A congregation of 200+ devotees is a community with a wide range of sadhana levels, service capacities, and spiritual standing. The temple president, the sadhana committee, and the regional GBC need different views of that community to serve it effectively. Who is chanting sixteen rounds consistently and ready for initiation consideration? Who attended the Sunday feast seven times in the last quarter but hasn't connected with a seva? Who has read through the Srimad Bhagavatam up to the fifth canto and could teach a class? None of those questions are answerable without a structured congregational record.
Initiation Status and Spiritual Lineage
Have you received First Initiation, Year of First Initiation, Have you received Second Initiation, Year of Second Initiation, and Name of the Spiritual Master document the formal spiritual relationship in the Vaishnava disciplic succession. Second initiation — brahminical initiation with gayatri mantras — confers specific seva responsibilities and privileges that depend on an accurate record of who has received it. When a second-initiated devotee moves to a different yatra, the receiving temple's authorities need the initiation record to assign appropriate services.
Initiated Name alongside Legal Name handles the dual-name reality of initiated congregants. Many devotees use their initiated name in the temple community while their legal documents retain their birth name. Having both in the same record prevents the situation where a seva coordinator can reach "Damodara das" but can't identify him in a government-ID context.
Sadhana as the Daily Practice Record
Number of daily rounds and Continuous period of daily rounds are the japa sadhana fields. Sixteen rounds of Hare Krishna mahamantra daily is the standard for initiation eligibility in most ISKCON yatras. The continuous period field captures consistency — a devotee chanting sixteen rounds for the last 90 days is in a different position relative to initiation consideration than one who has committed to sixteen rounds for three weeks.
Listening of Srila Prabhupada lectures with How many hours daily and Reading Srila Prabhupada's books with specific book completion records — Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Krishna book, Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Upadesamrta, and the canto counts for Srimad Bhagavatam and Sri Caitanya Caritamrta — create the siddhanta study profile. These fields tell the temple leadership which devotees have the philosophical grounding to give class, lead discussion groups, or mentor newer devotees.
Do you take notes while reading? is the field that distinguishes passive engagement from active study. It's a small data point that carries significant weight in identifying devotees ready for teaching responsibilities.
Service Mapping
Serve Prasadam, Distribute books, Attend harinam sankirtan, Participate in prasadam distribution, Serve in kitchen, Wash pots, Mop temple hall, Decorate temple hall during festivals, Help in book stall, Perform puja/arati, Lead kirtan, Give lecture, Give donation, Preach to new persons coming to temple — the service participation fields map the congregation's capability and availability across every service category.
When a Sunday feast needs twelve kitchen volunteers and the temple has 200 registered congregants, this database answers the question of who has already indicated willingness to serve in kitchen — with names, contact numbers, and recent temple participation records. Without it, the service coordination falls on the same five people who always say yes, while fifty others who would serve are never asked because nobody knew they were interested.
Participation in Sunday feast, Festival Programs, Home Programs, and College Programs are the attendance and outreach engagement fields. A congregant who attends Sunday feast monthly and hosts monthly home programs but hasn't been to a college outreach program is a different service resource than one who primarily engages through college preaching. The field data drives appropriate service assignments rather than generic volunteer callouts.