Form for Tracking Calling

Let me preface this by acknowledging that I am being lazy...

We have a form that we use in the stake to track a calling (i.e., assignments to release, call, sustain, and set apart and related dates). I was hoping to convert the form to a PDF form with drop down menus to select positions and dates. Given Pres. Uchtdorf's counsel to simplify our service and the nonessential nature of the task, I am not going to do it. But I thought I would check to see if any of you have such a form that you would be willing to share.

I use a google spreadsheet

We use a form that automatically updates our google spreadsheet (for the initial request) then track through additional fields in the google spreadsheet.

What i would give to have a workflow app from the church that could route a request to stk presidency or bishopric, handle the assignment for the call, sustain, then the setting apart.

We have a similar sheet for tracking who is being released. What callings need to be filled. Potential canidates for the calling. approved (by Bishopric or Stake). Contacted to meet with bishopric. Accepted the calling. Substained in appropriate meeting. AND Set apart.
With the transiet nature of our ward this spreadsheet averages 2 pages and is difucult to stay on top of the details and cordinate the information with MLS. If a tool were available in MLS or preferable web based it would save us a considerable amount of manual tracking, and reduce confusion.

I use Google Spreadsheet as well and have tried to use filters and auto formatting to help simplify the process. But at a stake level I find at times so many things are on the go it still proves difficult to track everything.

Funny that of all the things I do I find that tracking these things the most time consuming. I hope that some day a tool is created for this purpose.

The leader.lds.org website/solution has a built-in work-flow, it has the ability to flow from ward calling to ward calling, then to stake calling. If we/ICS truly is looking to follow Pres. Uchtdorf's call to simplify, they would provide a solution that automatically tracks this without EVERY ward and stake needing to create their own system... Easily thousands and thousands of volunteer hours are spent each year in this effort.

It is amazing to me this has not be prioritized at the central office.

We use Google Spreadsheets as well.. We have dashboards for each High Councilman and Bishop to see the status of their submissions and what the next-step is related to the calling/ordination/advancement.

Can I get some links to some of these google spreadsheets with maybe just the header row and no data?

JohnShaw wrote: We use Google Spreadsheets as well.. We have dashboards for each High Councilman and Bishop to see the status of their submissions and what the next-step is related to the calling/ordination/advancement.

I've been looking into a way to automatically update High Councilor and Bishop's so they can see progress versus me doing via E-mail, phone call or recently by updating a google document only they can see. I'm going to be googling "dashboards" but would you share what exactly you've done?

jsedmonds wrote:I'm going to be googling "dashboards" but would you share what exactly you've done?

Just did the same; eyes glazed over very quickly. Here's to hoping JohnShaw has some sort of a template he is willing to share.

I've attached the Form we publish for requesting a stake calling (required for SP and HC approval), or tracking a Stake Calling the SP or HC submit.

To create a form Just go to your google Drive and select Create --> Form - Each piece of input you request in the Form will populate a column on a google spreadsheet the column heading is the same as the data on the form (you might want to practice a bit before proceeding to make sure you get how that works).

After the spreadsheet is created, you can add columns that aren't typically visible to the process (checked with Bishop, interviewed, counselors selected, etc...) - Note - when you move the inputs on the form around, it does not move them in the spreadsheet, where they were originally in the spreadsheet (when you did your first submit to create the spreadsheet) is where they will be regardless of whether you change the order on the form.

So, for our Dashboards we create separate spreadsheets for each ward and have the following subheadings pulled from the original spreadsheet: (this is only a sub-set of the original spreadsheet and is shared with the Bishop and the HighCouncil representative for that ward)

Name | Ward or Branch | Calling or Ordination | Next Action
Col1 | Col2 | Col3 | Col13

To import the subset of data for the dashboard we use a google function called importrange (http://support.google.com/drive/bin/ans ... wer=155183)

Here is an import range query where we are pulling in data from an original google spreadsheet and selecting specific columns along with matching on a particular ward
=query(ImportRange("0Ag_lRbc5yyFrdHQ2NkNvBigUGLYNUMBERKEEPSASDEF","InProcess!B1:
Z999"),"Select Col1, Col2, Col3, Col13 where (Col2 contains '1st Ward')",0)

I realize this gets into some complicated stuff, but there's a bunch of examples out there if you test it out. The Big UGLY Number is the id of the spreadsheet url, the inProcess is the worksheet referenced in the spreadsheet along with the range of data to import.. of those ranges, we're selecting Col1,2,3,13 where Col2 is the ward)

So this enables us to see the columns I listed above in a separate spreadsheet, share that spreadsheet with just the HC and the Bishop, they always know where in the process the calling is because we are populating the NEXT Action, when we return and report we update the next action piece.

Now, is that so hard

I'll try and get something out there with fake data we can use as a kind of template that I can share with everyone.... might be a bit....

OK.. found some time.....
Here is the Form
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/vie ... c6MA#gid=0

Here is the Ordination and Calling Tracker Template
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... 4U2c#gid=0

Here is an example HC Dashboard
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... mcVE#gid=2

please ping and let me know this works

Thanks JohnShaw for your very descriptive answer. I was successful when I googled and decided on almost everything you described. I haven't implimented it fully but I created a separate document and used a combination ImportRange and query to do it. But it was a little sloppy and I was just trying to figure out how to combine the 2 functions into one. And then I read your reply and there was my answer!

Do you work out of the submission form document for every step? I tried this a while ago and combined it with filters and sorting and it caused me grief so I take calling submissions form answers and manually move them over to my "Calling/Release Tracking" document to avoid anything happening I don't expect.

What I have done in my tracking document is have from left to right a column for every step of the process and fill it in as things progress. I take from your description that you have a "next Action" space and just type in the one spot what action is next. This might simplify my tracking a little more.

Has anyone noticed this LDS site in Australia? http://ldstools.org.au/
It looks like they've implimented a more official means of calling submission and more. Could this be a very zelous Stake Executive Secretary or a beta project by the church?

jsedmonds wrote:Has anyone noticed this LDS site in Australia? http://ldstools.org.au/
It looks like they've implimented a more official means of calling submission and more. Could this be a very zelous Stake Executive Secretary or a beta project by the church?

I guess it depends if the bishop who registered it is also a church employee.

jsedmonds wrote:Has anyone noticed this LDS site in Australia? http://ldstools.org.au/
It looks like they've implimented a more official means of calling submission and more. Could this be a very zelous Stake Executive Secretary or a beta project by the church?

Although it seems to be a useful site for the administration of that stake, it clearly runs afoul of several Church policies: a section of Handbook 1 is displayed in plain sight; it looks in many ways to be an official site, but it is not owned by the Church (the domain is registered to a bishop in that stake); it uses the official Church logo in ways that are not approved; etc.

But back to the subject at hand, it appears that they have implemented a rather detailed form for submitting proposals for ordinations and callings. It's not obvious what happens to the form once it is submitted, but I would guess there is some sort of approval workflow. It's interesting that anyone in the world could submit a recommendation (there's no security whatsoever on the submission of recommendations), but I guess it wouldn't be very attractive to a spammer, so I would guess they get very few if any bogus submissions.

JohnShaw wrote:OK.. found some time.....
Here is the Form

Here is the Ordination and Calling Tracker Template

Here is an example HC Dashboard

please ping and let me know this works

Resurrecting this with a related question. I have been looking at the linked spreadsheets with great interest. I noticed that the "Rescue North Kansas City" tab queries a different spreadsheet than the rest of them. Is there any possibility of seeing a sanitized version of that one? Or even just a list of column headings.

Also, has anyone tried to convert these to Excel? I know that there isn't a "query" function in Excel but maybe some other way? I know just enough about Excel to be dangerous.

Thanks

The rescue doc is a stake specific program about prospective elders in our stake. Not sure it would be relevant, but we share with bishops and high councilors a list of both callings and prospective elders

Thanks.

We are in the middle of a rescue program in our ward/stake. I can see in your template the fields that the dashboard will display. I guess I kind of wondered what other information you had in the underlying data spreadsheet.

I did think of some other questions. I'm assuming the real data is in a secure environment. How do you handle access control?

Is data mining by Google or ?? a concern?

I really like this concept and can see that it could help the work of a ward council. And a lot of trees could be saved. I have several auxilliary heads that are overwhelmed by the amount of paper we give them each week.

My Stake was trying to put together some Google forms to manage callings and asked for my help. It was all a bit complicated so I built them a database instead. I decided that if I was going to do the work, I would build it so that anyone could use it. If it helps you, you are welcome to use it. http://www.ldscallings.com/

I am aware that the church could add all of this into MLS at any time and that is fine - I hope it will save some time until then.

cassiewoolley wrote:My Stake was trying to put together some Google forms to manage callings and asked for my help. It was all a bit complicated so I built them a database instead. I decided that if I was going to do the work, I would build it so that anyone could use it. If it helps you, you are welcome to use it. http://www.ldscallings.com/

I am aware that the church could add all of this into MLS at any time and that is fine - I hope it will save some time until then.

I just discovered your calling tracking tool and think that it is awesome! My one concern is the level of security. I didn't see an "https" for the website which makes me a little concerned about the security of the user's data. Is there anyway to increase the level of security?

Ldscallings.com looks really handy. I am my Stake's Executive Secretary and need a tool to keep tracks of callings and releases. Does anyone have experience with it? I also worry about confidentiality. I sure wish that the Church would add this capability to Leader and Clerk Resources.

It's not a church-owned site. Personally, I'd avoid any site that want you to upload/enter information about other people. If members enter information about themselves, that's their choice. But having a leader enter member information into a non-church site without their permission or knowledge seems like a bad idea.

So is anyone using LDScallings.com?? I am really wanting to get our stake callings better orgainzed. I am the stake clerk and have spreadsheets/google forms setup but would love somethign more organized. Where things seem to fall through the cracks is later in the process of a calling. We seem to be good until we get to who is assigned to call a member, who is assigned to sustain them and then who is assigned to set them apart. Would love to use some sort of main Dashboard where everthing is on ONE place. Thanks all, I know this thread is a little old...

We have been using ldscallings.com for awhile now. But sadly they have a note posted that they are shutting down. Now we are looking into having to move to something else. Wonder if others have a good tool for tracking on the Stake Level. This one was great because it would send the High Council polls and track the responses for us.

mmacconnell wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2024 1:58 pm We have been using ldscallings.com for awhile now. But sadly they have a note posted that they are shutting down. Now we are looking into having to move to something else. Wonder if others have a good tool for tracking on the Stake Level. This one was great because it would send the High Council polls and track the responses for us.

This thread may be helpful:
Keeping track of callings - LDSCallings.com being shut down