Below are testimonials from users of the Awana Record Keeping (A.R.K.) software. If you would like to share with others about your experience with the A.R.K. software, please comment below.
I absolutely love the A.R.K. program for Awana! It has made my life so much easier for record keeping! We have been using ARK since the Fall of 2007. I love the ease of the reports that I can generate at the drop of a hat. I love that I can rely on the program to be steady, and not have glitches. I also love the price! The support staff is tremendous if you have any questions too! You would not go wrong in purchasing the ARK program for your Awana club! Why keep all those paper records when you don’t have to?! Put them all in one spot…on your computer, or laptop, and enjoy the fact that you can access your records for everyone by the touch of a button! It’s AWESOME! :o)
Julie Vehrs on June 6, 2011 at 9:13am
We also use ARK and greatly appreciate it. I don’t know of any other but the price is affordable for our small church and it does what we need.
We have put it on 2 donated laptops computers. (You don’t need much to run ARK.) We check Cubbies and Sparks in on one with the Sparks secretary and T&T in with the other. We have wireless internet to the church printer and can print reports but we can also take them home to update, prep for an awards night or our fair or whatever.
Veronica Nash on June 6, 2011 at 9:37am
I love the ARK program, it is easy to use, can generate a ton of reports, keeps me organized and makes keeping track of things so easy. Whenever I have had a question or a problem I have received help almost immediately by email. The program is terrific and so aren’t the people who help you out when you need it.
Pamela J Tucker on June 6, 2011 at 11:14am
I like the ARK program. We have been using it for years. It has made our record keeping so much easier. We have not used it to its full function yet. Right now, we are using it for just the Truth and Training but are looking at using it next year to keep track of our inventory and payments, etc.
Susie Jeffries on June 6, 2011 at 11:30am
This was our first year using ARK and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works for us. It’s definitely within our budget which helps and the tech support has been fabulous. They not only put up with all of my crazy questions but they even did a remote session ( took over my computer) to help me troubleshoot some issues I had ( that we created of course). Tech support is very important if your not a techie yourself. This program is very user friendly and simple to download and get updates. If your looking for a simple to use, get the job done type of database this is definitely the one to use.
Jennifer Hutchinson on June 6, 2011 at 11:45am
I agree with all previous comments. ARK is superb record-keeping software. It generates extremely useful reports for the whole club. It is user friendly, and its cost is quite reasonable. The best part is that the tech support is outstanding, very patient and willing. Moreover, user suggestions are requested and incorporated when possible. All these reasons are why I have used the software for several years and plan to keep using it.
Gloria Phillips on June 6, 2011 at 3:37pm
Have been using this software for about three years now, our club is three years old. It is very handy and can easily get reports together in different categories. I have not utilized it to its fullest potential yet (which is only hurting myself), but it has been a great help in keeping things straight and being able to get information when I need it. We still also use the paper forms for book time and then I enter the information into the ARK software on my computer at home, but is still very handy. I have had a few problems with technical stuff, always on my end:), but the tech support for this software has been great. They have always answered my problems in a very timely manner and have even signed on to my computer through the internet to find what I can not help them with. Overall, a very, very good program.
Renee Britt on June 6, 2011 at 7:04pm
I’ve used this software for 3 years now and before that did the record keeping by hand. The difference is not even comparable. The software is easy to use, support for questions is good and the expense is so good, any church can afford it. The time saved, reports, your input to add to the changes in writing the program changes, address labeling all points to a no brain’er.
Nanette on June 6, 2011 at 7:09pm
Our church has been using the A.R.K. program for years and I have personall used it for five years now. I can’t imagine how clubs are run without it. It is a wonderful software and the price is unbeatable. Anytime I have ever had a question or problem my tech is on top of it and gets it resolved in better than a timely manner, almost before the problem even started! A.R.K. keeps up with awards, attendance and shares/points for store night with the utmost ease. We have anywhere from 130-170 children and two computers at work during any club night. We have had another computer donated to us that we will be adding this year in order to help with the larger groups and timely entering of handbook info. We are also planning now to take advantage of the part of the program that keeps up with our inventory and allows us to place orders from there. I would recommend this to any club.
Stephanie Monroe on June 7, 2011 at 3:48pm
While I may be behind in posting a response, I still wanted to say something. ARK has been a great tool to help get us organized. I am fluent in most things computer, as a user, but needed a younger person to figure this out (now waiting for my lesson). It has really stood up to our needs. I have had feedback from my user that some flexibility in modifying fields for more customizable use would be appreciated. Also, I would like to see something for tracking leader information. As the commander, I need to track things like BT, child protection training, years in Awana and the like.
But beyond that, we will continue to use this great product until we’re called home!
Glenn Carpenter on July 13, 2011 at 4:30pm
This is my second year as commander and instantly saw a need to keep records better than using the old pen and paper. I read Commander Bill’s interviews for all of the record keeping software choices out there. It really helped but in the end price led me to ARK. I just bought it today and set it up in minutes. I entered all three of my children in the data base in under 5 minutes. I haven’t done much else but so far it is unbelievably easy to set up and enter data. I’ll enter a post in a couple of months to let everyone know my experiences to come.
Joseph Lopez on August 18, 2011 at 9:15pm
When I took over as Commander, I evaluated all record keeping options available and continue to re-evaluate. This is our 4th year to use ARK. The developer is extremely responsive to users. If he doesn’t have the answer built into the software, he will suggest a work-around if possible. He also takes suggestions of modifications to the software each year and incorporates the suggestions with the most votes. ARK meets most of our needs and provides a dynamic way for me to keep up with attendance, awards, track a student’s section progress/book completions and AWANA Store bucks earned per student for a given time period. ARK allows me to always know what’s going on in every aspect of our club.