Hymnbooks

[VML]

Nick, does your 15 minute prep time include typing all the hymns or was that done en masse when you decided on sewrvice sheets every week?
And do you cut and paste the layout or does the parish secretary do that?
And does your parish have one of those lovely fast photocopiers that spit out collated sheets at a vast rate?

[Nick Baty]

Nick, does your 15 minute prep time include typing all the hymns or was that done en masse when you decided on service sheets every week?

It varies. If it's something we've used before it's a straight copy and paste job (perhaps five second per item?). If it's something we haven't used I'll grab it from the Internet before I type it out. If it's a few lines of music it's a straight drag from a previous document unless it's the first time we've used it. I create any bits of music in Sibelius, save as a pict and import. Yes, this takes a few minutes but once you've done it, you've got it for future occasions.

And do you cut and paste the layout or does the parish secretary do that?

No, I do all that and email it to her as a pdf.

And does your parish have one of those lovely fast photocopiers that spit out collated sheets at a vast rate?

It's some sort of copy-printer which cuts a stencil and then prints and, yes, it's fast. It doesn't collate but there's no collating involved as it's usually just an A5 leaflet (A4, back-to-back and folded). The Triduum service sheet is a different animal as that involves a 28-page (7 A4 sheets) booklet. We have collated it manually before now but in recent years I've been sending it to the copy dept of a local college and they've copied it for me (pretty cheaply) on a machine which folds and staples.

[VML]

Thanks Nick, it sounds very efficient. I wish I was that organised.

[Nick Baty]

Thanks Nick, it sounds very efficient. I wish I was that organised.

Hm! Someone pointed out to my, yesterday, that I'd made four errors on the service sheet. "However," he added, "that's a great improvement on last week!"

To be honest, it doesn't take that much organisation. I simply look ahead at a stretch of several weeks when we're using items which bind it together (same Gloria for a season, for example) and then produce several service sheets in one sitting. I don't send them to the parish sec for printing until a couple of weeks before the event because, with the best will in the world, nothing ever runs exactly as planned.

And Peter is right about Calamus returns. Not completing them deprives the labourer of their wages as much as not taking out the licence in the first place.