Family History Center Computers

As a newly called STS, I have few questions about FHCs. After reading "Policy and Guidelines, For Computers in Family History Centers" (Nov 2008)... I still have the following questions.

1. I have 5 PCs in one of the FHCs in our stake. Other than the previous STS, who would know how many of those are "church supplied" and how many are "donated'?
2. Who determines (or how is it determined) how many church supplied PCs a FHC should get?
3. Is there a process to request more?
4. Where can I find the "Family History Computer Hardware and Software Order Form"?
5. Is the replacement cycle still 3 years?

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I have 5 computers. The newest of which is more than 5 years old. All of them "power on," but don't really "run" (if you know I mean). A "fast crawl" might be a better description.

I think we could survive with 3 good (which in our case would need to be new) computers. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm likely to get them... or if I'm going to have to baby along some older hardware.

john84601 wrote:

1. Other than the previous STS, who would know how many [PCs] are "church supplied" and how many are "donated'?
2. Who determines (or how is it determined) how many church supplied PCs a FHC should get?

Assuming this is an approved FHC with an official church unit number, the Family History Department determines how many computers you get. The Family History Director also will probably know how many computers are authorized. He may even know how the authorization is calculated.

In our center, I think the church as supplied one computer and one computer for the microfilm scanner. All the rest started out as qualified donations, but have since been "cascade upgraded" by the church. If you're running the FH supplied LANDesk on them, you may find "new"(used) computers coming your way. Currently most of our machines are Dell GX 280s. They plod along but are not fast. Particularly right after booting up when things are updating and the virus scan is running.

I recieved the following URL explaining new FHC computer policies. In case you all haven't seen it.

https://help.familysearch.org/publishin ... ember.html

To request an additional FHC computer the form requires the Stake Stake President signature, FM signature and the area FHC person. We do not know who he is! Were the North Branch Ward,Morristown NJ

Can you let us know where the from is to be sent?

James Braby
SPFR

A member of the stake presidency or the stake clerk can get that information by looking in the Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders (CDOL) https://cdol.churchofjesuschrist.org/ or follow the "Go to CDOL" link under Units and Leaders on the LCR landing page.

Salt Lake limits the number of computers you are provided by them, However you can pay for computers or use unsolicited donated funds to the history center for there purchase.

john84601 wrote:I have 5 PCs in one of the FHCs in our stake. Other than the previous STS, who would know how many of those are "church supplied" and how many are "donated'?

All "official" ones should typically have a Church/FamilySearch asset tag sticker on them somewhere that identifies it as an FHC machine. If a computer doesn't have one of those stickers, my guess would be that it's donated.

john84601 wrote:Who determines (or how is it determined) how many church supplied PCs a FHC should get?

The FamilySearch folks want both the director's monthly reports and the automated computer reports to be updated/working before they'll process a hardware order, so presumably they have a formula based on those.

john84601 wrote:Is there a process to request more?

Using the Hardware / Software order form - see page 28 of the digital FHC Operations Guide: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/ ... CANWEB.PDF

And there's pretty much two ways you can go with it - you can bug them to do the regular replacement cycle (that they pay for), after which they'll expect you to recycle all the old machines, or you can request additional computers (beyond what they give you with their formula) and attach a check with funds donated specifically for that purpose.

john84601 wrote:Where can I find the "Family History Computer Hardware and Software Order Form"?

https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/c ... O_2014.pdf

john84601 wrote:Is the replacement cycle still 3 years?

I've always heard that it's 5 years... But I could be wrong. And even so I think that's just a minimum cycle time, not a precise time frame, especially when they run out of computer budget relatively early in the year like they told us on some requests last year.

I am still confused on this issue. If the purpose of using TeamViewer was to allow social distancing within the FHC where a coordinator could see and interact with another person through their screen across the room, would this be a license violation? Would you suggest another software that would be more appropriate? I have been asked by the Stake to find a solution for our two FHCs. I am a new STS and would really appreciate the help.

Thanks

TeamViewer is free only for personal use. It's unclear if GFI Software would consider it's use in a FHC as "personal use", or if they would require a commercial license.

You might look into the tools that Microsoft provides.

Solve PC problems over a remote connection

BEWilson wrote:Would you suggest another software that would be more appropriate? I have been asked by the Stake to find a solution for our two FHCs.

You might try checking with the Family History Department. I am sure they will be able to tell you what, if any, software is approved for this purpose.

Exactly my thought. Call FHC Support.

Will do, thank you for the suggestion

I do see TeamViewer as a install in the FHC portal, but the language makes me think it might be for FHC support to connect, rather than for the FHC itself to use.

I'd also recommend calling FHC Support. However, you'll have to get past the service missionaries who (in my experience) may be happy to make up answers and will resist all efforts to have the call escalated to the actual staff.

You could try installing TeamViewer from the FHC Portal and if it allows you to do what you want to do, you're probably OK. If not, then that's probably your answer.