I agree, PGA, and what you are saying is similar to my point on the other thread.

Irishtenor, in my experience your assumption is correct, but based on what PGA is saying, it might be worthwhile for an applicant or interviewee to inquire about "total compensation package" if it isn't clear in the ad. I know I've stumbled across some that say "30 hours plus benefits" but this can unfortunately be a euphemism for "30 hours plus elective benefits."

When I originally expressed interest in the position, the pastor told me that he probably couldn't offer full-time employment. I said, "Well, still consider me interested and maybe it'll be possible to work something out."

In the end, he called to offer me the job and said "Well, this can't be full time, but I understand you have a family. How could we make this work?" I told him that since I had a lead on part time employment in another field that I was familiar with, the salary wouldn't necessarily be an issue, but that myself and my family needed health insurance and benefits. He went to the business manager and worked out the financial side of it and came back offering me a very fair salary plus full benefits.

A year later another liturgy/music position opened that was VERY unique working for a religious community. I was hired for that job and am now very much a "full time" musican and liturgist, and, like I said, my parish job is an absolute dream job with a semi-professional choir/schola that sings chant and polyphony, a concert series, and an extremely supportive pastor with whom I see eye to eye on matters of liturgy and music.

In reality, to run a Parish music program properly you need at least 2 people, preferably 3. You need a Director of Music and and Assistant Director, Organ Scholar and Assistant organist. You would be training a choir for a choral mass each week and a number of cantors for other masses.

It is to laugh with ironic sadness....

Much of the "music director" slot these days is reproductive activity. (No, not THAT!) Download stuff, make copies, .......rinse, repeat next week. Actual Direction of Music? Maybe 30-40% of the time consumed.

Yah...but JSB had a bunch of semi-pro/professional singers and instrumentalists.

One run-through and SING!

I think PGA is right that we shouldn't write part time positions off. However, I think that when people read a job description like one currently on the board, which includes multiple Masses, office hours, multiple weekly rehearsals, requiring a Masters Degree, etc. it scares a lot of folks off. So, for those of you who are posting part time jobs like this, if you have special benefits that go along with the position (health insurance, flexible schedule, additional compensation, housing, etc), it would be great to mention that in the advertisement. Otherwise, you might not get some quality candidates that you'd otherwise get.

I think with that particular job description, my concern is less for the candidates and more for the parish. The parish is, I assume, putting all their cards on the table when it comes to duties. There are a lot of them for very few hours. Chances are the person who is hired will either not be able to do the work on a level it should be done, or they will go over their allotted hours per week. That's all very clear.

However, what the compensation and benefits are aren't listed. It could be that the pay is excellent, or a special and rare benefit might be included (I know a number of colleagues who get a house rent-free for as long as they're employed...). On the face of it, I'd never apply to the referred-to position, because it just seems like a ton of work that I could never get done or, if I did get it done, I wouldn't be compensated fairly for doing it. However, if there was a special benefit, such as housing, I would heavily consider it. All that to say, there could be some very, very qualified candidates who don't apply to part time jobs because they don't know about the compensation or benefits and just assume they'd be getting a standard part time salary at a Catholic parish.