10  Regular Service Database

The name of this database may appear on the Main Menu as Regular Mass or Regular Service, etc., depending on what you entered in the Options dialog box for the name of your church meetings. Here, it will be called “Regular Service.”

 

When you click on Regular Service on the Main Menu, this dialog box appears:

 

 

The number in the upper right corner is the page number of the database. The Regular Service Database has 10 pages; you cannot add or delete pages.

 

This database is used for Regular Services that occur on a regular schedule every week. You use one page for each Regular Service.

10.1 Setting Up the Regular Service Database

Initially, all fields in the Regular Service Database will be blank. You use one page of the Regular Service Database for each Service. Starting with page 1, fill in the fields for each Service.

 

TIP: The Services appear on the various forms and printed pages in the order you enter them here. Generally, the order should be chronological, from the first Service on Saturday to the last one on Sunday. Once you begin assigning volunteers to time preferences, it will be difficult to change the order. It is OK to leave a blank page as a place holder for a seasonal Service or for one you may want to add later. Blank pages are ignored and will not “clutter up” your printed schedules or database listings.

Example: You have Services at 6:00 PM Saturday and 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM on Sunday. It is now winter, but in the summer you add a 7:30 AM Sunday Service. You are thinking about adding a 4:30 PM Saturday Service some time in the future. You would leave page 1 blank as a place holder for the 4:30 PM Saturday Service; use page 2 for the 6:00 PM Service; leave page 3 blank as a place holder for the 7:30 AM Service; use page 4 for 9:00 AM and use page 5 for 11:00 AM.

 

Fill in a Time and Day(s) for each Service. (See Section 10.2, below)

 

Fill in the number of volunteers needed at this Service (the number of slots) and the Suffix for each Ministry. It is OK to leave these fields blank if you don’t require a particular ministry at this Service. (See Section 10.4, below)

 

Once you have completed page 1, click the Page Down button to go to page 2. Now fill in page 2 for your second Regular Service. Continue until you have filled in a page for all your Services. Then click the Save button to save the Regular Service Database and return to the Main Menu.

10.2 Time and Day(s)

The Time field is a 4-character identifier for the Regular Service. You can use any 4 characters, but it is usually used for the time of the Regular Service. Examples: 530P for 5:30 PM, 830A for 8:30 AM, 1030 for 10:30 AM.

The Day(s) field tells which days the Regular Service is held. 1 is for Sunday, 2 for Monday, 3 for Tuesday, 4 for Wednesday, 5 for Thursday, 6 for Friday and 7 for Saturday. Examples: For a regular Sunday Service, enter 1 in this field. For a regular weekday (Monday through Saturday) Service, enter 234567 in this field. For a regular Wednesday Service, enter 4 in this field. For a Tuesday and Thursday meeting, enter 35 .

 

TIP: If you have regular Saturday Vigil Services, schedule them as if they were on Sunday. There won’t be any confusion as long as the times are different. This will save space on the printed schedule and allow coordination of Family Ministries across all weekend Services.

10.3 Ministry

The Ministry column shows the ministry abbreviations you entered in the Ministry Database. You cannot add or delete Ministries on this form -- use the Ministry Database for that.

10.4 Groups

Groups are optional in CV-Schedule. You do not need to use groups, but you may find them useful. Groups can accomplish one or both of these things:

· Assign subcategories of a ministry to be shown on the printed schedule. Example: For Lectors, “I” for the first reading and “II” for the second reading.

· Assign different subgroups of volunteers to the two subcategories of the ministry. Example: A particular Service can have 2 older altar servers and 3 younger altar servers.

 

 

Put the Group designators, as you want them printed on the schedule, in the Suffix columns for Group 1 and Group 2. You can leave one or both the columns blank.

 

In the Personnel Database:

· Type 1 in the Ministry field of volunteers who are eligible to serve only in the Group 1 Ministry subcategory.

· Type 2 in the Ministry field of volunteers who are eligible to serve only in the Group 2 Ministry subcategory.

· Type X in the Ministry field of volunteers who are eligible to serve in both ministry subcategories.

· Type X in the Ministry field of volunteers if you do not use groups for their ministry.

 

Here are four examples of ways you can use or not use groups:

1) No groups. In the sample Regular Service Database page at the beginning of this chapter, this Regular Service requires 6 Eucharistic Ministers (E.M.) (There are 6 slots for Eucharistic Ministers.) They are not divided into groups. You just enter 6  in the Number column for Group 1, and leave the other columns blank:

                    GROUP 1         GROUP 2    

       MINISTRY  NUMBER SUFFIX   NUMBER SUFFIX 

         E.M.    6                         

All Eucharistic Ministers are eligible, so we mark their E.M. field with an X in the Personnel Database (Chapter 12):

Ministries: Mark all that apply. 1:Group 1 only; 2:Group 2 only; X:both

E.M.:X  LECT:    ALT.:   USH.:     

 

2) Two groups listed on the schedule, all volunteers eligible to serve in both groups. In the sample Regular Service Database page at the beginning of this chapter, for lectors (LECT), we designated one person as “I” for the first reading and a second person as “II” for the second reading. The I and II designations will appear on the printed schedule to show which person has which reading.

                    GROUP 1         GROUP 2    

       MINISTRY  NUMBER SUFFIX   NUMBER SUFFIX 

         

         LECT      1     I         1     II    

All lectors are eligible for both groups, so we mark their LECT field with an X in the Personnel Database (Chapter 12):

Ministries: Mark all that apply. 1:Group 1 only; 2:Group 2 only; X:both

E.M.:    LECT:X  ALT.:    USH.:        

 

3) One group listed on schedule, different volunteers in each group. In the sample Regular Service Database page at the beginning of this chapter, we scheduled 2 altar servers (ALT.) from Group 1 and 3 altar servers from Group 2, but the Suffix column is left blank so the designations do not appear on the printed schedule. Here, Group 1 may be the older servers and Group 2 may be the younger ones.

                    GROUP 1         GROUP 2    

       MINISTRY  NUMBER SUFFIX   NUMBER SUFFIX 

         

         ALT.      2               3           

In the Personnel Database (Chapter 12), put 1 in the ALT. field of the older servers who are eligible only for Group 1:

Ministries: Mark all that apply. 1:Group 1 only; 2:Group 2 only; X:both

E.M.:   LECT:   ALT.:1  USH.:         

In the Personnel Database, put 2 in the ALT. field of the younger servers who are eligible only for Group 2:

Ministries: Mark all that apply. 1:Group 1 only; 2:Group 2 only; X:both

E.M.:   LECT:   ALT.:2  USH.:         

 

4)  Two groups listed on schedule, different volunteers in each group.  In the sample Regular Service Database page at the beginning of this chapter, we scheduled one “Head” Usher (USH.) and 3 others with no designation. We want the Head Usher to come from the more experienced group and the other 3 ushers from the pool of all ushers.

                    GROUP 1         GROUP 2    

       MINISTRY  NUMBER SUFFIX   NUMBER SUFFIX 

         

         USH.      1     Head      3           

In the Personnel Database (Chapter 12), put X in the USH. field of the more experienced ushers who are eligible for either Group 1 or Group 2:

Ministries: Mark all that apply. 1:Group 1 only; 2:Group 2 only; X:both

E.M.:   LECT:   ALT.:   USH.:X       

In the Personnel Database (Chapter 12), put 2 in the USH. field of the less experienced ushers who are eligible only for Group 2:

Ministries: Mark all that apply. 1:Group 1 only; 2:Group 2 only; X:both

E.M.:   LECT:   ALT.:   USH.:2       

10.5 Modifying the Regular Service Database

If at any time you want to add a new Service, simply find a blank page on the Regular Service Database and fill it in for the new Service. To activate the new Service you must also assign volunteers to the new Service in the Personnel Database.  

 

To change the time of a Service, as for a seasonal time change, just type in a new time on its page of the Regular Service Database form. The volunteers assigned to the Service will automatically stay the same.

 

To delete a Service, select each field on that page in the Regular Service Database and delete it.

TIP: To temporarily de-activate a seasonal Service, delete just the time on the Regular Service Database form. The Service will then not be shown anywhere on the printed forms. However, you can re-activate the Service by just typing in its time again.

10.6 Moving a Page in the Regular Service Database

CV-Schedule works internally with the Service page number rather than the time, and it is best to avoid moving a Service from one page to another after you initially set up the databases. If you do find it necessary to move a Service, you will also need to re-enter the time assignment for each of that Service’s volunteers in the Personnel Database.