Welcome to the Secretary File database

Welcome to the Secretary File database. This database enables congregation secretaries to record important information concerning the congregation they are serving in. Many details can be organized and/or controlled using this database. It is not a substitute for written records; however, it can serve as a complimentary tool at the disposal of secretaries enabling them to work more efficiently and provide quick access to information.

You will find that this program is an invaluable tool for storing large amounts of data. The database is designed to hold many decades of congregation details such as publisher and pioneer reports, meeting attendance figures, etc. Various queries can be run on the data, providing elders and circuit overseers with helpful information about the spiritual condition of the congregation. Record cards can also be printed, if your printer has the option of printing onto the small cards (about 6x4 inches or 15x10 centimetres in size). Publisher report sheets (A4 size) can be printed, as can Book Study Overseer blank sheets at the end of each month. These latter forms are useful for collecting reports from the Book Study Groups for entry into the database.

Note this list of features:

Ø Keep a check on current irregular and inactive publishers

Ø View average meeting attendance figures for any selected period

Ø Hand Book Study Overseers automatic monthly updates on recent missing reports

Ø Provide instant analysis on the details in the database

Ø Maintain and print publisher address and contact details

Ø Print record card details onto blank record cards

Ø Specify responsibilities for chairman, W/T reader, attendants, etc., and automatically produce a printable rota

Ø View and print field ministry reports by congregation, by group, or by individual publisher

Ø View and print Congregation Book Study Group details, including all members of each group

Ø Keep a list of the last time shepherding calls were carried out (arranged in order of either families or individuals)

Ø Maintain a list of publishers who are involved in the Pioneer Assist Program, the RBC, and in auxiliary and regular pioneering

Ø Instantly view which publishers have recently become inactive, who have been reactivated, and which publishers were new in which month

Ø View a list of publishers who have auxiliary pioneered in a selected period, and see the months they pioneered

Ø Keep missing reports in a “holding area” awaiting the next submission of the report to the Society

Getting Started

When you first open the Secretary File database, you will find that the program uses “dummy” information based on a fictitious congregation called Evertown Central. This data is referred to as Demo Data. You can study the way the database works using this information and/or change it and print out from it as much as you like. This will get you up to speed with using the database and also enable you to see its capabilities.

Note that when you launch ‘Secretary File.mdb,’ Microsoft Windows may display a warning, asking whether you wish to open this file as it could contain a potential virus. This is an added precaution against opening databases from an unknown source. Ensure you have an up to date anti-virus system installed, and trust that the source you obtained this database from is a reliable one!

When you are ready to start using the database for your own congregation, you will need to specify that you wish to start using the Live Database. You can do this by clicking on the Use Live Database option on the first screen that is displayed when the database is opened:

If you find you have previously unchecked the item Show this screen at startup and this screen is no longer displayed when the program starts up, you can find the same option on the Congregation Details screen. You will need to take this option (which is the first item on the Main Menu) and ensure Show splash screen at startup is checked. When you alter this item, the change will only take effect the next time you open the database at which time you will be able to check the Use Live Database item.

You can switch between using live data and demo data at any time.

F Note: Ensure that you do not use the demo data for your own congregation details. When using demo data, certain functions in the program are limited, e.g. you cannot backup or archive data. If you wish to create information for your congregation, ensure that Use Live Database is checked.

Entering Data into the Database

The easiest way to enter data into the Secretary File database for the first time is to start from the Publisher Details option from the Main Menu and quickly key in the names of the publishers, creating a new record for each publisher. Next, enter the families (if you wish to preserve family details). Then key in the Book Study Groups from the Congregation Book Studies option. You can add the other features later, such as checking the boxes for elders, ministerial servants, pioneers, etc.

Once the publisher details have been entered, the database is easy to maintain on a monthly basis. Figures for the publisher reports can be keyed in, and the totals printed on a sheet enabling quick manual entry onto the record cards.

The Sequence of Names in the Database

You will notice that almost all lists of publishers are sorted according to surname. This enables you to quickly locate any publisher.

The database nearly always sorts the records in the following sequence:

1. Surname

2. Family ID

3. Baptized

4. Male / Female

If you keep your record cards in the same sequence as the program displays and prints the publisher details, you will find that monthly record-keeping tasks are much easier.

Searching for Items in the Records

In order to search for records, you use either the Find option on the Edit menu, or select the binoculars icon (if available) to display the Find screen.

First of all, move the cursor into the field you wish to search. For example, if you wish to search for a person by their first name, as in the example, move the cursor to the First name field and then select the binoculars icon.

Type in the name you wish to search for in the Find What field. You might find it better to select Any Part of Field in the Match option to widen the search a little. Select Find Next and the program will take you to the first occurrence of that name. An additional option, just to the right of the binoculars, is the Find Next option. You can continue to select this once an initial search is complete to find additional items.

General

This user manual assumes that you have a basic knowledge of the Microsoft Windows^® operating system and that you know how to operate the keyboard and mouse and navigate your way through standard applications. For example, if you have used Microsoft Word to some degree, you will be able to use this database quite easily. A knowledge of Microsoft Access^® is also advantageous, though not necessary.

Note that many of the screens contain more information than can be displayed in one go. Very often you will need to use the scroll bars (or the Page Up and Page Down keys) to scroll through additional items in the lists.

Many of the options and buttons provide what Microsoft calls ‘Control Tip Text.’ This is text that is displayed when you hold the mouse pointer steady over an object for a couple of seconds. This text provides a brief description of the operation of the option or button the text applies to.

For the Advanced User

If you wish to open the database using the Microsoft Access keyboard shortcuts (e.g. bypassing the ‘startup’ screen), always ensure that you run the form mnuMain before working on the database. This form updates the links to the external tables. These tables are located in SecData.mdb.

If you wish to send any data to someone who already has the Secretary File database, you only need to send the SecData.mdb file, as this contains the records. The ‘Secretary File.mdb’ contains just the code that runs the database and enables it to function. In other words, ‘Secretary File.mdb’ contains the information I entered into the program, whereas ‘SecData.mdb’ contains the information you entered.

The database has been compiled using Microsoft Access 2002. This means it will run happily under Access 2002 and later versions.

For users who do not have Microsoft Access installed on their system (or even for those who have an earlier version of Access), a run-time version is available at www.michaelbarber.co.uk. This can be downloaded and installed on any Windows XP computer. The program has not been tested on earlier versions of Windows but may work with limited functionality. To install the run-time version, download package.zip from the web site, then use a program such as WinZip to unzip it. Windows XP comes with its own compression program; therefore, it should only be necessary to double-click on the package.zip file to open it. You must ensure that no other programs are running at the same time and that you have saved any files you currently have open. Now expand the files to a temporary location, such as C:\Temp. Next, run the setup.exe program from C:\Temp to install the program. At the end of the installation you may be prompted to click the final Ok button to reboot your PC.

The Main Menu

When you first run the Secretary File database by clicking on the shortcut on the desktop, the Main Menu is displayed:

From here, you can access all the functions available in the database.

The congregation name, as entered on the Congregation Details screen, is displayed at the top.

To view this User Manual online, press the button in the bottom left corner of the above screen.

Congregation Details Screen

This is the first option from the Main Menu. Enter the congregation name, number, and the Society’s route number for deliveries.

At the end of each month you can print Blank BSO forms to be handed to each Book Study Overseer. These contain the names of the publishers in each group, an indication of whether each is an auxiliary, a regular pioneer, or a publisher. They also provide details of any missing reports from the previous four months. Room is provided for elders to enter the report for each publisher. This form is then handed back to the secretary who enters the details into the database.

The total figures are calculated by the program and presented on the Society’s Report screen, along with any missing reports from previous months.

You may wish to provide the option to keep a check on the last shepherding date for each publisher in each group. If this is the case, place a check mark in the item ‘Include Last Shepherding Item on Book Study Overseer’s Monthly Forms.’

Specify the number of microphones in your Kingdom Hall, to enable periodic rota sheets to be printed of responsibilities such as chairman, W/T reader, etc. You can have from 1 to 4 microphones specified.

The database automatically calculates the amount of publisher record cards, pioneers, etc., and displays this information each time the Congregation Details screen is opened.

The standard message which is printed on the foot of each of the blank monthly forms handed to the Book Study Overseers is displayed on the screen print above. You can change this to any wording you desire, using up to 250 characters. Note, however, that you will need to display the form using the Field Ministry Reports option from the Main Menu to check that the wording you have chosen fits into the space provided.

The text in this field can include a reference to the next month; simply include the expression $nextmonth, with the dollar sign, ‘$’, at the beginning, and the program will check the month displayed in the Field Ministry Reports screen (accessed from the Main Menu) and insert the name of the previous month into the BSO form footer.

Service Responsibilities

If you press the Congregation Responsibilities button on this screen, the Service Responsibilities screen is displayed:

This displays a list of the congregation responsibilities and enables you to specify the brother responsible for each one. This list is also update via the Publisher Details option (accessed from the Main Menu — see next section).

You can add as many duties in the Responsibility column as you wish, and can edit or remove the existing entries. When you open the Publisher Details screen and select a task against Cong. Responsibility, the list of responsibilities is drawn from this list here. If a brother has more than one responsibility, only one is shown in the Publisher Details screen (i.e. the one that occurs first in the above list), but you can enter the brother’s name as many times as you wish in the above screen, e.g. in the screen above Roy Mingle is entered against two tasks.

Entering Publisher Details

Publisher Details is the second option on the Main Menu.

Enter the First name and Surname of the publisher, and if required the person’s Initial. You can select the button just below Family if you wish to edit the list of families. Each time you enter a new publisher, the program tries to add the publisher to an existing family based on their surname. If there is no family by the same surname, the program will create one. Whenever you add a new publisher to an existing family, the program will briefly display a message stating that it has automatically added this publisher to the family. You can click an option on this message if you don’t want to see it again for this session; however, the program will only place a publisher into the first family that happens to have the same name as the publisher’s surname, so you will need to check that the program is placing publishers in the correct family where there exists more than one family in the congregation with the same name.

Click on the button just below Report to view this publisher’s field ministry report. This will display the Individual Reports screen with the full details of the publishers records displayed, if there are any.

You can instantly go to any publisher in the list by selecting the Go To option (click on the down arrow and select a publisher by clicking on the required name with the mouse pointer).

If you have not yet set up the Book Study Groups, leave the Group option until later. Or you can select the button just below Group and set groups up right away.

If this publisher is a brother, the Cong. Responsibility option is available. Select the drop down list and scroll to the service privilege this brother has been assigned, if any. You can update this list from the Congregation Details screen (see previous section).

The assignment specified here is the principle assignment for this brother. He may have more than one privilege in the congregation. If this is the case, use the Service Responsibilities screen (see previous section) to enter the brother’s name against each privilege of service.

You can update the list of service privileges from this screen by clicking on the small button just below Cong. Responsibility.

You will notice that the program checks the data that is entered; for example, if you specify that an individual is an elder, then the option for ministerial servant is automatically unchecked and vice versa. If you check the Reg. Pioneer option, the Auxiliary option is greyed out, as in the above example, because of course a publisher cannot be both a regular and an auxiliary pioneer at the same time. If you select Spec. Pioneer, then Reg. Pioneer is also automatically selected so that Special Pioneers are included in the Regular Pioneer figures for reporting purposes.

As you enter the town name, the program automatically adds the name to a list, if it has not been added already. You can edit the list of towns by clicking on the button just below Town.

Using the Calendar

As an aid in entering dates you will find a small button next to the Date of Birth, Date Immersed, and Last Shepherding options, as well as other fields in the database. Select this button to display the calendar:

Use the arrow keys to navigate to the required year and month and then double-click on the day of the month. The date is then automatically entered into the associated field.

You can enter up to 250 characters for the Emergency Contact Details; however, the display will be limited to the first dozen or so words. You can use the arrow cursor keys on your keyboard to view any remaining text.

The Publisher Reference field is available for any versatile reference you wish to set up for publishers. For example, you may assign a unique reference to each publisher for keeping track of gift aid contributions.

The buttons at the bottom of the screen are as follows:

Move to the first record.

Move to the previous record.

Move to the next record.

Create a new record.

Display the option to print record cards (see Displaying and Printing Record Cards, next sub-section).

Delete the current record

Find a record and find next.

Exit this screen

Displaying and Printing Record Cards

When you select the option to display Record Cards, a document is opened which contains all the publisher records with the information laid out ready for printing onto blank Publisher Record Cards. This option depends upon your printer capability; for example, some printers are unable to print onto small cards. Also the position of the cards when they are placed into the printer hopper will affect the margin settings of this document. Some printers require the cards to be inserted in the centre of the printing area, others to the left. You will need to experiment with your printer settings and with the paper size and margin settings of this document before printing onto the blank Publisher Record Cards.

To print a report after viewing it, position the mouse cursor over the report, click on the right mouse key, then select the Print option.

If you prefer, you can open the Microsoft Word document Publisher Record Card Template, provided with this database. This will connect to your database and automatically insert the publisher records into the document. Microsoft Word is more powerful in its ability to format documents for printing than is Microsoft Access. You may wish to make a backup copy of this Microsoft Word document before using it. Also, always keep it in the same directory as your database.

There is only one item in this template document which is not linked to the database, namely, the year. You will need to change this to the current year before running the mail merge.

Depending on the version of Microsoft Word you are using, you may need to select the View menu from within Word and open the Mail Merge toolbar, then from this toolbar select Merge to new Document. This will link the template document with the records in the database and create a new document containing as many pages as there are publisher record cards. You will need to check the margin and printer settings of the document to ensure they match your printer.

The Publisher List Screen

This option displays key information regarding each publisher on a single screen. It is thus a convenient way of quickly displaying essential information regarding the congregation. For example, you can click on each of the buttons (Publisher, Group, Elder, etc.) at the top and sort the records in a different order. Also, the totals for each column are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

You cannot add publishers using this screen, but you can delete them. To do so, select the button to the left of the publisher name and press the Delete or Del key on your keyboard. A warning will be displayed but you can select the option to continue deleting the record. This will permanently delete this publisher from the database.

Note: Rather than permanently deleting a publisher from the database, there may be occasions when you simply wish to discount the publisher from monthly records. For example, the publisher may have been inactive for a long time but the elders are hopeful that he/she will be reactivated. In this case, you may not wish to destroy the publisher’s details, but simply specify that they are “at the back of the box” so to speak. To do this, select the Archived option on this screen. This same option is also available from the Publisher Details screen.

Also, you cannot change the name of the publisher, but you can change the other details pertaining to this publisher, e.g. you can assign them to a different Book Study Group. This change will be effectively immediately; any new monthly reports created from now on will show the publisher as belonging to this group.

This screen displays all the publishers in the database; you may need to use the scroll bar on the right of the screen to view the remaining records.

Pressing the Group button at the top of the screen sorts the records in Book Study Group order:

You can click any of the buttons at the top of the screen to sort the list in a different order. For example, you can see who the elders are in the congregation by clicking on the Elder button.

Quick Address List

This screen is an alternative way of entering and viewing publisher address details. This is the same information (viewed from a different perspective) as occurs on the Publisher Details screen. However, as the records are displayed line by line, you can quickly enter or amend the address and contact details.

It is useful to complete these details as fully as possible, not only to comply with the Society’s guidelines, but also to facilitate other functions, for example when printing onto blank Publisher Record Cards (see the Publisher Details section).

The buttons at the bottom of the screen enable you to view and print the details, grouping the records either in Book Study Group order or in publisher name order.

To print a report after viewing it, position the mouse cursor over the report, click on the right mouse key, then select the Print option.

Attendance Figures

You can enter Book Study Group and Congregation attendance figures by selecting the Attendance Figures option from the Main Menu.

From here you can either create a new set of records (for both Groups and Congregation) or view existing records for a selected month.

You can print totals by selecting the Preview button This will display a report showing total attendance figures for all months in the database. For example:

When you first select either the Groups or the Congregation button, the program checks for the existence of records for the selected month and year. If they do not exist, you are prompted to create a new set of records. If records exist, they are displayed:

If you select the Groups button first and enter figures for each of the Book Study Groups, the program will fill these details in for you when you come to open the Meeting Attendance Figures screen. You can, if you prefer, enter the Meeting Attendance Figures first, and leave the Book Study figures for later; the program will fill the Book Study figures in automatically after you have completed entering the attendance figures for the various book studies.

As you enter the figures for the various weeks of each month, the program displays the totals and averages automatically.

Setting Up a Rota for Responsibilities

You can also use the database to create a rota of responsibilities. Select the Responsibilities option from the Main Menu:

You can check the item that each brother has responsibility for. If circumstances or decisions alter, you come back to this screen and uncheck items as appropriate.

Select the Sheet for Elders Mtgs button to display and print a sheet that can be handed to some or all elders when discussing congregational responsibilities.

This screen will display all the baptized brothers in the database; you may need to use the scroll bar on the right of the screen to view the remaining records.

The Responsibilities Rota button enables you to create a weekly rota and assign brothers the various responsibilities:

Using this screen you can either enter names manually, or generate an automatic schedule. You can even do a combination of the two; once names have been automatically entered by the program, you can edit those names using the drop-down lists next to each name.

You generate a schedule automatically using the following method:

Select the Date field, or click on the Calendar button to select the first meeting for the start of the schedule you wish to create. You double-click with the mouse key to select the required day of the meeting. This will make the next record available to create. Use the same method to add the next meeting to this record, and so on until you have as many weeks as you wish to include on your schedule. Select the PT / WT option if this meeting is a Public Talk and Watchtower Study meeting (of course this is usually a Sunday but may be a different day for your congregation). Next, simply click on the Generate Schedule button to have the program automatically fill in the boxes for each of the responsibilities.

Tips for generating an automatic schedule: Ensure that there are sufficient ticks against the brother’s names for the various responsibilities in the Responsibilities screen (see the previous page). If there are insufficient brothers, for example, chosen for security duty, then the program will struggle to fill in those boxes whilst at the same time endeavouring to spread the assignments as evenly as possible. Also ensure that you remember to tick the PT / WT option whenever the meeting is a Public Talk / Watchtower Study, otherwise no Chairman or Watchtower Reader will be selected.

Alternatively, you can set up your own schedule manually using the following method:

Depending on the ticks against the various items on the Responsibilities screen, when you select the drop down list boxes to assign a name to each responsibility, the list will be limited to only those individuals with that privilege.

Enter the date you wish to schedule in by selecting the Calendar button on the left of each meeting.

Once you have completed all the items, select the Responsibilities Notice to view a printable version of the rota. This can be printed and displayed on the Kingdom Hall notice board.

To print a report after viewing it, position the mouse cursor over the report, click on the right mouse key, then select the Print option.

If you do not have a security responsibility at your Kingdom Hall, simply leave this entry blank for every brother; the program will not then attempt to fill in the Security1 and Security2 fields.

Setting Up Book Study Groups

Select the Congregation Book Studies option from the Main Menu to enter details regarding each of the groups in your congregation:

You can enter the name of each group, the Book Study Overseer responsible for that group, the name of the assistant, if any, and the location of the group.

Book Study Group names are copied to publisher details at the time the publisher is created. Consequently, if group names change at any time in the future, older records will still reflect the name of the group the publisher used to belong to.

You can view and print a complete list of groups, including the publishers assigned to each group, by selecting the Preview / Print Book Study Lists button.

Families

You can optionally enter details of each of the families in the congregation using this option from the Main Menu.

This screen is useful if you wish to manage the records for shepherding and order those records according to families as opposed to individual publishers.

As the screen itself explains, a unique number is automatically assigned to each family, helping you to identify different families that have the same name.

Group Shepherding

Associated with the Families screen is the Group Shepherding option:

You can use the buttons on the lower level, at the bottom of the screen, to cycle through all the groups in the database. Use the buttons on the higher level to cycle through all the families in each group.

This screen is optional and requires additional effort to set up. After selecting the group to which each individual publisher is assigned, you must also specify the group to which each family belongs. After this is complete, the Group Shepherding screen will display the data correctly.

Pioneer Assist Program

The Pioneer Assist option displays a list of the publishers in the congregation who have been enrolled on this program. The pioneer assigned to assist is also displayed:

The buttons on the lower left of this screen enable you to view and print reports containing information on the Pioneer Assist program.

To print a report after viewing it, position the mouse cursor over the report, click on the right mouse key, then select the Print option.

You specify who is on the Pioneer Assist program (i.e. publishers who are being assisted), using the Publisher Details option. You can only specify the pioneer who is providing assistance after you click on the check box for Pioneer Assist.

The arrangement is for any qualifying regular pioneers to provide assistance to publishers; however, should there be any circumstances requiring those not currently serving as regular pioneers but who have attended the Pioneer Service School to provide assistance, the program permits this. When you open the Publisher Details screen, select the Pio Assist option (put a check in the box), and then select the Pioneer Assisting option (click on the down arrow), the list displays all the publishers in the database and specifies whether they are serving as regular pioneers, auxiliary pioneers, or publishers. Simply scroll down the list and click on the pioneer who is providing assistance to this publisher; the names are displayed in surname alphabetical order.

Field Ministry Reports

Probably the most important aspect of the database is the Field Ministry Reports option. Here you can enter all the reports for all the publishers and pioneers and store and retrieve many years of data.

You can select a month using the drop down list boxes to select the month and year in turn, or you can click on the left and right arrows to cycle through months.

Database Sort Order

From this screen you can select the month to view or edit, and/or the group. If you specify a Book Study Group, you can limit the display of the reports to just the members of that group. If the group entry is blank, and you select the Reports by Group option, the database displays all the records in Book Study Group order. Selecting the Reports by Congregation button displays the publisher records in order of (1) surname, (2) family ID, (3) whether baptized, and (4) male or female, with males displayed above females.

The database maintains this sort order in almost all cases. Consequently, you can arrange the record cards according to the order in which the database displays them, making the manual task of updating the record cards a little easier.

View the Contents of the Database

You can select the View Database Contents button to see which months have already been entered into the database. This may include the current month, which will probably have blank values for the reports. For example, if you have entered data from March 2006 until February 2007, this screen will be displayed when this option is selected:

The number on the left of each month is the record number, not the month number. Thus, in the above example, March 2006 is the first month that records began to be entered into the database.

Deleting Records for an Entire Reporting Month

There may be circumstances where you wish to delete the entire month’s records; for example, it may be that you have accidentally entered all the wrong details for that month. You can select the month to delete, then click on this button. A warning is displayed before the records are deleted. It is recommended that you study the Backup and Archive option before using this option. It would be a shame to have to key in a whole set of reports for a missing month all over again.

Viewing the Book Study Overseer’s Form

The View BSO Form button will display the blank Book Study Overseer’s form for the currently selected group. This is a useful form enabling BSO’s to write in the reports that publishers hand to them after the end of each month. The form also displays details of any missing reports, so that these can be chased up. Once the BSO returns the completed forms, the figures can easily be keyed into the database. To view the form, a book study must first be selected. However, if you simply wish to send all the BSO forms straight to the printer, selected the Print all forms button.

Displaying Publisher Records in Group Order

When you select, say, Reports by Group, the reports screen is displayed:

This screen displays the publishers’ reports in Book Study Group order. You may need to scroll down to see more publisher names, using the scroll bar on the right hand side of the screen. You can also resize this screen. To do this, grab the bottom edge of the screen with the mouse pointer (by locating the pointer over the edge of the screen and pressing and holding the left mouse key) and then drag downwards until the window is resized, then release the mouse button.

Displaying Publisher Records in Alphabetical Order

If Reports by Congregation was selected, all the congregation records would be displayed in surname order:

The above screen sorts the congregation publishers in order of (1) surname, (2) family ID, (3) baptized, and (4) male / female (with males above females). You will see that families are thus kept together, with baptized members displayed above non-baptized members, and brothers displayed above sisters.

This screen shows each publisher’s name and group, as well as other details such as whether they are a New publisher, whether they are inactive (Ina), or now reactivated (Reac). The program does its best to calculate these details, but you can override them by checking or unchecking these options for each publisher. You can also specify whether the publisher is an auxiliary pioneer for the month, but the regular pioneer option is controlled on the Publisher Details screen. This is because, of course, an individual who serves as a regular pioneer does so on a permanent basis, not on a month-by-month basis.

You can also enter a small amount of text in the Notes field; you can use up to 250 characters but only the first few words will be displayed at a time. This can be used, for example, to record that a publisher has been sick that month and therefore only reported a few hours.

Adding a Publisher to the Month’s Report

Whenever you select a new month and create a new set of records, the names of publishers is drawn from the current list and zeros are placed into each box awaiting entry of the report details. You can, if you find that a publisher has been omitted from this list, or if a new publisher joins the congregation, use the Add Publisher to This Month button. When you select the Publisher List option just above this button, the list of current publishers is drawn from the Publisher Details screen. Therefore, if you have added a publisher into the Reports screen after creating a set of records for the current month, you can add them into this month’s list here.

Select the publisher from the drop down list, then click on the Add Publisher to This Month button. The program will check whether the publisher exists (e.g. you may be looking in the wrong group), and adds them in if they are not found.

Deleting Publishers From the Current Month

You can delete a publisher from this month’s records by selecting the publisher from the Publisher List and clicking on Delete Publisher from This Month or by pressing the Delete or Del key on your keyboard. This only removes their name from this screen (i.e. from this month’s report), the publisher details will remain intact in the Publisher Details screen. This may be necessary if, for example, a publisher has left the congregation but their details remain in this month’s list.

Calculating and Printing Records

The Recalculate button will re-total the entire sheet and display the figures in the totals boxes. The total figures shown depend on whether you are viewing just one Book Study Group or the entire congregation. This button is also useful if you change the groups to which one or more publishers belong and you have selected to sort the records in Book Study Group order. After changing the group and pressing the Recalculate button, the publisher will be inserted into the correct sequence on the screen.

The two buttons in the centre of the screen at the bottom enable you to view and print the congregation report. If you select to view reports by group, without specifying a group name, you will see the records listed by group, otherwise the records will be listed in publisher name order.

To print a report after viewing it, position the mouse cursor over the report, click on the right mouse key, then select the Print option.

If you close the form using the Close button, then the figures, including the missing reports details, are not calculated. If you select the Ok button, these figures are recalculated and become available for query purposes and for the Society Report option.

Editing Publisher Records Just For a Selected Group

When you select a Book Study name on the Reports Select screen, just the figures for the selected Group are displayed. For example:

The screen now provides totals for just this group. In the above example, there are no auxiliary pioneers, so just regular and publisher totals are given. You will notice that there are 13 cards for this example Group, plus there is one Archived publisher. This publisher’s name will not be shown on this screen (see the explanation for Archived in the Publisher Details section).

Incidentally, you will notice that the total for Hours is calculated to two decimal places. This is to allow for infirm or elderly publishers who report fractions of an hour. This option is not available for pioneers. The database will total these amounts up, but it is up to you how you deal with these fractions; you may wish to carry some values over to the following month.

Note that the Total Cards amount (under Group Details in the above example) is drawn from the publisher list, whereas the No. Publishers this Month is drawn from the current month’s list of publishers — which is not necessarily the same. So the Total Cards figure will show the amount of record cards in the box for all publishers in this group (not including those Archived – at the back of the box). You can add or remove publishers from this month’s list as explained earlier. The above example shows that 13 publishers were included in the list (the No. Publishers this Month – 11 – plus the No. Auxiliaries and No. Regulars – 2). However, on the right, you will notice that only 12 are counted as reporting. This is because Paul Blythe had zero hours for this month.

Society’s Report

After completing the report for the month, the database will have the final figures ready for submission to the Society. Select the Society Report option from the Main Menu:

If there are any missing reports from previous months, they will be included in the totals to be submitted to the Society.

You can select the Recalculate option after entering missing reports, to force the program to re-check the figures.

For example, after entering the above information onto the Society’s form and posting it off, let’s say three publishers hand in reports for the months of November and December. Once you have created the records for January (in the Field Ministry Reports option of the Main Menu) you can key in their missing reports into the January screen:

The total for January is already 12 hours, 2 magazines, and 2 return visits, even though the month has not finished and no reports have yet been handed in for January.

Pressing the Ok button ensures that the records are transferred to the publishers’ reports for the respective months (in this case November and December) if they are not there already. Thus you know that the figures for the publishers’ record cards and the figures reported to the Society are as accurate as you can make them.

You may receive a partial report, for example, someone may have reported hours, etc., for January, but neglected to record a bible study. If you create a record for this publisher for January in the above screen and add just the one bible study, leaving the other values ‘0’, only the ‘1’ bible study will be added to the publisher’s record. A warning is still displayed, e.g.

Simply select Ok to update the ‘1’ bible study.

Individual Reports

From time to time you may wish to analyse reports for a particular publisher, for example when considering them for privileges in the congregation. To do this, select the Individual Reports option from the Main Menu:

You can view the entire database contents for this publisher, or you can narrow the view down to a selection of months by changing the From Month and the To Month values. Each time you change these values, the averages, max, and min values are recalculated showing the publisher’s average, maximum and minimum for that period. In the example above, Michael Banks’ maximum hours during March to December of 2006 were 14. The lowest hours reported were 5. His average therefore for this time period was 8.6. These figures are rounded to the nearest 100^th (i.e. two decimal places).

To view reports for other publishers, click on the down arrow next to Select Publisher, scroll through the list and then select the publisher you wish to view. Alternatively use the left and right arrow buttons just below Select Publisher to cycle through the records. This will cycle the records according to record number, whereas when you click Select Publisher, the list of publishers is displayed in surname order.

You can also view a copy of this individual report by selecting Preview This Report. Or you can view a copy of all the reports for all the publishers by selecting Preview ALL. To print the reports for just the currently selected group, select PRINT ALL – Group. (To change the group, select a publisher from that group.) Printing reports this way can be a convenient method of informing publishers of their field ministry record; you may choose to provide printed copies on a regular basis.

There are two formats available in which to view these reports. If you select Preview This Report or PRINT ALL - Group, then records are shown in reverse chronological order. If you select to review ALL records by selecting the Preview ALL button, then reports are shown in correct chronological order.

To print a report after viewing it, position the mouse cursor over the report, click on the right mouse key, then select the Print option.

Irregular and Inactive Publishers

These options accessed from the Main Menu, are useful for viewing the current list of irregular and inactive publishers. These are drawn from the most recent six-month reports:

The count of irregular publishers is included in the window title. In the example above, there are 21 irregular publishers. Many of these will, of course, simply be missing reports not yet collected. These missing reports are flagged on each of the blank forms handed to Book Study Overseers (see the Publisher Reports section, BSO Forms).

Missing reports are determined simply by a ‘zero’ value in the Hours column.

Note that the current month is not included in these figures. For example, let’s say you have processed the report for the previous month and it is now the 25^th of the next month. You decide to create new records for the current month by selecting the Field Ministry Reports option from the Main Menu and clicking on Reports by Congregation and taking the option to create new records. All publishers are then automatically allocated zero hours for this newly created month. However, this will not be significant until it comes time to enter the actual records for this new month. This is usually done before the 6^th of the next month.

Therefore, the database disregards zero-value records for the current month until after the 6^th of that month. The program then assumes that the figures that remain zero are actually missing reports.

To print a list of all missing reports, select the print preview button, click on the right mouse key over the list and select the Print option.

Newly Inactive Publishers

This option is the last button at the bottom of the Main Menu.

This list shows all publishers who have become inactive in the past six months. The month that they were first classed as ‘inactive’ is displayed. This is shown as a tick mark on the main Reports window (Field Ministry Reports from the Main Menu, then select either Group or Congregation reports.)

The list of inactive publishers is determined by comparing publisher’s reports over the six months prior to the last reporting month. The last reporting month is the last month where the full report was submitted to the Society. Therefore, if it is now the 27^th of the month, the program will ignore any entries in the current month, as the month is not yet finished and reports are assumed to be incomplete.

If there are more names than can be displayed on one screen, you will need to use the scroll bar to scroll the list. The screen is also resizable, simply drag one of the edges with the mouse.

To print this list, select the print icon on the bottom left of the screen, then click with the right-mouse key on the list and select the Print option.

Database Queries

This option provides key information extracted from the details in the database:

There are basically four sections of information provided:

1. Average meeting attendance for the selected period.

2. The publishers who served as auxiliary pioneers during the selected period.

3. Publishers who were reactivated during that period.

4. Publishers who handed in reports for the first time during this period.

When you first launch this screen, the details are blank. Enter a From Month and a To Month to run the report and select the Run Query button:

You can click on any of the names in the Auxiliary Pioneers list to see a list of the months in which the selected individual engaged in auxiliary pioneering.

If you change either the From Month or the To Month, press the Run Query button again to collect fresh information to display, then click on the List Auxiliary Pioneers button to refresh the auxiliary pioneers information.

You can preview and print various documents related to all this information. The various ‘print preview’ buttons enable you to view the information in a format ready for printing. When viewing these documents, click on them with the right mouse key and select the Print option to send them to your default printer.

Note that the ‘preview’ button (top right of the screen) showing meeting attendance records is slightly different from the one in the Attendance Figures screen in that here you are able to select the period of months to show on the report whereas the report on the Attendance Figures screen shows all the records in the database.

Backup and Archive

There are two reasons for using this option from the Main Menu: (1) the preservation of data in the event of a technical problem (e.g. disk failure), and (2) moving older, unwanted, records into another location. It may be that these “unwanted” records are so old that they are no longer of any value. However, you may not wish to simply destroy them without ever being able to retrieve them. This is where the Archive option comes in.

Backing up your records can be a very important aspect of data integrity. There can be occasions where a problem occurs on your computer, especially if you are working with an older PC, and data becomes corrupt and inaccessible. This is a very rare occurrence, but if it does happen, you will be glad that there is a second location containing a copy of your records. It is suggested that you carry out a backup once a month, especially just after completing the previous month’s reports and submitting the final report to the Society. Simply select the month and year and press the Backup Records button.

If you happen to select this button a second time, attempting to backup your records again, the program will display an error message stating that duplicate records are not allowed.

You may wish to frequently backup the monthly reports that you enter into the database. However, you may not wish to keep on backing up the publisher details, which may change less often. To include the publisher details in the backup, check the item Include Publisher Details. If you do not wish to include these details, uncheck this item.

If you select to archive records, the program will move the selected records from the current database, the “live” database, to an alternative database called ‘SecArchive.mdb.’

Note that the backup option only works on one month at a time whereas the Archive option can archive all records up to and including the selected month. Thus, you may decide to keep records from September of one year to August of the next, the Society’s reporting calendar — the Service Year. Once you have completed the next service year, you may decide to archive the previous service year’s reports. (This is not necessary, really, as the database is capable of storing many decades of records.) Let’s say it is now January 2008, and you wish to archive the service year’s records up to August of 2006. Simply select August 2006 against Month to Archive up to and press the Archive button.

The View Archive Contents will show which months have already been archived.

If you find you need to view records that are in the archive, you can move them out of the archive and back into the current database using the Fetch From Archive section. This can be done only one month at a time, however, for data security reasons. Use the Month to Fetch From Archive drop down list to select the month you wish to move back into the “live” database (if this list is empty, then there are no records in the archive). Now select the Retrieve button. This will move the records from the archive database into the live database.

Text Box: For queries or comments regarding this database please write to:
michaelbarber1957@yahoo.co.uk