Asking questions

You can ask Scriblet about your organization’s calendar, the same way you send updates. Ask as you’d ask the person who runs it, and Scriblet replies with what’s on the calendar.

Asking never changes anything. Nothing is recorded from a question.

What you can ask

• Who’s on a duty: “Who has the sermon this week?”
• When someone is on: “Which Sabbaths is Karen on in October?” “When am I next up?”
• A list, week by week: “Who is on greeting each week through the end of November?”
• What’s planned for a service: “What’s in the service on October 17?” This also shows what’s still missing.
• What’s still open: “Which Sabbaths in November still need a deacon?”
• Events: “What events are on in October?”
• Announcements: “What announcements are in this week’s bulletin?”

Use your organization’s own names for duties and the service day. The examples here are from one church.

What the answer looks like

A question about one person or one date gets a short sentence:

Karen is on Sat 12 Sep and Sat 26 Sep.

A list comes back one line per date, with gaps marked “nobody”:

Sat 26 Sep - Sat 10 Oct:
26 Sep: Karen, Ruth
3 Oct: nobody
10 Oct: Bob

The wording varies a little from reply to reply.

If nothing is set, Scriblet says so. It never guesses a name.

Asking and telling together

You can do both in one message:

Karen has greeting this Sabbath. Who has it the Sabbath after?

Scriblet records Karen and answers the question in the same reply.

Good to know

• About four months at a time. For a longer stretch, Scriblet answers part of it and tells you which dates it covered. Ask again for the rest.
• A follow-up works straight away. Right after an answer, “Please list them week by week” gets you the same answer as a list. Later on, say the duty and the dates again.
• “Let me know when…” is different. Scriblet sets up an alert instead of answering now. See Calendar alerts.
• It answers about the calendar, not the bulletin. Scriblet can tell you what’s scheduled, but it can’t make or change a bulletin or web page. Your administrators do that.
• Only contributors can ask. Questions work from the phone and email address your organization has for you.