We produce the weekly bulletin or newsletter at our church and have had a weekly information sheet for the last 2 years or so. And one problem we have had is when to set the deadline for submissions.
Our church does not have a photocopier on site (we are only small). This means copying the newsletter before the Sunday service at 10am is not an option. So we would like to set the deadline for submissions on Thursday evening, so that we can use Friday or Saturday to get to the reprographics shop or even the library.
But this poses a problem as it means that come Sunday as the church handout is potentially 3 days out of date. Three days is not much for a monthly bulletin, but for a weekly one it is nearly half the week.
If we set the deadline to Friday night then this is better, but it means we are putting pressure on the copier to get it done on Saturday, when there could be other things planned.
At the moment, we produce it on Sunday morning and it is printed out on a home laser printer, which works out cheaper than the copier shop or library in any case. The main reason for this, is that the Pastor does not send through his information and writing until Saturday evening.
I suppose if people actually looked at the church website for updates, then producing the bulletin on Friday would not be such a problem…
Previously: Tips for church newsletters and bulletins
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9 March 2007 at 2:19 pm
Chris
I hate to say this, but it seems that your Pastor is a major part of the problem! If he could look ahead a couple of weeks, you can layout most of the important items early in the week. You can pop last minute items into spots you’ve reserved in the layout. The pastor probably needs to adjust the day the writes his sermon (or whatever the last-minute item is.)
Parishioners can get used to the idea of submitting their news by a deadline – if you enforce it and the Pastor honors it, too. This is hard to do sometimes in a mostly volunteer organization. The church where I work has a Tuesday deadline. People are now used to it, and generally (but not always) give us the info in advance. They also now know that if it doesn’t get to staff in time it will NOT be in the bulletin. If that happens to someone once, they seem to change their evil, procrastinating ways!
Love your blog!
9 March 2007 at 2:22 pm
Chris
Sorry – I left this out. Here is a link to our web page that has standard deadlines for publications. This has really helped a lot, because parishioners realize there is a plan, not just that we don’t want to use their announcement:
holycomforter.com publications
God bless,
Chris >
9 March 2007 at 2:42 pm
David
Thanks Chris for your comments and info. On your church site no one is left in any doubt!
I don’t mind producing the bulletin at the last minute, it is not a major problem. But you are right, people are used to it.
One other problem I have, is that because I produce it at the last minute on Sunday morning, there is minimal time for checking and no time to ask anyone else to proof-read it.
I have to bite my lip when people point out the mistakes!
9 March 2007 at 7:03 pm
markrmorris2
I can remember watching my Dad make bulletins on a mimeograph. He had to cut stencils and paste everything together, ah, the smell of rubber cement, and those awesome fake boogers you could make with that stuff!
12 March 2007 at 11:40 pm
AJ
Interesting.
Where I live, it is more and more becoming a sermon in itself when we don’t use paper. My community is uber-environmental, and I am considering going “paperless” as a means to bridge the gap with our community.
10 March 2009 at 8:09 pm
tracey
I noticed a mistake in my newsletter this week and I just laugh when someone is insecure enough to point them out. It makes their mistakes not so big. lol Our newsletter articles are due by noon on Monday. I work on it all day Monday and do the folding and labels and postage sheet on Tuesday. It is at the post office by Tuesday afternoon. It mostly covers Wednesday-Wednesday and beyond. It works great. If someone’s article comes in after noon, I will put it in if there is room. However, if there isn’t, they all understand. I have only had one person get mad at me and he was so vengeful, we still do not speak. It is afterall, just a newsletter! lol Good luck…
23 March 2009 at 6:18 pm
Carrie
I do the bulletins at my church and we are also a small church and I’ve been having to do the bulletins late on Saturday night or very early Sunday morning. To be honest, I HATE doing it that close to when they need to be done and at the church.
We have just changed our bulletins and they are now printed on 11×17 paper and it’s tri-folded. Being that the paper is too big for my home printer, it has to be taken in to a printer to be printed, which has helped me a lot because now people understand why there is a deadline and they honor it and the bulletins are done by Friday evening and I don’t have to worry about the bulletins all weekend. If I don’t get something until after the deadline, it will be printed in the next week’s bulletin and that’s just the way it is. I don’t give any exceptions because then I have to make an exception for everyone. I haven’t had any problems.
I honestly think it’s a bad idea to wait until the last minute to do the bulletins. People HAVE to understand that doing the bulletins is NOT your life and they need to honor deadlines. When I was having to do that, I felt that stress looming over my head and even if I went out on Saturday night, I always needed to go home earlier than everyone else because I had to get up early and do the church bulletins…NO FUN!
I don’t recommend waiting until the last minute to do your church bulletins…and I’m speaking from 5 years of experience doing it that way!!