AUMC AV Blog

I have been thinking about our CD ministry. We currently mail out about 5 CDs a week to shut-ins, and every once in a while we will burn a CD for someone who asks. This process is tedious, because we have to get the audio files to people that will be burning the CD, then we have to make labels, mail out CDs... it is time consuming for several volunteers.

So how can we make this process better and easier? Well, for starters, we will have a CD recorder in the booth, so we won't have to record on the computer, then burn that to CD. (However, we are still planning on recording on the computer for internet/archive use.) From there, we will need a quick way to duplicate them. While there is no CD duplicator in the budget, one might have to be bought to speed along this process. Using the duplicator, it is easy to make lots of copies fast (It can duplicate a CD in three minutes. That means if you have a duplicator with three burners, you can burn one CD per minute.)

But what about labeling the CDs? I plan on buying bulk pre-printed CDs. This keeps the cost down while making the presentation very professional. The one not-so-professional aspect is that if we use pre-printed CDs we will have to include blanks for Date, Sermon Title, etc., and someone will have to hand-write those in. I hope we can find a tech guy with pretty (handsome?) handwriting...

As to how people will order the CDs, I have several thoughts. The main thought is to have a table somewhere (probably in front of the sound booth). On the table would be "ordering envelopes". These envelopes would be the same type of envelope that we use for tithing/giving, but it would be printed for purchasing CDs. It would have blanks for them so that people can fill out what they want, IE: date, sermon title, full service or just sermon, etc. The CD would be a "suggested donation" of three dollars (which they would put into the envelope). This covers our costs, but doesn't make it a hinderance if someone doesn't want to pay for it. We might even want to put out pre-printed manila envelopes that are big enough to mail a CD in. If someone wants us to mail it to them, they just fill out the manila envelope so that all we have to do is drop the burned CD in.

Another random idea: have a sign saying that peope could "sponsor a shut-in". For $200 they could pay for a year of mailing CDs to a shut-in. This would help cover the cost of this ministry.

Anywho, this goes under "some random thing that Matthew is thinking about way too much," but oh well. What do you think? Are these good ideas or bad ideas? How does your church do it?

Matthew