The next step after entering your ministries is to enter the events for which your volunteers need to be scheduled, called service times or just “services.” You will create a service time for each of your weekly services or masses, and you can also create a service time for any other event that needs to be scheduled, such as nursing home visits, child care shifts, or meal distribution.
A video tutorial for this topic is also available.
New [service type]
Allows you to add a new service to future schedules. See more below for weekly/monthly/yearly service differences.
Edit Service
Allows you to edit the settings for a selected service. Note that changing the Service Times pane will only change services on future schedules.
Delete Service
Allows you to delete a service. Note that deleting a service will remove it from all past, current, and future schedules, so use this option cautiously.
Show ministries
Allows you to display or hide the required number of volunteers for each ministry under the service time.
Export List
Allows you to export an .rtf file of the listed service times.
Weekly Services
Click the “Service Times” heading on the left side of MSP’s main screen and then click the “New Weekly…” button. The pictured window below will appear.
Day and Time
If the service you are entering falls on a day other than Sunday, use the day of the week popup menu to choose the correct day for this new service. You can change the time for this service by clicking on the hours or minutes and typing in the correct value or by using the little arrows next to each value to adjust it incrementally.
Description/Location
Optionally, you may enter a description or location for the service. In schedules, this description or location will be shown after the service date and time.
Required Ministries
You should also specify how many volunteers from each ministry (or ministry subdivision) are required for this service every week by selecting each ministry from the list and typing the number of required volunteers for that ministry. You can also use the controls that appear below the ministry list to adjust this number.
Title Rules
If you have defined titles for one of the ministries that you are scheduling, when you select that ministry in the “Required volunteers” list you will see a link appear below the list called “Create title rules for this ministry…” By clicking on this link, you can specify how the scheduler should consider the title of each volunteer when filling in positions in this ministry at this service time.
You may specify that a set number of volunteers with each title be scheduled for the service, and also a set number of volunteers with any title. For example, in order to ensure that at least one volunteer with the “Experienced” title is scheduled for the service out of two total volunteers required, you would specify that one volunteer with the “Experienced” title be scheduled, and one volunteer with “Any title”. Alternatively, you can specify that “all the volunteers scheduled share the same title, but it doesn’t matter which title they share”. This option can be used, for example, to ensure that two males or two females are scheduled for the service, but never a mixture of both.
Monthly and Yearly Services
You can also create monthly or yearly services by clicking on the appropriate button next to the Service Times list. The settings available in the Monthly and Yearly Service dialogs are the same as those in the Weekly Service dialog with one notable addition.
Replace coinciding weekly service
This checkbox in the Monthly Service dialog enables you to create special volunteer requirements once a month for a normal weekly service. For example, if we usually require two Ushers for our Sunday,10:00 AM service, but on the first Sunday of every month we would like four Ushers to be scheduled, then we can create a monthly service at 10:00 AM on the first Sunday of every month, specify that four Ushers should be scheduled in the Monthly Service dialog, and then click the “Replace coinciding weekly service” checkbox. Four Ushers will be scheduled the first Sunday of every month, while only two will be scheduled every other Sunday of the month.
One Time Only Services
In addition to weekly, monthly, and yearly services, it is also possible to create one-time-only services. This type of service is useful for scheduling non-repeating events such as weddings. However, these one-time-only services are not created in the Service Times pane. Instead, these services are created in the Schedule during the actual scheduling process.
After you have entered and configured all of your weekly, monthly, and yearly service times you are ready to start entering information about your volunteers.
