Minutes Builder

Assign each non-default book its SingLoud.org tunebook code. Songs from the default book print with no tag; every other book shows its SingLoud code next to the page number everywhere in this app, e.g. 39t (SHC). The one exception is the dedicated SHMHA Minutes Book export on the Preview & Export tab — that format automatically translates to the Minutes Book’s own abbreviations (e.g. 39t (CB)) using the table on the SHMHA Guide tab. If your rows use different Day labels, each day’s default book is auto-detected from whichever book appears most that day, unless you name a default above.

• Name / Location / Date. Start with exactly three lines: the name of the singing, the location, and the date(s). Not all-caps.
• Breaks. Show RECESS or LUNCH — capitalized exactly like that — on a line by themselves.
• Multi-day singings. Start a second or third day with the day and date spelled out on its own line.
• Names. Verify every spelling. No state names or abbreviations after a singer’s name. No comma between a name and the first song number.
• Song numbers. List songs by number only; give a title only if the song isn’t in a printed book. Add lower-case “t” or “b” only when two songs start on the same page (e.g. 31t, 49b) — a song alone on its page gets no letter (306, not 306b).
• Other singing books. Use the abbreviations on page 44 of the Minutes Book (table below) — not SingLoud codes.
• Memorial lesson. For those memorialized, include state of origin and year of death if known.
• Officers. List at the very end, ending with the secretary’s name.
• Brevity. Keep business, resolutions, reports, memorial lessons, and thanks brief — submissions are edited for space.

• No bold, italics, underline, or other formatting.
• Don’t center or upper-case the title.
• No “smart quotes” — straight quotes only.
• Show long dashes (—) as two hyphens (--).
• Two returns between paragraphs; two spaces between sentences.
• Bulleted items start each paragraph with *.

Assign each book its SingLoud code on the Song List tab; the SHMHA export translates automatically using this table. Where a row has no SingLoud match yet, the export flags it instead of guessing.

Type or paste directly into the e-mail — no attachments — to minutes@fasola.org. To appear in the printed Minutes Book, send $15 per singing day, check payable to Sacred Harp Minutes, mailed to Judy Caudle, 1821 Gum Pond Rd., Eva, AL 35621, along with a printout of your minutes in case the e-mail is lost. Instructions and deadlines are on page 5 of the Minutes Book; formatting examples are at fasola.org/minutes. For per-work codes in specific tunebook editions (e.g. the Denson Book), see this reference.