1. Is UCare Australian or an overseas organisation?

UCare is an Australian company, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

2. Are there extra costs if we wanted to take advantage of the giving section of the platform?

UCare uses a third party provider called Stripe to facilitate online giving.  Stripe charge 1.75% + 30c per transaction.

3. Are their extra fees for sending emails from UCare?

No, this is included as standard.

4. Are their extra fees for sending SMS’?

There are two ways to send SMS. If you chose to send SMS from your computer, UCare will set you up with an account where you will be charged 5c for every SMS. You can also send SMS from the application on your phone and chose to use your phone plan’s SMS instead.

5. Where is the all the information stored? How safe is the data?

Ucare have advised us our data will be held in 2 servers, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne.

All data is stored and processed inside Microsoft Azure; and UCare follow their best practices for information management.

See this for information on Azure.  The Synod IT department have advised Azure is very secure.

See the security related section of the UCare website for an explanation of how they store, process and protect customer data.

See the Privacy related section of the UCare website for and explanation on how they manage privacy.

6. Who has access to our congregations information and what will they do with it?

The use of information held within UCare must align with our Privacy Policy and any other approved policies only.  Below details the levels of security and who has access to information and why.  Any changes to access at the Synod level will be published on our website.

UCare has a history tab detailing who has viewed and changed pages and an activity page can be generated if necessary to monitor use.

Super Admin Access

Function
Has full access to all system and is able to make add and make changes.

Who
Kylie Sessa – Synod Office
Kay Bittner – Synod Office
Michelle Whelan – Synod Office

Why
Assist congregations in the implementation of the UCare System

Security Admin Area Access

Function
Has access to their specified congregation and can add and make changes as required.

Who
As delegated by the congregation.
Pres Mins may have this access if managing UCare on the congregations behalf.

Why
Manage UCare for their congregation.

Synod View Only

Function
Can view whole system information and pull reports across the whole system

Who
Lynde Davis – Synod Office

Why
Assist congregations in meeting their child safe church obligations

Presbytery View Only

Function
Can view information and pull reports across congregations they lead

Who
Pres Mins and/or their delegate

Why
To assist congregations in regard to administration and child safety.

Security Admin View only

Function
Can view information and add notes for their specified congregation.

Who
As delegated by the congregation

Why
Assist in day to day activities like making phone calls and sending packages etc.

7. How much does it cost?

15c/active member per month – flat fee.  The Synod Office will pay this to UCare and charge it back to the congregation.

Members can check in online, through an app, a kiosk or you can have someone enter attendance into UCare. People who are a member of a public group in UCare are considered active. Any person that is recorded as having attended three or more times in 60 days also becomes active.

You can record visitor details, however you will not be charged for visitors.

8. What training will there be?

We will be developing recorded training over time which will be available on a private YouTube channel with links on the Facebook group. The existing training videos on the UCare site are also relevant.  Training needs will be assessed via the Facebook group through the community forum.  We would like to see congregations sharing their knowledge on the Facebook page and leading their own development and use of this tool with the Synod acting as an enabler only.

Click here to join the One Church Connect Community Page.

9. How do we start?

Let us know you are interested by emailing onechurchconnect@ucaqld.com.au

Your Church Council will need to agree to using UCare.

If you are using a legacy church management system please let us know what it is called and UCare may be able to migrate the information directly for you to make the process easier for you.

Otherwise, you can provide as much information via csv file, spreadsheet or word etc that you have so UCare can set this up for you – ie, names, address, email addresses, phone numbers and role within the church, any blue card details, groups etc.

Please also let us know who should have access to Ucare and whether you want them to have admin rights or view only.