VBS registration is important to any successful VBS. It helps you estimate how many children you need to prepare for, and it is also an important tool to use during follow-up. Here are some hints to make registration easy and useful.

• Pre-register your church kids. Any time that you can pre-register kids, it helps you estimate the number of children you need to prepare for and it helps to speed up the registration process on the first day of VBS. Set up a registration booth outside the sanctuary or in the welcome center two to three weeks before VBS to allow time for church members to pre-register their children.
• Online registration. Some churches offer online registration. This allows parents to register their children at their convenience and if you have a link on your website for online registration, it can help those who will be visiting your church to pre-register.
• Offer registration every day of VBS. You will have some children who only come to VBS one day, and for some it may be the very last day. Therefore make sure you have registration every day so that you can gather information from every child who visits your church.
• Get complete information. I know on the morning of VBS parents are in a hurry and children want to get to their rooms, but make sure that registration forms are completely filled out. Any information that is left off makes it harder to follow up with the child and his or her family after VBS is over.

VBS Registration Flyers can be purchased at your nearest LifeWay store or online. Each flyer features a customizable Colossal Coaster World announcement on one side and a ready-made registration form on the other. Flyers are perforated so parents can return the registration form and keep the announcement as a VBS reminder. You can also find registration forms on the Administrative Guide CD-ROM in the Director’s Helps folder.

In recent months there have been a lot of changes occurring on the Kids floor at LifeWay. One of my favorite changes is the addition of the chalk wall. Chalkboards and chalk walls are fun ways to be creative. I have to give credit to Pam, Courtney, Stacey and Katie who worked hard on this! Our wall is full of words, quotes, and Bible verses that remind us of kids. Our work is all about teaching the gospel to kids and this is a great reminder. What are some of your favorite kid quotes?

Have you started making plans for your VBS this summer? I hope you’re answer is yes! But, it not don’t worry, you can catch up! There’s a great Planning Calendar in the Administrative Guide for Directors to help ensure that you don’t miss a step in your planning. Below I’ll list a few things that you should be thinking about in the planning schedule if your VBS is three to four months away. The Planning Calendar goes all the through to the end of your VBS, so be sure to check it out! An organized VBS goes so much smoother for those involved!

Six to Nine Months Before VBS

(Dates _________________________)

• Set up a prayer team. See pages 58-60.
• Meet with church leaders to discuss dates, budget, goals, and how children can plug in.
• Place VBS dates on the church calendar.
• Determine the groups for VBS—preschoolers, children, youth, adult, and special education.
• Prepare and submit the budget to the church for approval.
• Set goals for enrollment, attendance, prospects, and offering.
• Order the VBS 2013 Colossal Coaster World Sampler (005487573) or Super Sampler (005487652). (Use the order form in the VBS Catalog, call 1-800-458-2772, order online at www.lifeway.com/vbs, or purchase it at your nearest LifeWay Christian Store.)

Four to Six Months Before VBS

(Dates _________________________)

• Contact your local associational office for VBS associational training dates. Put the dates on the church calendar.
• Begin enlisting leaders for Bible Study and other rotation sites. (See pages 28-29.)
• Estimate VBS enrollment and determine class and department organization.
•  Enlist a VBS Promotion Team Leader and begin development of a promotional strategy. (See pages 38-40 for additional information.)

Three to Four Months Before VBS

(Dates _________________________)

• Enlist a VBS Records Team Leader.
• Enlist a VBS Follow-up Team Leader.
• Enlist a technology team to take pictures and video, play DVDs, print materials from the enhanced CDs, and so forth.
• Create a VBS Calendar of Events and place those events on the church calendar. Distribute a copy of the calendar to leaders as they are enlisted.
• Schedule training meetings and develop agendas.
• Begin background checks for all volunteers.
• Guide the VBS Promotion Team to present a promotion strategy. (   See the Promotion Helps folder on the enhanced CD for five promotional skits that may be used with puppets or a small cast.)
• Plan a VBS Kickoff Event. See pages 41-42 for ideas.
• Continue to enlist directors and leaders for Bible Study and the rotation sites.
• Plan pre-enrollment activities.

The VBS team has been traveling since January, and we just had our last VBS Preview event. It has been a great month getting to share Colossal Coaster World with all of you and hearing about the different things you all do in your churches for VBS. This post will mostly have pictures, so enjoy and begin making plans to attend a VBS Preview next year!

 Welcome to the theme park! I love how this set looked in the Design Lab at Nashville!

Everyone loved the Tilt-a-Whirl Fun Mix Snack and the smell of popcorn filled the air!

The winners of the Colossal Coaster Cars Snack Decorating Contests!

  Here’s a panorama view of the Design Lab and Creative Zone at the Preview in Kissimmee.

Can you find Melita in this set?

The Design Lab Team

The Creative Zone Team (minus Carol who is not pictured)

After the VBS Preview at Ridgecrest, we traveled to Ft. Worth for our next event. The weather in Texas was beautiful. I love the fact that we get to see so many friends at these events. Many of you come every year, and we have gotten to know you and look forward to seeing you each year. We also enjoy getting to meet all of you who are attending for the first time.

During the Preview event in Ft. Worth, I took some time and went to check out the Club VBS room. This year, Club VBS is Jungle Jaunt, and the room was amazing! I fell in love with all of the decorations.

When we travel, we work hard, but we also try to have a little fun and try new places to eat. Here is some of our team at one of our new favorite restaurant’s in Texas.

VBS team member, Carol, is the snacks expert as she made sure everyone got popcorn!

We saw even more great costumes. Here is a custom-made Colossal Coaster World hat!

Here is a glance at the Super-sized Colossal Coastal World Backdrop. This backdrop is a great way to add a coaster scene to your decor and it is made so that you can combine more than one backdrop to continue the pattern in a large space.

One of our new friends from Canada won the Snacks Decorating Contest at this location. I love to see all the creativity in these Colossal Coaster Cars.

Then it was time to pack up the truck and head to our next event. Hope to see you there!

VBS Preview at Ridgecrest was a great event! We love getting to meet all of you and hear all of your VBS stories. It is so fun to share Colossal Coaster World with you. The decorations, the snacks, the crafts, the Bible study, the music, just all of it. We are excited to share it all with you so that you can take it all back to your churches and have a great VBS! Here are some pictures from the event. Enjoy!

This year we introduced Backyard Kids Club. It’s a great new resource and below is a picture from the conference.

For you blog readers, you knew there was a contest for anyone who came dressed up. Well, several of you took the challenge, and we loved to see all the costumes you came up with.

We also wanted to connect you all to our Pinterest boards where we share ideas we find on the Internet. Here’s an example of one of the crafts we found and made.

Our team leader, Rhonda, made balloon animals and showed the attendees how to make their own!

We had a Snacks decorating contest. This snack is featured in the Snacks Rotation Recipe Cards. This is the winner of the Colossal Coaster Car contest in Ridgecrest.
During the event, we had CentriKid staffers who volunteered their time to help.

On Saturday, it was time to pack up and get ready to head to Ft. Worth for our next event!

We had a great event, and if you didn’t make the event in Ridgecrest, we hope to see you in Nashville or Kissimmee.