A message from Geni Hulsey, president of the Church Bookstore Network:

Policy manuals, employee handbooks, operations guides ... these are subjects that continue to come across my computer. The most common question is simply, "Do you have one?" Others include, "How do you put something like this together?" and "How do I develop policies with just volunteers?"

After five years of being a part of the Church Bookstore Network, I am sure of only one thing on this subject: I don't have all the answers! But I have learned some things that may provide a foundation on which to build.

Most of our churches have policies and procedures for the way they operate, and many of them have them in the form of an employee handbook. So, as a ministry of your church, you should begin with that and then add to it policies that pertain only to your store.

For instance, your church may have a dress code for staff. You may have a specific dress code for the staff in the store that agrees with but has some variation to the church code. Many times, work hours are different for the store than for most of the church staff. Our church did not have "flex hours," but the store did. These sort of things might be put in an addendum to any documentation the church provides for all of its employees.

An employee manual for an operation as small as most church stores are does not need to be complicated or long. But it needs to address items that are specific to the store and may not be addressed in church policies. If your church has no official policy instrument, then you will need to address more items and be more detailed in your description of each policy.

Policies should address items that directly affect your employees and the way they relate to their jobs, what you expect of your staff and how their duties are to be carried out. The operations of the store should be addressed in a separate document, and deal with issues like opening and closing procedures, how money is handled and processing procedures for merchandise.

In the store I managed we never put together a formal manual, but did have a notebook at each register that contained policies, procedures, plus information about current Bible studies and other classes taking place in the church and any books or materials they required. It was the responsibility of each employee and volunteer to stay familiar with what was in that notebook.

Many of you reading this have likely created some sort of manual, notebook or folder for the policies and operations of your store. To help further address this subject, I would love to hear your ideas. Sharing anything you have in the way of policies, procedures or operational directions used to train staff would be helpful to all of us.

I would love to hear from you. What are the policies that you address, how do you communicate changes in policies, do you hold volunteers to the same standards you do your paid staff? These are just some of the questions, and I would like to be able to share your answers with others.

We will not print details of specific, individual policies, but rather report back a consensus on each subject. In the near future we hope to provide a template by which others can put some of these things together. But first, I need to hear from you. Please e-mail me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..