ONLINE - Church Meetings Programme Tool

Hi Everyone,

Just want to share this to anyone who might be needing it out there....
http://black.maxapex.com/apex/f?p=226:101:

Overview:
The main purpose of this application (but is not limited to) is to assist the Bishopric in managing their Sacrament programmes and keep a record of it. Working functionalities are as follows:
 Allow members to be assigned as a speaker for the meeting and provide a topic for them.
 Print an assignment letter for members, in advance, to be a speaker.
 Allow recording of business to be held such as releases, sustaining, advancements and others.
 Allow recording of total attendance of the meeting.
 Allow recording of announcements, prayers and hymns.
 Produce a report of members’ participation/involvement in the meeting.
 Produce a report to track businesses such as leaders/members who have been sustained or released per Quorums or Auxiliaries.
 Produce Stake Programmes for Conferences, Priesthood Meetings, Firesides and others.
 Produce other Ward meeting programmes like Baptisms, Firesides and others.

This tool originated from a Microsoft Access database called "Bishopric Tools" which I developed while serving as Bishop in our ward. The tool was initially released on the 30th of May 2005 and after several years of using this in our ward, all other wards within our Stake have asked for a copy of it for their use.

Setting up and supporting of this tool, to all seven wards in the stake has put some load on myself especially when the MLS export source data was changed which stopped some of the functionalities of the database.

On April 2013, an inspiration has come to myself to migrate this tool onto an Oracle platform using APEX technology.

I'm hoping that this would continuously assist the Bishopric within the stake, others outside of our stake, and all those who may be interested, to use this.

Please note that only the members’ name, individual id (not membership record id) and unit number are kept in this application. Date of birth, address or contact numbers are NOT stored in here.

What login credentials are required, please?

The application is only open to the Bishopric/stake presidency members of each ward/stake.

Users are created by the admin (myself) and linked to his own Ward or stake. So there's that privacy between each unit.

There is a PDF icon next to the login button for some screen shots of the application.

If any unit is interested, I would need to know their ward unit number and name so everything they do will be connected to it. I would also need to load some columns from their membership.csv file produced by MLS.

And how do I know this is secure? I just trust some anonymous person on the internet?

And can someone explain to me in small words: If this person can do this, why can't anyone do the same thing, like email spam or telemarketers. That is, capture names, addresses, phone numbers birthdates and so on for their own purposes. They could provide some cute and even useful app and collect unit numbers and names and then uses the "I-promise-I-won't-capture-private-information" line, but do?

I am so old...

Like what I said this is only to HELP those who are in need. I am using it in my Stake and all the wards in here are using it too. No need to throw some harsh comments as we are all doing this to assist one another. If this thing is not for you then just move on.

You may verify my whereabouts in CDOL. My documentation in the website has my name and ward in it.

About the file, this is the instructions that I have for anyone who wants to use it.

Instructions for UPLOADING MLS File...
[PREPARING the RAW DATA]
Columns needed from the membership.csv file are A, B, C, AA and AB (just temporarily which will be deleted before the load).
(1) DELETE all other columns in the file or copy those columns in a new spreadsheet.
(2) The file should have the following headings for the respective columns as listed below:
Column A: INDIV ID (used to identify individual)
Column B: FULL NAME (used for doing church business)
Column C: PREFERRED NAME (used for prayers and speaking assignments)
Column D: SEX (tied up to each members for populating a prefix of BRO. or SIS.)
Column E: BIRTH (will be used to produced a NEW column to identify if member is an ADULT, YOUTH or PRIMARY)
(3) ADD the new columns and corresponding information.
Column F: UNIT NUMBER (please enter your ward or stake unit number in the row below the heading)
Column G: RECORD ID (please copy this formula in the row below the heading =F2 & "-" & A2 )
Column H: AGE GROUP (please copy the formula in the row below the heading)
=IF(YEAR(NOW())-YEAR(E2) > 18,"ADULT",IF(YEAR(NOW())-YEAR(E2) > 11,"YOUTH","PRIMARY"))
(4) COPY the value in the above, for each respective columns, to the last row of your file.
(5) Highlight or SELECT the entire spreadsheet then click on COPY button. While still in there click on PASTE VALUES button.
(6) DELETE column E as it is not needed anymore.
Note: the AGE GROUP column should still have its value if step 5 has been done correctly.
(7) SAVE the file in CSV format. Then close the file.

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The web address might not sound too appealing as this is the only cheap ORACLE server with APEX that I can afford to pay monthy, out from my own pocket, just to have this up and running for my stake. For me, this is a way to live the law of consecration which is to use my talents in programming to advance the Kingdom.

msierra wrote: If this thing is not for you then just move on.

Okay.

Moved on.

Wow. I would expect something like this in a forum not from the church. I guess I see members to be better people or expect much from them. I'm not trying to sell anything here. But if this will cause something like this then I would rather keep the application for our stake use.

msierra wrote:Wow. I would expect something like this in a forum not from the church. I guess I see members to be better people or expect much from them. I'm not trying to sell anything here. But if this will cause something like this then I would rather keep the application for our stake use.

Please don't judge this forum based on me. I am one of the least technically minded people here. (Witness the duplicate post above I can't figure out how to get rid of... ) I am also of the generation that "doesn't trust all this new fangled technology."

(For example. Since it was "invented," I have always been told never to put my picture on the internet. So. My picture will never be attached to my membership record. No matter how secure the Church tells me it is. My children were not allowed to put their pictures on facebook until they got married and moved out. So you see where I am coming from.)

And therefore I always question personal information and where it goes, and have many ward members who feel the same way. I would feel like I was betraying their trust if I sent ANYONE the ability to read the personal information on their membership record. Yes, the Church does have that ability, but that isn't within my control.

But since the NSA is reading everything anyway...

TinMan wrote:(Witness the duplicate post above I can't figure out how to get rid of... )

I cleaned up the duplicate posts for you.

It's a very impressive app (I looked at the PDF file). I suspect, however, that the folks at CHQ would quibble with a few points. I mean, I can't remember exactly what the pop-up box says when I try to export a membership file from MLS but it would make me think twice about sending any version of that file to someone else. (Even if I trust you, how can I trust the server you use and the people who manage it?) Then there's the issue that you're the one handling log-in privileges rather than an official church employee who's charged with the task. And, of course, international privacy laws vary so widely (as I've learned from following discussions around here) that you might be putting yourself at risk of breaking any number of them.

So I wish that you could work directly with the folks at CHQ to make this app available through them. I'm not sure how to do that, but coming here is probably a good start.

Ward Tools was apparently a very popular and useful app but the developers were asked to shut it down because CHQ didn't like something about the way church data was handled by a third party... I think. From their Google discussion group on 29 July 2012...

We received a letter the other day from David Hazar at The Church requesting that all third party software that handles church membership information be removed and discontinued.

msierra stated clearly that no contact information is stored in the application, neither is their membership record number, ordinances information, etc...

Yes, but it's still uploading data from MLS. That makes it questionable. The policies we've been given doesn't say it's OK if it's only names. It only says "don't".

Hi,
Firstly thanks for the feedback.

The upload of (mainly names & gender) information from MLS is OPTIONAL. It is used by several fields to create a select list when you're looking for invocation or speakers. The APP should work without it but it is very convenient for us when looking for their fullname as we prepare our programme as we just need to type in a few letters and select them from the list.

I understand the hesitation about privacy cause I question it too while looking for a server out there.

I actually have been pondering about this for a while and one day while in the temple, everything just been shown to me, page by page and what I should do. I created it first in oracle.com apex server and I know that I can't violate their condition of "testing only purposes" so I started to look for a server out there when it was ready to be released.

I found only a few with APEX techology and most of them cost too much for my pocket. I prayed and inquired again if I should go ahead with this server/project and so far the feelings I have is good.

But please do comment/recommend if there are any other known server out there that can host this application as this is my first time to use APEX in the internet. I do take all counsels/directions from our leaders seriously.

I hope I'm not breaking any church rules here as my purpose is only to assist our Bishoprics in record keeping and creation of programmes.