SPECIAL EVENTS AND PROGRAMS

There are occasions throughout the calendar year when special events and programs will occur. Special events may include both religious or civil events and programs and may be defined by national, local, or even command occurrences. Examples of national events are the National Prayer Breakfast; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; Holocaust Days of Remembrance; and so forth. Local events may include charitable fund drives or burials at sea. Command occurrences maybe memorial observances, picnics, or social events.

Some examples of your responsibilities for special events and programs may include diagraming your chaplain's support requirements for a special service and burial at sea, rigging and unrigging for a special service and burial at sea, advising personnel on CRP events and programs, preparing bulletins for CRP events other than worship, and implementing plans for CRP activities. Your other important responsibilities will include documenting historical data, diagraming programs, retaining plans, and detailing evaluation results for future use.

GENERAL SUPPORT

General support for your CRP, RMF, or chaplain will include several areas not specifically associated with the arena of worship. Some examples of general support may involve your duties and responsibilities for areas such as media centers, printing and publications, worship models, literature and periodicals, chaplain backing, and chaplain defense.

MEDIA CENTERS

Your RMFs media center should include a variety of audiovisual tools. A broad selection of audiovisual tools can be and are used within all aspects of religious program support.

Audiovisual Tools and Media

Audiovisual tools include projected audiovisuals, such as filmstrips, slides, motion pictures, videotapes, overhead transparencies, opaque materials, tapes, and recordings. All other audiovisuals are included in a group usually called nonprojected or direct viewing audiovisual tools. This category consists of bulletin boards, chalkboards, charts, clingboards, dioramas, flash cards, flat pictures, globes, maps, models, murals, objects (realia) and posters. Figure 2-13 provides examples of each of these tools.

The use of the word media - communication devices - refers to both types of audiovisuals and to printed materials as well. Remember, CRPS are in the communication business and chaplains are primarily teachers and leaders. As the chaplain's assistant, you should use audiovisuals for a variety of presentations because they enhance or focus concentration, teach soundly, make learning consistent, pace the showing, connect time as well as distance gaps, give alternate events, aid recall, increase participation, enlarge variety in presentations, deepen understanding, and make instruction more pleasing.

Audiovisual Equipment and Accessories

To function, audiovisual equipment often requires different types of accessories. Charts or directions will

Figure 2-13.-Media audiovisual devices.

Figure 2-13.-Media audiovisual devices-Continued.

sometimes be included in the operations manuals that come with certain types of equipment.

In operating audiovisual equipment, you should become familiar with the necessary accessories and charts. Some of the most familiar accessories and charts are as follows: l Batteries. Generally alkaline or nickel-cadmium batteries are the best for audiovisual equipment. Rechargeable batteries cost more, but they last longer. Batteries come in a variety of sizes. Each is rated at 1 1/2 volts and can come in an assortment of different sizes, such as D, C, AA, and AAA.

2-22 l Extension cords. You should use as short a cord

as possible, and you should use the right size wire. Always use a cord with a ground wire or adapter.

l Lamps. Projection lamps have many characteristics-length, width, shape, wattage, base configuration, filament, location, and reflectors, to name a few. All lamps are designated by a code of three alphabetical letters such as DAK and ELH, which is the information you will need to have when you must replace a lamp. 

. Lens, screens, and distances. Projection distance is the distance from the projector to the screen. Lens length, given in inches, is written on the lens holder. Shorter lenses make larger images, and longer lenses make smaller images. Figure 2-14 shows the distances three different projectors should be placed from a 70-inch screen in order for the image to fill the screen. Figure 2-15 provides additional information concerning lens length, projector distance from the screen, and screen size for several types of projectors.

• Patch cords. Sounds are transferred from one sound source to a recorder by means of a patch cord. This method does not pick up foreign noise as it would if a microphone were used. In a patch cord, the wire is shielded so that it has at least one conductor surrounded with insulation in the form of a braided wire shield.