Welcome to the training for ushers and greeters at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. My name is Chance Hunter, your Director of Welcome Ministries, and I’ll be guiding you through this training presentation.
We have three parts that we’ll be going over today: greeting basics, information on making UUCA accessible to persons with disabilities, and ushering basics. An additional training presentation is available for those staffing the Welcome Table.
Let’s begin by talking about Greeting.
Your responsibilities as a greeter begin even before you say your first “Good morning.” #Your first act as a greeter will be to respond to your team leader’s monthly reminder email. Please reply back as soon as you’re able. If you’re unable to greet, your team leader will need to let the Greeting Coordinator know they need help finding a substitute, and we want that process to start as soon as possible. We don’t want team leaders stressing out Saturday night wondering who will be on their team the next morning. #We often do need substitute greeters. Our Greeter Coordinator will send out an email to the Greeter email list whenever there’s a need. Please respond whenever you can serve as a greeter, even if it isn’t your regular team’s designated week. #We also need all greeters to arrive at least twenty minutes before worship starts. There are three reasons for this. One, your team leader may need your help with some last minute responsibilities, such as getting the offering baskets or the orders of service. Two, arriving early will give you enough time to reserve your seat in the Sanctuary and find out what your assigned greeting station is. And, three, last minute emergencies do come up, and people who were otherwise planning to greet may find themselves unable to the morning of. In the hurry of the morning, your team leader may not get your morning-of cancellation message, and we don’t want our team leaders to be in the position of wondering if someone is just running late again or whether they need to find a morning-of replacement. Support your team leader by being in good communication with them. #And before you begin, grab a red and white greet badge. There are several styles to choose from.
There are a number of stations your team leader may assign you to before worship. #One is by the front lobby doors, greeting people as they enter. Feel free to prop open the door when the weather is nice. #Another is by the parking lot doors, next to the accessibility lift. #You might also be stationed at the sanctuary doors, passing out the Order of Service. #Or at the Welcome Table, greeting and directing newcomers.
There is no shortage of ways to greet people. #A verbal greeting, such as “Good morning” or “How are you?” #A warm nod of the head. #Or a handshake or a hug. Do whatever feels best to you. #And make it your goal to acknowledge everyone who passes by your station. Your greeting sets the emotional tone for the entire morning’s experience before worship even begins. You can have a big impact with just a simple “hello.”
Now that we’ve talked about greeting, we’ll touch on making the morning accessible for those with disabilities.
#In UUCA’s ends statements, we talk about how we as a congregation want to give to the world a safe and welcoming community where all are valued. Being a welcoming place is key to our greeting program. Making sure that persons with disabilities are warmly welcomes is not just polite, #it’s also a way to make social justice happen inside UUCA’s walls. UUCA is a leading congregation around accessibility issues, and #the accessibility features we added to the building in 2002, such as the accessibility lifts, only underscore that fact.
You may not know how many accessibility features we have! #There is a Braille hymnal available in a file cabinet in the coat room, and #there is Braille signage throughout the building. #Large print Orders Service are available every Sunday, and we have #several hearing assistance devices available that pipe in whatever is going through the sound system. #There is a wheelchair entrance to the Sanctuary from the Social Hall (not from the Front Lobby), and #there is wheelchair seating at both the bottom and top of the Sanctuary. #A spare wheelchair is available in the coat room, and there are #three accessibility lifts to get to all three floors of the building.
#Hearing assistance devices are stored in a clear plastic bin in the back cabinet of the Welcome Table. If you are working the Welcome Table, you may need to show someone how to turn the device on and adjust the volume. #To do either, simply turn the dial. #A light will come on when the unit is powered on. Depending on the model, the light could be either red or green. #There are extra batteries stored with the hearing assistance devices, and they will need either a 9 volt battery or two double-A’s depending on the model. If a device is not working, you will either need to replace the battery for the user (the mostly likely scenario), or, if the device is powering on correctly, notify the sound booth team to check their equipment. #Be sure to turn the device off before storing it; the batteries will not last until next Sunday.
Here’s what turned on hearing assistance devices look like when they’re turned on.
We have three accessibility lifts in the building. #The first is at the parking lot entrance and connects the parking lot level to the main level of the building. #The second is in the hallway, under the Front Lobby Stairs next to the nametag kiosk, and it connects to the Quiet Room. #The third one is in the Social Hall next
Although many persons who use accessibility lifts will already be familiar with their operation, you may need to help someone use one of our accessibility lifts. #For the lift to work, both doors, on both stories, must be completely closed. Although the doors do close automatically , sometimes they don’t close completely . For safety reasons, a lift door will only open when the lift is at that level. #There are three keys for each lift---one inside the lift, and one outside the lift at each level---and they must all be turned to “On.”
To operate the lift from inside it, hold down the black toggle switch until you’ve arrived at the other level. If the lift isn’t working, there are two likely explanations. The first likely explanation is that one of the lift doors isn’t closed completely. The second is that one of the keys is turned to “Off.” You may need to check all three keys. The keys should never be set to “off”---we want people to be able to use the lifts at any time---so don’t them off after someone has finished using the lift. Someone with a mobility impairment won’t be able to travel between the floors to make sure the doors and keys are set aright, so it’s important to make sure everything is in place for anytime someone might want to use the lift.
From outside the lift, you can also move it between floors using either the up and down buttons or a black toggle switch, depending on how that particular lift is set up. Remember to hold the button down until the lift has finished moving. The lift doesn’t return to either level automatically; it only moves when a button is held down, and it will stop moving between levels if the button is released before it reaches either story. Because the doors only open when the lift is stopped at a story , the person in the lift will be stuck in it until they finish going to one story or the other.
Now that we’ve talked about greeting and accessibility, we’ll move on to talk about ushering.
#When you arrive, your team leader will assign you an aisle to “ush.” #While you don’t have to reserve a seat, we recommend that you do so that you can sit on the aisle you’ll be working even if seating is tight that Sunday. #One of the worship leaders will give your team a verbal cue when the offering is about to start. Your team leader will distribute the baskets, giving two baskets to middle aisles and one to outside aisles. If you’re worried about when to do what, #just do whatever your team leader does. When your leader turns around to start passing out the baskets, you turn around to start passing the baskets. When your leaders waits at the top of the sanctuary for the music to finish, you wait at the top of the sanctuary. When your team leader walks down with the baskets, you walk down with your baskets. When your team leader turns to leave the sanctuary with all the offering baskets, you turn to go back to your seat. Every Sunday offering turns out a little different than every other one, #so just go with the flow. As long as all the baskets come back down, it’s okay if you come down with a different number of baskets than you went up with, and it’s okay if the baskets don’t travel up and down the aisles in the exact order they’re supposed to. Everyone’s eyes will be on the musical performers, so don’t feel self-conscious if things go a little differently than planned.
Two ushers in each worship service are also counters. #The ushers working the middle aisles usually count. If you don’t feel comfortable counting, just tell your team leader. If you are a counter, you’ll get a blue “count sheet” from your team leader. Use this this sheet to record your count, and then drop it in the offering plate when you take up the offering. The are two things to remember about counting: who to count and when to count. #Who should you count? Everyone in the sanctuary---children, teens, and adults---on the # opposite side of the sanctuary from you---# except the choir . But only at the right time. #When’s the right time? During the “Anthem,” which is the musical performance right before the sermon. Why during the Anthem? If it’s an RE Sunday, children will already be in their classes at this point, where they’ll be counted, and we don’t want to count anyone twice. If it’s not an RE Sunday, children will stay for the entire worship service, and they’ll still be in the sanctuary for the count. Why don’t we count the choir? Because we don’t want them to get counted twice either, we add in the choir after the fact when we compile the stats in the office. #Drop your count sheet in the offering basket at the beginning of the offering. After taking the offering back to the finance team for counting, #your team leader will take your count sheet and enter it into their report. #We report worship attendance to the Unitarian Universalist Association every January, and we watch worship attendance trends to plan worship time adjustments and do strategic planning. Your counting makes all this possible. #If you forget any of the mechanics of taking a count, your count sheet has a reminder with the instructions.
Some weeks your team may need to take up the offering twice, #once for the monetary collection and a second time for some special exercise, such as a survey, pledge form, or some other form of feedback. #One of the worship leaders will give you a cue when to come down, and it will also be listed in the Order of Service. #There may be a second set of baskets for the second offering, and middle aisles may only get one basket, depending on their size. #Otherwise, it works just like a regular offering. #Some worshippers may get confused as to which offering is which and put money in the wrong basket or vice versa. This is fine and can be sorted out after the fact. If you can find a non-distracting way to let them know, that’s fine too.
That brings us to the end of our training. I hope you learned some new things about ushering and greeting at UUCA, and I’m sure you appreciate the vital importance of this role to our congregation and its mission to be a warm and welcoming community where all are valued. If you have further questions, you can contact either me, your team leader, or Herschel Beazley, our Greeter Coordinator. Thank you for taking this training, and happy greeting!
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