# PewRota

> Build the lector, communion minister, altar server, usher, sidesperson and flower rota for a month, a quarter or a year, fairly, with names kept on your own computer.

PewRota applies the rules you set for your own parish; it ships no liturgical rules of its own. PewRota is not affiliated with or endorsed by any church, denomination, diocese or scheduling software company.

## How it works

Inputs: weekly services and one-off feasts; ministries with a role count at each service; people (name or initials, ministries, preferred services, dates away, a monthly limit, a family or pair group, a senior flag, and whether they will serve twice on one weekend); rules. No birthdate or age is ever collected.

Hard rules, never broken by the solver (an open place is listed with the first rule that stops each trained person): not trained for this ministry; not flagged senior, and this is the senior place; away that day; already serving at this service; already serving another service that weekend; family or pair serving a different service that weekend; served too recently; at their monthly limit.

Soft costs: an empty place 1000000; turns squared times 10 and prime turns squared times 6, with last quarter's turns carried in; 12 per turn at a non-preferred service; 4 per pair of turns under a week apart; minus 15 per pair of family members at one service. The solver is deterministic and runs in a Web Worker in the browser.

Example: the built-in sample parish (56 people, three Masses a weekend) over a quarter has 442 places; 442 are filled with 0 rules broken, and turns range from 6 to 9 per person.

Wording presets: Parish Masses, US Catholic wording (Lector, Extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, Altar server, Usher); Parish services, Church of England wording (Reader, Intercessor, Sidesperson, Chalice assistant, Server, Flower rota); Worship team, plain wording (Scripture reader, Greeter, Welcome desk, Sound and slides).

## Tool pages

- [Home](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/): what PewRota is: a parish ministry rota built in the browser, with names kept on your own computer.
- [Rota builder](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/rota/): the rota builder: services, ministries, people and rules in, a fair rota out, with a review grid, drafts and printouts.

## Guides and references

- [Guide](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/): how a parish rota is built fairly, and the hub for every guide below.
- [How to make an altar server schedule](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/how-to-make-an-altar-server-schedule/): an altar server schedule step by step: senior servers, families, school holidays and fairness.
- [Lector and communion minister rota](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/lector-and-communion-minister-rota/): a lector and extraordinary minister rota, and why a template breaks at forty people.
- [Sidespeople and flower rota](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/sidespeople-and-flower-rota/): sidespeople, readers, intercessors and the flower rota for a parish church, in its own words.
- [Fair rotation rules](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/fair-rotation-rules-for-ministries/): the rules that make a ministry rota fair: counts, prime services, gaps, weekends and carrying fairness between quarters.
- [Keeping minors' names off the cloud](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/keeping-minors-names-off-the-cloud/): why altar servers' names should stay on the parish computer, and how a local tool keeps them there.
- [Ministry scheduling software compared](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/guide/ministry-scheduling-software-compared/): the paid and free parish scheduling tools, with prices as listed on their pages and the date they were read.
- [FAQ](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/faq/): questions about the rota builder, the rules, privacy, printing and the cost.

## Optional

- [Full reference text](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/llms-full.txt): every guide and the FAQ as Markdown in one file.
- [Privacy](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/privacy/): what stays on your device (everything, names included).
- [Terms](https://pewrota-web.pages.dev/terms/): terms of use for the rota builder.

## What it is not

- PewRota is not affiliated with or endorsed by any church, denomination, diocese or scheduling software company.
- Not an online sign-up sheet: volunteers do not log in, and nothing is sent to them by the site.
- Ships no liturgical rules; it applies the parish's own.
- Names never leave this computer: the list, the rota and every printout are made and kept in this browser, and nothing is uploaded.

## Pricing

Free. No paid plan is offered at present. Everything on the site is free to use, with no account.

## Notes

- Support: socialreminderinfo@gmail.com