Bishopric Schedule Management

Hey there - I've been called to serve as Ward Exec Sec, and I'm wondering if there are any app recommendations for managing the schedule for 3 people... I've found topics from a few years ago referencing Google Cal, but I'm hoping someone has found a better/church approved tool?

Thanks for any help you can provide - cheers,

Rich

srasay2 wrote:Hey there - I've been called to serve as Ward Exec Sec, and I'm wondering if there are any app recommendations for managing the schedule for 3 people... I've found topics from a few years ago referencing Google Cal, but I'm hoping someone has found a better/church approved tool?

The only Church-approved tool is the Calendar on LDS.org. Some people successfully use private calendars to manage schedules. Most people who do that choose to also sync those calendars to another calendar, such as Outlook or a calendar on a smartphone.

Although you won't find any other Church-approved tool, that doesn't mean that all other options are forbidden. You just need to follow reasonable practices for protecting confidentiality.

As an executive secretary you and the Bishop & Counselors can go to "Interviews" on the "Leader resources" page, at the following link. https://www.lds.org/leader/?lang=eng

This is from the help section.

Interviews
Interviews is a tool that allows the executive secretary to schedule interviews and to keep the bishop and his counselors informed about them. He can schedule an interview and the bishop and his councilors will see those interviews when they click on Interview link in Leader Resources.

You can also go to "Member Focus List" on the "Leader Resources Page". Both the "Interviews" and the "Member Focus List" can be found under the "Applications" on the left top corner under the churches official logo. These might be helpful to keep track of interviews. I have used them with the Bishop and it was OK. Yet I have used my own excel created sheet for a final schedule to hand to the bishop and if needed to his counselors of the interviews that has been scheduled for them. I can send a copy if it would be helpful.

Questions:
1. Where is the help or explanation of "Member Focus List"?
2. Maybe a schedule or a new application (in the leader resources page) for the bishop could be created with the info from both the focus and Interview lists?

As a ward executive secretary in the past I used a Google Spreadsheet for each month, than shared it out to the Bishopric -- that worked pretty well, but last year I was called into the stake as an executive secretary, and we have been using Google Calendars, It has been a lot better in my opinion.

I'm using Calendars by Readle App for IOS on my iPhone & iPad as the client app for accessing and editing the calendars, it makes it real easy and quick for scheduling and managing the flow of interviews & meetings. I prefer to keep my church and professional calendars in separate apps.

The calendars are shared to all presidency members, and we have several assistant executive secretaries, it keeps everyone on the same page and in sync. We also created a temple recommend calendar (in Google Calendars) it is linked up to an online service called http://youcanbook.me - We set up the open availability, and the tool automatically books the person or couple and puts the info on our temple recommend shared calendar. We put a link and QR code for it in all of our ward bulletins. It works great!