Setting Up Jobs

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At this point you have a blank database file. The first thing that you need to do is set up jobs. Setting up jobs is the most critical step to ensuring that the Scheduler works properly for your unique circumstances. Examples of jobs that might be set up include: lead prayer, lead singing, preside at Lord’s table, serve at Lord’s table, usher, read scripture, and preach.

There are a few things that you should keep in mind as you decide what jobs to enter into the database. The first thing to keep in mind is that some jobs will require multiple workers. For instance, in most congregations, there are several people who serve at the Lord’s table. At the WestSide congregation, there are 6 men who serve the Lord’s supper. The way we set up our database was that we said there was one job called "Serve at Lord’s Table" and there were 6 positions for that job. At this point, we are just setting up jobs. We will talk about multiple positions for a job later when we talk about setting up a schedule. For your database, do not set up one job in the database for each position, just set up one job. That job can be used for any number of positions.

The second thing to keep in mind is that sometimes a job appears to be a single job with multiple positions but should actually be considered different jobs for the Scheduler. One common example is ‘lead singing’. Some members may be willing to lead singing, but they are not willing to lead singing during a specific time, such as during the Sunday morning services. If you have members like this, then you may want to set up two jobs: ‘Lead Singing A.M.’ and ‘Lead Singing P.M.’ Having set up two separate jobs, you can identify those members who will only lead singing during Sunday morning services, those members who will only lead singing during Sunday evening services, and those members who will lead singing during both services. Had you only set up one job, ‘Lead singing’, then you could only identify those members who are willing to lead singing during both services. Another example of this is the work done to serve Lord’s Supper to the congregation. Some of the members may only be willing to serve the Lord’s Supper, while others may be willing to either preside or serve. In this case, you would set up one job called ‘Preside at Lord’s table’ and one job called ‘Serve at Lord’s table.’ Just remember from the first rule that, regardless of how many positions you have to preside and serve at the Lord’s table, you will only set up one job for ‘Preside at Lord’s table’ and one job for ‘Serve at Lord’s table.’ Later we will show you how to select multiple members to work on a particular job.

The third thing to keep in mind when setting up jobs is when the job will be performed and who will be peforming the job at the specified time. For most congregations, the members you have signed up to do a particular job can be expected to attend most of the worship services. However, for some larger congregations with multiple worship services, this is not always the case. An example would be a congregation that has two Sunday morning services: one service starts at 9 A.M. and the other starts at 11 A.M. You cannot expect a member who is to lead the opening prayer to be willing to do it at either service. John Smith is willing to lead an opening prayer, but he only attends the 9 A.M. service. Jason Turner is willing to lead an opening prayer, but he only attends the 11 A.M. For this congregation, we would set up two jobs for leading the opening prayer. We would name them: ‘Opening Prayer – 9 A.M.’ and ‘Opening Prayer – 11 A.M.’

Figure 2.4 shows you what the Jobs screen looks like. You can get to this screen by clicking on the Jobs button from the main screen. You will notice a button at the bottom of the screen with the caption Jobs. Click this button to see the menu associated with this screen.

Figure 2.4 Jobs List

The New menu option will always be available. The Edit and Delete menu options will only be available when a Job is highlighted in the Jobs list. Click the New menu option to start adding Jobs. Figure 2.5 shows the screen that is used to add new Jobs. The only information you supply for a job is the description. The description is what will be printed on all of the standard reports. One suggestion is to use a description similar to the description you are currently using in your bulletin or service schedule.

Figure 2.5 New Job Screen

If you are just adding one new job (if you already have your database set up but want to make some changes), then you will enter the description on the New Job screen and then click OK to return to the Jobs screen. The new job will show up immediately in the Jobs screen. If you are entering multiple jobs (you will be if you are creating a new database), then you would want to enter a job description, and click Next to enter another job description. The Next button will add the new job to the list of jobs and then set the cursor in the description field so that you can enter the next job. When you have entered the last job, you can click the OK button to bring you back to the Jobs screen. Figure 2.6 shows the jobs that we have set up in our database.

Figure 2.6 Jobs Screen

Notice that the jobs are listed alphabetically. We will describe later how to create a report that will list the jobs in any order that you desire. This screen is just a listing of the jobs that are kept in the database, it is not a reflection of the order of a particular worship service or the jobs that are performed during a particular worship service. This is a listing of all the jobs that can be performed at your congregation. Some of the jobs might be performed once a year, some once a week, some once every service, and some might even be performed several times during a service. Some jobs may require multiple members to perform, others may just require one member.

The Jobs menu is open in Figure 2.6. This is to show you that the Edit and Delete menu options are now enabled because an existing job is selected in the list. The Edit option will allow you to change the description of a job. If you decide to change the description of a job (say, from ‘Singing’ to ‘Lead Singing’), then you would use this option because it will allow you to change the job’s description without losing the settings that specify which members are willing to do that job. The Delete menu option will remove an existing job from the database. You should be cautious when you use this menu option because the action cannot be reversed. If you delete the Job called ‘Lead Singing’ and then later decide that you really didn’t want to delete that job, you will have to set up the job as if it were a new job and specify each member that is willing to do that job.

You are now finished setting up the jobs. You may come back any time to edit, delete, or create new jobs. Click the r in the upper right corner of the Jobs screen to return to the main menu. Please note that the r in the upper right corner of the program’s caption bar will cause you to completely exit the Scheduler program.