FUUCSL ServiceInstructions
Instructions and Suggestions for Running a Service.
This page is still under construction as of 9 May 2008.
Congratulations! You've decided to run a service at the UU fellowship in Second Life. You have a great topic all ready, you've done a little bit of research, and you're ready to go. You have the content, now how do you do mundane things like virtually unlock the door and turn on the lights?
These are several avatars who can help you with running the service. Etaoin Barcelona is the lead "trainer" and this page is the biggest source of information to get you started.
As soon as you decide to run a service
- Go to the FUUCSL UUWiki scheduling page and sign up for a date.
http://www.uuism.net/uuwiki/index.php?title=FUUCSL_Schedule
- You'll have to add your userid to the UU wiki to edit the page.
- If it's far in the future, fill in the weeks of the calendar between the last week and your week, please.
- Note that you don't have to sign up for a topic immediately; just reserving the date is enough.
- We normally run a service on Thursday and Saturday, and normally you should do both days. But if you can only make one of the days, just sign up for the day you can make. We can work on the missing day. Let people know if you have problems making both services.
- Join the "House of Wu" group. Being added to this group will make you a "Service Coordinator" which will give you the ability to rez objects in the Lovelace sanctuary and change parcel media setings. It will also let you set Events to happen at the Lovelace sanctuary. Etaoin or many other service coordinators should be able to add you.
As you prepare your service
>> Prepare a "service script". This text document contains all the elements of your service: readings, prayers, music URLs, etc. I also add things like the event text, and little cues to do things like ring bells. In a pinch, you could cut-and-paste everything from this
script into the chat window and you'd run the service. During the service proper, you will be doing too many things to thinks about stuff, and this
script takes away the routine thought process.
When writing the service script, start each sentence on a new line, and separate the paragraphs with a blank line. I use something like a "---" at
the beginning of a line to separate sections of the homily.
I try to make my service about 40 minutes long. Be aware that "Joys and Concerns" tends to take about 15 minutes. If you find the service lasting
more than an hour, try to finish it, since people will start to poof out at about that time.
>> Find music and other media. If you use music or media, get the URLs of the files together. Watch out for server network capacity; your favorite
server might work well when only you are using it, but if 40 people are hitting it you may have problems. If you can check out your server capacity
before the service you will avoid problems during the service.
Note there is some concern about what music is publicly playable and which is not. Please make sure that your music can be performed in SL.
When in doubt, run Radio Riel at http://music.orcadia.org
A Living Tradition Video: http://www.uua.org/ya-cm/campus/Videos/living%20their%20faith-New%20movie-H.264%20300Kbps%20Streaming.mov
>> Learn to use the toys in the sanctuary.
Practice changing the music and media URLs. Even if you don't plan on using music, you may have to
change the parcel music if it starts to play a spoken-word performance.
See how clicking on the small chalice lights and darkens it.
Figure out how voice works with your microphone. A headphone with a microphone attached works best--it keeps your microphone a constant distance
form your lips. And if you use voice chat, please be aware that you should only listen through headphones, since external speakers
>> Learn to use the notecard reader. You need to get one of these from Etaoin Barcelona. See the Edit the object, and load a Notecard in the "Content" tab. The notecard reader will type the card, one line at a time (usually). The text of the
notecard will appear in other avatar's text chat windows. Note that the text will appear as a "scripted object" which will usually by some colored
text. When the owner of the notecard-reader touches it (that is you!) a dialog will appear. It will have the line number and first few words (or
full line if short) of the next line that will be said. Your choices are: -Say Next: Say the next line. Note there may be a half-second delay after pressing the button (longer if SL is ill). -Say Para: Say the next lines until it stops after saying the next blank line (or end of notecard). -Skip Next: Don't say the next line. Useful when I put little notes to myself in the notecard. -More Stuff: This will bring up another menu. The choices are:
- -Chat: Text chat will be in "normal" volume: avatars up to 20m away will see the text chat. - -Shout: Text chat will be in "shout" volume: avatars up to 100m away will see the text chat. - -Silent: Text will not be see, though the line counter will advance. - -OwnerOnly: Text will only be seen in the owner's (your) window. Maybe useless, but very easy to add the function! - -Whisper: Text chat will be seen in "whisper" volume: avatars up to 5m away will see the text chat. - -Restart: Reset the next line to be chatted to be the first line on the notecard.
When you hit the end of the notecard, a dialog will appear with "Restart" or "Done". Hit Restart to restart reading the notecard from the
beginning, or Done to make the dialog disappear.
On every dialog is an "Ignore" button that will make thr dialog disappear. The notecard reader is infinitely patient. You can restore the dialog
by touching the notecard reader. It will pick up reading where it left off; look at the dialog to see the next line to be chatted.
When placing the reader, watch the swirly particles that will appear when the object "speaks" in text chat; this could be distracting.
--A few days before the service: >> Add an event to the Second Life Event database. Note that it might take 48 hours for the event announcement to appear in-world. We do get a few
visitors from Caledon who notice the pretty star over our area and have gotten a few friends that way.
>> Practice the service. I've gone to the sanctuary, even with a few people there, and practiced the service. Like anything else, and especially the first time you run a service, practice is important.
--The day of the service: >> Make sure the notecard reader and Order of Service sender is set up right. You can edit the Order of Service sender directly--it is disguised as the vase of titger lilies in front of the pulpit.
--During the service: >> Identi