well-run Rally.