Side of My Desk ian@sideofmydesk.com

For small Episcopal parishes

Sunday’s paperwork, drafted and waiting by Thursday noon.

I set up automation that turns this week’s prayer requests and notices into the Sunday handout, the service email and the vestry memo. Your administrator reads, adjusts and sends. Nothing goes out on its own.

Ask about a pilot

Or write to ian@sideofmydesk.com

Example draftFor review

The Prayers of the People

The Leader and People pray responsively.

  • For N. and N., recovering at home
  • For N., and for all who care for them
  • For the people of N. Parish, our companion church
  • For N., departed this life, and for those who mourn

Built from this week’s requests. Two names from last month aged off the list. Waiting on the office to approve.

What do I offer?

I can automate most of the routine work in a parish office: the copying, pasting and checking that someone does every week, usually alone. Every parish runs its office differently, so each setup is built around your own templates, schedule and accounts. You pick the pieces you want.

  • The prayer list

    Requests collected in one place, names added only with permission, and older entries aged off on the schedule you choose.

  • The Sunday handout

    This week’s readings, hymns, notices and prayers merged into your own handout layout, in regular and large print.

  • The service email

    The same details sent to the parish list as a clean weekly email, drafted from the handout so the two always match.

  • The recording link

    Last Sunday’s Zoom or livestream recording trimmed, posted and linked in the next email.

  • The vestry memo

    A short monthly finance summary drafted from your bookkeeping reports, for the treasurer to check.

  • Your other routines

    Newsletters, calendar notices, volunteer reminders and other repeat tasks, set up to match how your parish already does them.

How a week runs

Your office keeps doing what it does now. The drafting moves off its plate.

  1. Through Wednesday

    Requests, notices and hymn choices come in the way they do today: email, a form or a note from the rector.

  2. Thursday by noon

    Drafts of the prayer list, the handout and the service email are ready in your office account.

  3. Thursday or Friday

    Your administrator reviews them, makes any changes and sends or prints. The goal is about 15 minutes.

  4. Sunday

    The handout is in the pews, and the email and recording link are already out.

Careful with what people share

A prayer list holds things people told the church in trust. It is set up with that in mind from the first day.

  • Drafts onlyNothing is sent, printed or posted until someone at the church approves it.
  • Names with permissionHealth details stay general, children are not named, and names leave the list on schedule.
  • Your accounts, your filesIt works in the church’s own email and documents, with access limited to what the job needs.
  • No lock-inAfter the pilot it is month to month. You can stop at any time.

Start with a 60-day pilot

One workflow, set up for your parish, with a clear test of whether it is working.

Pilot

$750flat, for 60 days

  • The prayer list and the Sunday handout, set up in your format
  • Success means drafts ready by Thursday noon for six weeks in a row, with about 15 minutes of review
  • Your office sends its inputs by Wednesday, and I keep fixing at no charge until it works
  • The full $750 counts toward setup if you continue

After the pilot

If it’s working, you choose a monthly plan sized to your parish and the work you want covered, from the weekly prayer list and handout up to the recording link and the vestry memo.

I quote the monthly price and any setup in writing before you decide. It runs month to month, and you can stop at any time.

Dioceses can arrange a shared template for their parishes.

Who you would be working with

I’m Ian Michel, a software engineer with more than twenty years of experience, and I help run the weekly office work at a small Episcopal parish in Connecticut. I built this for my own parish to take the weekly copy-and-paste off our plate. Side of My Desk is how I now offer the same setup to other parishes.

I keep it small on purpose, so you deal with me directly from the first email to the last fix.

Tell me about your parish office

Write a few lines about your week: who does the handout, how prayer requests come in, and what takes the longest. I’ll reply myself.