Age bands and the pending transfers queue

An age band is an age range linked to one of your church’s own departments, for example 1 to 15 for “Sunday School” and 16 to 30 for “Teens”. You choose the names and the departments. Age bands are optional: if you don’t set any up, nothing changes.

Set up age bands

1. Go to Departments and choose Age bands.
2. Choose Add band. Give it a name, a From age, a To age and a Department. Both ages are included in the band.
3. Add as many bands as you need, then choose Save bands.

Bands can leave gaps, but they must not overlap. For example, 1 to 16 and 16 to 30 is rejected, because a 16-year-old would qualify for both. ChurchVex names the clash and suggests a fix, such as ending the first band at 15. Each department can have only one band.

To switch age bands off, remove every band and save.

New members are placed automatically

When you add a member whose date of birth puts them in a band, they join that band’s department straight away. This only happens to new members, who aren’t in any ministry yet. A new member with no date of birth isn’t placed anywhere.

Setting up bands doesn’t move anyone you already have. It doesn’t flag people who are already outside their department’s range either, such as adult helpers in the children’s ministry.

When someone ages out

ChurchVex checks every hour. When a member in a band’s department passes the end of that band, ChurchVex doesn’t move them. They go into the pending transfers queue, and the Senior Pastor, the Church Admin and the heads of both departments get a notification.

The queue is the list that matters, not the notification. Each member stays there until somebody decides. While anything is waiting, the Departments menu item shows a badge and the Departments page shows a banner.

1. Choose the banner’s Review link, or the link in the notification.
2. For each member, choose one of:
   • Transfer to … moves them from the outgoing department to the one their age now fits.
   • Remove from … appears when no band fits their new age. It takes them out of the outgoing department only.
   • Keep in … leaves them where they are. You can add a reason, for example Still serving as a helper. They won’t be suggested for the same move again.

A transfer or removal only changes the department they aged out of and, for a transfer, the one they move to. All their other departments stay exactly as they were. If the member is the head or deputy of the outgoing department, the queue says so, because moving them ends that role.

If you change the bands

Saving new bands re-checks your members, but only ever adds suggestions to the queue. It never moves anyone.

• Narrowing a band queues anyone the change pushes out.
• Widening a band queues no one, and closes any waiting suggestion it makes unnecessary.

Things to know

• Ages always come from a recorded date of birth, never a guess, using your church’s local date.
• Members with no date of birth are left alone.
• A transfer works like adding someone to a department by hand. If that department has dues or a chat channel, they take part in it from then on.