The Rev. Paul Burwash was not too pleased when his Happy, Texas, church suffered two disasters in the span of three weeks. First Baptist Church was badly damaged by a tornado May 5. The twister tore the roof from the education building and damaged part of the sanctuary roof. A fire 18 days later finished the destruction, burning the church to the ground.
Though the church was a total loss, one thing he didn't lose was key church data, which had been backed up as part of a regular computer maintenance program.
The time that lapsed between the catastrophes enabled Burwash and church members to remove most of the property to safer environs, but the events illustrate how normal operations of a church can be disrupted in an instant.
Buildings can be rebuilt. Furniture, office equipment and computers can be replaced. But, if the files in those computers are not properly backed up, the damage can be crippling.
In First Baptist's case, vital records -- membership rolls, giving records -- were stored on a computer system that was damaged during the tornado. Burwash said the records were backed up on a monthly basis so they were not lost.
"We've been computerized for the last couple of years," Burwash said. "You lose files if you don't back them up."
Despite his efforts, the Parsons Technology church management software disks were lost. Since the backup did not include the program files, Burwash has not been able to recover some of the data. Burwash said he fully anticipates being able to reuse the data once the church secures a working copy of the software.
Burwash's experience illustrates what many data management experts identify as a common problem: computer users who don't realize their computer files are not adequately backed up until they need to retrieve them.
Data loss can be devastating for a church. Without financial records a church would be hard pressed to provide its members with giving totals at tax time. Accurate membership rolls and ministry data can be difficult to reconstruct -- perhaps impossible for a church with a large congregation.
What are the options?
Many churches rely on tape backup. Before the introduction of re-writeable CD-ROM drives, digital storage tape was the preferred medium because it offered greater storage capabilities, up to 40 gigabytes, than 1.4 megabyte floppy diskettes without taking up a lot of physical space. CD-ROM backup solutions are gaining in popularity because they provide ease of use and moderate storage capacity -- 720 megabytes -- but many churches and businesses that have tape systems are sticking with them to protect their investment.
Still, tape backup systems have drawbacks. The cost of tapes (typically $3 to $5 each) and the amount of time required to back up and to retrieve data make them less desirable than other options today. Reliability of the tapes also becomes an issue, particularly when users do not follow manufacturers' guidelines for rotating and replacing the tapes.
Another type of backup that is gaining in popularity is automated data transmission and storage over the Internet. E-vaulting, as it is called by data management companies, involves setting up software that automatically transmits data to the host company at a time specified by the user. The data is compressed and encrypted for faster transmission and security, and transmitted via the user's modem or high-speed connection.
Human Element
Bud Stoddard, founder of AmeriVault Corp., a Waltham, Mass.-based e-vaulting company, said the because most church staffs are small and rarely include an information technology expert, backup frequently becomes the responsibility of someone with many other duties, such as a volunteer, secretary or business administrator.
If that person is not particularly savvy about computer backup, the task may not be completed properly. Often, said Stoddard, the backup is started as the staff member is leaving for the day and the tape or other media is left behind.
"It really should leave the building in case something happens in the building," he said. "So, to automate the process is probably a good idea."
Fees for storing the data vary depending on the amount of files, but range from about $20 a month for about 20 megabytes per backup session to about $100 a month for about 711 megabytes a session.
Bill Nieman Sr., general manager of ISG Data Vault in Elma, N.Y., said the cost for e-vaulting is relatively low for two reasons. First, the host companies do not have to provide the Internet connection. Secondly, people aren't standing around waiting for the backup to occur.
"If we had a lot of people involved in this because it was not automated that would be more costly because of the man-hours," Nieman said. "But, it is an automated system and it is very easy to use."
He said it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to set up the software on the user's end. Once the system is set up the backup runs on its own.
Is it Safe?
The Rev. Clark Killingsworth, pastor at College Avenue Baptist Church in Normal, Ill., said his church has a system of putting data on diskettes and CD-ROM disks. Most of the disks are kept at the church, but since he does a lot of work at home, some copies are kept there as well.
He said his doctoral studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., drove home the importance of backing up important data.
"I was terrified at the thought of losing my projects, so I kept that up to date," he said. To the members of his church, losing data from the church's computers -- particularly records of giving, would be just as frightening.
"That would probably be very catastrophic," he said. "We have members who anticipate and expect to receive a financial statement quarterly, and if that wasn't available, I'm sure we would have people up in arms over that. We, fortunately, have a financial secretary who, offsite, keeps those records. So that's a safeguard for us in that respect."
Killingsworth said that as he thought about the importance of records kept in the church's
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What causes data loss?
Source: ISG Data Vault |
"We probably need to do some closer scrutiny of what's happening there," he said. "We probably could do (backup) more frequently. Probably, the most crucial stuff we could reconstruct if need be. If we had it on some kind of system where it was stored somewhere else and we could call it up, that would certainly be beneficial."
For Barbara Gaston, church administrator at Grace Cathedral Church, the 2001 flooding in Houston was a good example of how important archiving and safeguarding data is. Many of the church's paper documents were damaged by floodwaters.
"A lot of them did get wet. After they dried out we started scanning all the important papers into the system and saving them on a disk so if something like that did happen again we would have copies," she said. "Some things did get destroyed but most of our important papers we were able to save."
Jaime Valentine, an AmeriVault agent who works specifically with churches, said a major benefit of automated backup is it frees church leaders, employees or volunteers up to do other things. Like an insurance policy, it gives people peace of mind.
"They have so many things on their plate that this is sometimes forgotten," Valentine said. "It's only a problem if something happens to the data. Then it becomes the most important piece and if you don't have a way of getting that information back, then you're looking at a long, drawn-out process of what you need to do to recover."
