Anyone from age 14 and up is welcome to join the Production team with no experience required. For those ranging from age 14-18, we provide team-specific information separate from what is signed at Growth Track. One item is a form that is reviewed and signed by both the parent and minor, setting expectations and providing confidence in our intent to work closely with the parents as it pertains to serving on our team. The second item is a set of policy guidelines describing the appropriate level of interaction with minors. These items are listed below and can be located on your campus Dropbox in the Documents folder.
Underage DT Parental Consent Form (signed by parent and minor - kept on file)
Policies for Minors (for your reference)
The process for joining our team begins at Growth Track with the completion of the Dream Team Application card and with an interview of the new team member at Step 3. The interview is normally led by you or your team’s Connect Leader. The interview consists primarily of building relationship and sharing key details, such as the next step to begin training at your team’s weekly Development. This is also a great time to capture the new team member’s name, email address, and t-shirt size. Upon completion of the interview, the application card is then submitted to the Admin team at your campus to review for accuracy, then will ultimately be sent to the Central Admin team for processing to add the new member to an online database. At the end of the interview, we share our printed Production Team Handbook with our new team member.
The Central Admin team will also review the card for any potential red flags before the new member is added to a Team Ready Report. This report is maintained by your campus Dream Team (DT) Coordinator/Director indicating whether all steps of the Growth Track have been completed and whether the new member is ready to serve. The process is generally completed within a week and will be emailed to you by your DT Coordinator/Director. Once it’s complete, your team’s roster will be emailed to you by the Central Production Development team for your reference and feedback. This is a monthly process to maintain an accurate database of team members and their progress toward graduating Development.
The next step is to add your new team members to Planning Center Online (PCO). This allows you to send them a welcome email to set up their account and begin scheduling for weekly Development. In the process, you’ll need their first and last name, as well as their email address and mobile number. Note: it’s also important to add a team tag for your campus to easily locate them for future scheduling.
It’s also important to add your new members to your campus’s Slack workspace as a means of communication. In order to do this, you’ll need to have administrative privileges for this workspace. To invite a new member, you’ll need their first and last name along with their email address. This will email the new member an invitation to set up their account. The invitation will show as pending until the new user has followed the link and created a password.
If you need administrative privileges for your workspace, please email the Central Development team to submit your request.
Development is the term our team uses to signify our training process to teach our team members and help them grow spiritually for services. We also offer additional regional workshops intended to advance specific skillsets, which is scheduled in collaboration with the Central Development team and the campus leader.
Weekly Development is a consistent training environment for team members to learn a serve position for services and develop team culture. Typically, Development is held in conjunction with the Worship and Audio team at the campus venue or office complex at a dedicated time each week. Not only does Development help our team with technical essentials, but it also serves as a way to connect and build community. We encourage teams to gather for a brief orientation of what to expect for the training, develop members on the serve position, then gather at the end of the training for prayer and announcements, birthday shout-outs, etc. This can provide structure and spiritual connection with a small group framework.
Our Central team provides all new team members with a Highlands Production t-shirt with sizes ranging from Medium - 4XL. T-shirts can be found on the Streamline Store in the following path:
Church of the Highlands / Production / Video / Production Dream Team Shirts
The primary tool we use for weekly Development to gauge progress is a mobile app and website called Trello. Our Central Development team has created a Trello board for your campus that includes itemized benchmarks, as well as the four core values we share as a team that will prepare them for graduation. The mobile app, available for iPhone and Android users, serves as a consistent way to track the team member’s progress. We also use our service checklists to help prepare for the live service environment.
Our Central Development team schedules periodic regional training workshops throughout the year for lighting, video, lyrics, and graphics. Each workshop is designed based on the geographical region and/or specified equipment for the focused area of training. Workshop scheduling plans are created in Planning Center Online by the Central team with the assistance of the campus leader to include their team members in the specific position of training. The scheduled plan is then emailed by the campus leader to include pertinent details about the training, as well as campus specific information about travel arrangements, etc. Schedule requests are emailed several weeks in advance with prior vision and communication shared by the Central team.
Service schedule requests are emailed through Planning Center Online weeks in advance, no later than the 15th of the month by you or the Admin leader on your team. It is encouraged to coordinate with your campus’s Worship Director for who will be creating the PCO plans before scheduling can occur. It’s also important to pay attention to your email for any notifications of declined serves in order to fill the position in an adequate amount of time.
Blockout email requests through PCO are a helpful way to encourage your team to check their calendars before serve requests are emailed each month. This allows them to be excluded on specific dates when they are unavailable before the monthly schedules are sent. We encourage blockout emails to be sent a week in advance of your normal monthly serve requests to allow time to respond. Blockout emails help everyone through the process.
The first step to filling a vacancy would be to fill the position with another team member who has graduated on the needed position. If no one is available, please connect with the Central Development team to notify them of the vacancy and also reach out to a neighboring Production team that you could request support from. Please notify the Central team if the neighboring campus is able to provide a member to fill the vacancy. If support is still needed, the Central team will help through the process of filling the role with a staff member.
During times of planned vacations, sicknesses, etc., please notify the Central Development team at the earliest point possible so that we can discuss the best way that we can support the team through your absence. This also helps our team know who to contact regarding any changes or needed communication surrounding services for the weekend. Our intent is to serve you and your team in the best manner possible!
Mileage reimbursement requests may be submitted to the Central Development team by email within 14 days following an event such as a training workshop, All-Staff meeting, department meeting, All-Team meeting, etc. Please note that requests made outside of this window of time are not subject to approval. Mileage will be routed from your home campus to the destination campus and will be reimbursed by mail in a printed check form within a few weeks of submission. Therefore, your full name, an accurate home address, and email address will be needed to ensure you are added as an approved vendor in our purchasing software, ShelbyNext. When submitting a request to the Central team, please include the date, purpose of travel, and the names of those who are carpooling together to complete the approval process. These factors will affect how the request is coded in the software based on the annual team budget.