LockedQuorum Presidencies & Secretaries

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but it would be real nice if they would modify the LDS.org Leader resources to include Elders, High Priests, and Relief Society the ability to enter home teaching/visiting teaching visits from home. It takes time to have to keep going over with the Secretary, or find time when the computer isn't being used on a Sunday, to enter HT and VT visits. That functionality would be nice.

Just passing along a nice future enhancement.

This is a great idea. It has been suggested a few times before, but certainly is in high demand. What isn't so certain is if anyone in a position to prioritize this suggestion is regularly reading the tech forums. Certainly new ideas are generated here and employees at the church see and often respond to them, but this one has come up many times and so probably has been raised internally multiple times. It might be worthwhile though to ask your stake president to take it up with the area presidency. If there are enough people requesting this through the priesthood channels that make this kind of decision, it might indicate to the Priesthood Department that this is an idea whose time has come.

Note that the RKATS article About Clerk Resources (not everyone can see this article) says "Other quorum and auxiliary leaders may receive access to Clerk Resources in the future."

So expanding access is certainly on the list of possible improvements.

benjamincarleski wrote:It might be worthwhile though to ask your stake president to take it up with the area presidency. If there are enough people requesting this through the priesthood channels that make this kind of decision, it might indicate to the Priesthood Department that this is an idea whose time has come.

I'm starting to think that this explanation is only meant to dissuade us.... Otherwise, wouldn't there be an easy way for Stake Presidents to submit these items in some kind of online form, then once it reached a threshold a Priesthood leader could have a quick video/phone conference with a selected number of SP and then either decide to include it or pass on it, then publish that information for ALL to see. just sayin... could be as easy as that if it were part of the actual plan.

tellerman wrote:I'm sure this has been brought up before, but it would be real nice if they would modify the LDS.org Leader resources to include Elders, High Priests, and Relief Society the ability to enter home teaching/visiting teaching visits from home.

This is one of the most requested features. I believe, in time, it will come. However, it is not as simple as just modifying Leader resources. HT/VT information is not sent from MLS to Church headquarters. The only place it appears is on the administrative computer in the clerks office.

MLS would have to be rewritten to transmit the database. The Church databases would have to be created to store and maintain the information. Processes would have to be written to keep the two aligned. This would be no small project.

Not impossible, of course, but the resources have not yet been allocated for this massive a change right now. Will they? Only the Priesthood Department knows the answer to that question.

Perhaps it would be easier to take out the "requirement" to use the MLS Ht/VT data base and leave it up to each ward to come up with their own system of keeping track. And instead of the quarterly report getting the percentages automatically from MLS, the clerk could enter it manually 4 times a year.

The ward could then choose to use the MLS system if they want or use a home based spread sheet or even a loose leaf binder if they choose.

johnshaw wrote:I'm starting to think that this explanation is only meant to dissuade us....

Not at all, or at least not from me. I simply think that this is a feature that has received quite a bit of coverage on these forums now. If something was going to change from it being brought up here, it would have already happened. I think we should consider other ways to convey to the general leadership of the church how broadly these enhancements are wanted and are being asked for, above other features that might currently be higher on the priority list.

That isn't to say we shouldn't bring up, or discuss suggestions and improvements and changes here, just that if something is getting a lot of repeated attention here for multiple years, perhaps it is time to try a different tack.

benjamincarleski wrote:perhaps it is time to try a different tack.

You mean like having the sisters write to the General Relief Society Presidency?
(Once they get VT, it should be easy to add HT.)

In our Stake we use a "3rd Party" program called "Return and Report". It's a program that let's HT/VT report their contacts electronically.
Check it out at returnandreport.org
Very well done and very useful for tracking HT

benjamincarleski wrote:Not at all, or at least not from me. I simply think that this is a feature that has received quite a bit of coverage on these forums now. If something was going to change from it being brought up here, it would have already happened. I think we should consider other ways to convey to the general leadership of the church how broadly these enhancements are wanted and are being asked for, above other features that might currently be higher on the priority list.

The general leadership of the church is aware that this is important to the local leadership.

kirtkennedy wrote:In our Stake we use a "3rd Party" program called "Return and Report". It's a program that let's HT/VT report their contacts electronically.
Check it out at returnandreport.org
Very well done and very useful for tracking HT

Yes, this tool has been discussed here on the forum previously. I think the person who develops it used to work on the "public" HT/VT app on LDS.org years ago (which was since taken in-house).

There's a new meetinghouse technology policy that some have been discussing recently. It might mean that using services like ReturnAndReport.org are forbidden. There are differing opinions. If you want to debate that topic, I suggest you participate on an existing thread, rather than start a new discussion here. I just mention this so you're aware and you can research as you see fit. Here's a link to one thread: Home Teaching /Visiting Teaching App (English /Spanish)

Hi,

I'm the guy who has been managing ReturnAndReport.org.

Just to clarify, ReturnAndReport.org does not require any data from MLS or any other Church system. Additionally, a completely rewritten version of ReturnAndReport.org is close to completion that allows you to use it for things other than Home/Visiting Teaching (in addition to Home/Visiting Teaching.) The features and functionality will also be far superior to what exists currently. It will support all mobile devices, support SMS Text Messaging, and is overall, far more customizable. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

ReturnAndReport.org will eventually go away and the new system will take over. Hopefully we can successfully make this transition within the next year.

Thanks,

Brad O.

brado426 wrote:Hi,

I'm the guy who has been managing ReturnAndReport.org.

Just to clarify, ReturnAndReport.org does not require any data from MLS or any other Church system.

To clarify further, is the site a "cloud-based service ... storing ... any membership related data?" That is the question that seems relevant under Section 4.8.4 of the new policy.

I guess I just don't understand.

It if doesn't communicate with MLS, what is the point? At the end of the month, I print out the data, go to the church and enter it into MLS so that the quarterly report can be populated. Any changes I make in home teaching districts, I have to make on MLS, and then go home and make them again in this off site data base. It seems to double the work.

Every month I get an email from my district leader asking me about my home teaching. I send back an email and he compiles it and sends it of to the HP group secretary.

As a home teacher, does it matter to me if I email my report to a district leader or upload it to a third party website?

The only reason I posted here is because there were a lot of people here who were excited about this project at one time and I thought I should give a status update. ReturnAndReport.org is transitioning from being a "Church-only" tool to a non-Church tool. Therefore, people can put whatever information they want to in there. If the Church wants to explicitly tell people not to use it, that is up to them. Only names are required to use the tool, which is public record information. As far as I'm concerned, if someone wants to put names of Church members in the tool with their consent, that is not against Church policy. Feel free to have a lengthy debate about it, but it has all been done several times in here already. If someone doesn't want their information in the tool, they can easily opt-out and no harm done.

I won't be giving any further status updates in here since it is moving towards a non-Church tool. I just thought some people might be interested in the cool new features and progress since this started as a Church-related project in 2006.

Thanks,

Brad O.