Cephas
COBE Helper · iPhone, iPad and Mac
Cephas helps a coordinator of the body of elders prepare the meeting, run it inside the time it has, and keep track of what was assigned.
The agenda
Build it point by point: a theme, who leads it, how long it should take, the scripture or reference behind it, and a summary of what needs saying. Each point shows the clock time it begins, and a running total tells you when the meeting has outgrown its two hours — before the night, not during it. A point that will not fit can be deferred, and comes back when it can.
The notetaker
Send the meeting to the man taking the minutes as a single encrypted file — by AirDrop, email or Messages — and, if you like, under a passcode only the two of you know. He writes the decision, who it went to and when it is due against each point, adds anything the night raised, and sends his notes back. You see every change beside what it replaces before anything is written, and the meeting is then filed under Notes, out from among the ones still to be got ready.
A notetaker with no Apple device uses the web notetaker, which does the same in any browser and keeps everything he types in that browser.
Follow-up
Points given to somebody at a meeting become jobs with a due date and the man responsible, so nothing carried over is lost between one meeting and the next.
Announcements
Keep what has to be read at the midweek meeting, scheduled onto the night it belongs to, and mark each one as it is read. A night goes to the archive once everything on it is marked, and a night left unmarked is asked about rather than quietly dropped: complete it, or move what was not read to the next meeting. Attach the PDF that came with it, and mirror the list into Reminders if you like.
Letters and minutes
Write correspondence and resolutions on the congregation's letterhead, signed by the service committee, as Word documents. Print the agenda for the elders to prepare from, and the minutes afterwards — what was decided against each point, who recorded it, and the day it went to the body.
Your information stays yours
Cephas has no servers. Everything is held on your devices and in your own private iCloud database — the same place your Notes and Reminders live. Read the privacy policy, or get in touch.