Ward Weekly Bulletin?

ANY help w/ organizing the start for our ward's bulletin would be great. Is there a Church program, site, or ?? Thank you.

There is no Church program or site for ward bulletins, although the upcoming Newsletter feature (which will soon be in beta) might fill some (but not all) of the purposes of a ward bulletin.

For a bulletin created in a word processor, see the thread Bulletins in MS Word Format. It has lots of great ideas, and several templates and sample documents to help you get started.

TY, hopefully can get setup on Word for my new calling.

If you'd like more info about the Upcoming Newsletter app, you can read the help content here: https://tech.lds.org/wiki/Newsletter.

I'm not sure how long the beta will last, but hopefully not too long before it becomes official.

I had a similar idea over the weekend and documented it here.

https://tech.lds.org/wiki/User:Davebail ... g_Bulletin

Feel free to comment or contribute.

It is possible to have just digital bulletin with the sacrament program or it should always be printed?

alioke wrote:It is possible to have just digital bulletin with the sacrament program or it should always be printed?

A ward can do anything they wish. I have been places where a program was not printed. I know of a ward in a neighboring city where the program is sent to member phones as they enter the chapel. Of course, members without smart phones will not get the program.

While there is no requirement for a printed program, most wards do, if they have a program, because not all of the members are able yet to see the program digitally.

lajackson wrote:

alioke wrote:It is possible to have just digital bulletin with the sacrament program or it should always be printed?

I know of a ward in a neighboring city where the program is sent to member phones as they enter the chapel. Of course, members without smart phones will not get the program.

Whoa this is cool!! Would love to know how this works - have the bulletin sent to the members phone as they enter the chapel...

davemoore99 wrote:

lajackson wrote:

alioke wrote:It is possible to have just digital bulletin with the sacrament program or it should always be printed?

I know of a ward in a neighboring city where the program is sent to member phones as they enter the chapel. Of course, members without smart phones will not get the program.

Whoa this is cool!! Would love to know how this works - have the bulletin sent to the members phone as they enter the chapel...

On another thread in this forum, someone reported they had a page with a QR code on it in the foyer - members could scan the QR code which would load the current ward bulletin on their device. I wonder if this is what happens in this case (rather than a mechanism that pushes them to the phones upon entering the building).

Ahh that's a great idea, the QR code. I'm a new stake clerk and the topic of ward bulletins came up a few weeks ago. We discussed the need for them and came to the conclusion to keep them printed but the QR code is a great idea. Thanks!

davemoore99 wrote:Ahh that's a great idea, the QR code. I'm a new stake clerk and the topic of ward bulletins came up a few weeks ago. We discussed the need for them and came to the conclusion to keep them printed but the QR code is a great idea. Thanks!

I'm not a fan of the QR code approach for a few reasons:

- Users have to have a more smart phone ability than just knowing how to get to their email

- It likely links to a URL that accesses a PDF or document that is fix formatted. Users have to pinch-zoom to scroll around and see things.

- It isn't easy to store multiple weeks worth of programs. If I downloaded a file, where is it next week or the week after?

- A system that uses a QR code indicates a skill level of the person creating it OR the document it links to OR is involved in changing where a URL points. When callings change, someone new has to take over. Increasing the skill level of this calling limits the # of people that can have the calling.

- Is the QR code changing or just the remote end where it points to? If the QR code changes, a person has to physically be at the building to do the program even if it is electronic so they can post the new code.

- Different types of devices complicate things.

I think I wrote up how we do an email-based program that avoids the issues above as much as possible. I'll look for it.

I can't find it, but here's the short of it:

We use rich text formatted emails using the LCR send-a-message tool. All electronic devices with email capability know how to reformat an email for easy viewing. This lets a user use their own font size, if it's a tablet it can auto-wrap appropriately, etc. No pinch zooms, no side-to-side scrolling, etc.

We do not use the send-a-message window for formatting. We use a google doc. Keep formatting very limited to rich text formatting. Left justify everything. Keep it text based and use white space generously.

You can copy and paste from a google doc right into the send-a-message window and it will retain the rich-text formatting. Having the program in a google doc makes it easy for the bishopric to review it.

Using LCR as the send tool means the email list is always up-to-date as people move in and out. No managing an email list.

The person that puts together our program travels a fair amount. Depending on his time zone, he can do it all remotely and even send it out. If he's in an odd time zone, he does all the work and I send it before sacrament meeting.

If someone isn't at church, they get the program. Those serving outside of our ward really like it.

Skill levels here are reasonable, and somewhat easier than a printed program.

This has worked very well for us and has been the most accessible way to do it, from my perspective.

chriswoodut wrote:- It isn't easy to store multiple weeks worth of programs. If I downloaded a file, where is it next week or the week after?

If it were me, the QR code points to a fixed location. That fixed location has the updated PDF each week. I don't think the general membership needs an archive of programs. We don't offer that in paper form.

russellhltn wrote:

chriswoodut wrote:- It isn't easy to store multiple weeks worth of programs. If I downloaded a file, where is it next week or the week after?

If it were me, the QR code points to a fixed location. That fixed location has the updated PDF each week. I don't think the general membership needs an archive of programs. We don't offer that in paper form.

Well, they can take a paper form home with them and keep it. I've had several people mention going back to the email version of the program for an announcement, etc.

chriswoodut wrote:Well, they can take a paper form home with them and keep it. I've had several people mention going back to the email version of the program for an announcement, etc.

If they desire, they can do the same on their device. It just seems to me that changing the QR Code every week is more trouble than it's worth.

russellhltn wrote:

chriswoodut wrote:Well, they can take a paper form home with them and keep it. I've had several people mention going back to the email version of the program for an announcement, etc.

If they desire, they can do the same on their device. It just seems to me that changing the QR Code every week is more trouble than it's worth.

I think QR Codes entirely are more trouble than they're worth.

chriswoodut wrote:I think QR Codes entirely are more trouble than they're worth.

That seems evident from your comments. Of the six issues you mention, I disagree with four of them. The answer to your question is that the QR code does not change, so that is a moot point. And while I agree with one of your statements, it is true in every situation and so it does not really affect this discussion. And by the way, not all QR codes lead to PDF files.

Nevertheless, that is the way the ward I visited is doing it. Shoot the QR code in the foyer and you have the program of the day. Then you can do whatever you want with it. They have the technology to push the program, but they do not. They save that for agendas for meetings held in the stake offices.

And to be certain, this is only one way of doing it. There are many others, all with their different levels of ease and benefit on the part of both the provider and the recipient.

lajackson wrote:

chriswoodut wrote:I think QR Codes entirely are more trouble than they're worth.

That seems evident from your comments. Of the six issues you mention, I disagree with four of them. The answer to your question is that the QR code does not change, so that is a moot point. And while I agree with one of your statements, it is true in every situation and so it does not really affect this discussion. And by the way, not all QR codes lead to PDF files.

Nevertheless, that is the way the ward I visited is doing it. Shoot the QR code in the foyer and you have the program of the day. Then you can do whatever you want with it. They have the technology to push the program, but they do not. They save that for agendas for meetings held in the stake offices.

And to be certain, this is only one way of doing it. There are many others, all with their different levels of ease and benefit on the part of both the provider and the recipient.

My in-laws ward does the QR code. The grandparent acceptance factor is low.

As an aside, the rich-text formatted approach would be easy to implement in LDS Tools app. For those in love with the QR approach, they could still just put a URL in the body and let people link out to whatever the ward is doing.