MyHomeTeachingApp.com

I have tried several home teaching apps and they all have major issues, so I decided to develop one of my own. I am launching a kickstarter to develop the funding, but you can see the video of the basic features on the website. MyHomeTeachingApp.com. I also started a Facebook page and a twitter page.

Does anyone have other ideas as to how I can get the word out about this app?

Thanks in advance.

Dax

daxcastro wrote:I have tried several home teaching apps and they all have major issues, so I decided to develop one of my own. I am launching a kickstarter to develop the funding, but you can see the video of the basic features on the website. MyHomeTeachingApp.com. I also started a Facebook page and a twitter page.

Does anyone have other ideas as to how I can get the word out about this app?

First of all, it's not appropriate to promote a commercial site on LDSTech, and your post is likely to be removed. Also, it appears that membership data for your app will be stored in the cloud, which runs afoul of section 4.9.4 of the Meetinghouse Technology Policy.

But aside from that, I would note that your timing is not particularly optimal, since the Church just recently announced to clerks and leaders that features for administering home teaching will be coming on LDS.org by the end of the year.

Wow. Okay well I am glad I found out now before I went too much further into this. The info would only be stored on each phone individually, but no matter. Point taken. Thanks for the response.

daxcastro wrote:The info would only be stored on each phone individually, but no matter.

I was referring to the fact that the promotional video talks about syncing data with Google Docs. That doesn't sound like data is only "on each phone individually."

Well the initial contact data would be downloaded from there. The rest is just on your phone. I can see your interpretation though. Right now our elders quorum has a Google doc for each person with their families contact info on it. But the fact that the church is releasing something integrated and will probably connect all the way up the chain into stakes etc. It kinda puts me in a different and lower class.

While there are differing interpretations of 4.9.3 of the Meetinghouse Technology Policy, the wording could make any non-church supplied app a tough sell to local leaders.

It looks like you've put a ton of work into this so far, and I have to say – it looks awesome, and has great features! I'm sure there are still many parts of this that will be useful after the church releases their tools for home teaching, which I imagine will be pretty minimal.

I don't see any problem with it from a policy point of view, provided that a) membership info is entered by the user and only stored locally, and b) no member in a ward or stake feels obligated to buy it to fulfill their calling (i.e. from a large amount of pressure from leaders).

As for suggestions, I'll bet Relief Society sisters would want a MyVisitingTeachingApp!

aebrown wrote:

the Church just recently announced to clerks and leaders that features for administering home teaching will be coming on LDS.org by the end of the year

Can you (or anyone else) provide more information about this? I could not find any information about a HT/VT utility coming to lds.org, other than something mentioned at the LDS Tech Conference last October.

Are there any additional details you can provide (features or perhaps beta/testing information)?

We are using R&R in our EQ, RS and HP Group and I wish to keep our ward updated on this announcement/new development.

An official announcement was promulgated via the messages facility in MLS, in mid July.

I would suggest you ask your Ward Clerk to print out a copy of the notice. The notice gives rough timelines, but as we are well aware, these can slip!

michaelfish wrote:Can you (or anyone else) provide more information about this? I could not find any information about a HT/VT utility coming to lds.org, other than something mentioned at the LDS Tech Conference last October.

MLS Message dated July 18, 2014.

@sbradshaw thanks so much for the encouragement. I have spent over a year putting it all together. You have motivated me to keep going. Thanks! Ps. Added a features list to the site too. Thanks for all the info everyone.

lajackson wrote:

michaelfish wrote:Can you (or anyone else) provide more information about this? I could not find any information about a HT/VT utility coming to lds.org, other than something mentioned at the LDS Tech Conference last October.

MLS Message dated July 18, 2014.

Further update on this, in this link to RKAT https://www.lds.org/help/support/clerk- ... s?lang=eng

Biggles wrote:Further update on this, in this link to RKAT https://www.lds.org/help/support/clerk- ... s?lang=eng

I don't see anything there about HT/VT, which is the subject of this discussion. HT/VT on LCR is off in the future; the link you provided was only for LCR 2.6 and 2.7, which expands LCR access to auxiliary and quorum leaders, but says nothing about HT/VT.

And note that those release notes are dated August 27, which is almost 3 weeks from now -- they describe updates which are not yet available in production.

Sorry, profuse apologies!

You're quite correct about the content of the link. In my enthusiasm I got carried away with the prospect that in a future update(late fall), HT/VT access will eventually be available to the relevant auxiliaries/quorums, who should be getting access to LCR at the end of this month!

...I suppose I may have read more into aebrowns comment than what was actually there.

the Church just recently announced to clerks and leaders that features for administering home teaching will be coming on LDS.org by the end of the year

As a Return and Report user, I was hoping the announcement of the new release included some of the functionality and features similar to R&R such as electronic reminders and reporting to companionships via MLS or LCR/lds.org.

I am concluding that release mentioned will only be more convenient access to MLS and HT/VT reporting through LCR, and that this time, R&R features (automatic messaging, reporting, etc.) are only available through 3rd party applications.

michaelfish wrote:I am concluding that release mentioned will only be more convenient access to MLS and HT/VT reporting through LCR, and that this time, R&R features (automatic messaging, reporting, etc.) are only available through 3rd party applications.

I don't see how you can conclude much of anything from a statement that says only that the ability to "administer home and visiting teaching" will be included. I don't think it's safe to assume that any particular feature will be included, and I don't think it's safe to assume that any particular feature will be not included. We'll just have to wait and see.

The LDS Tools for iOS project mailing list has a bit of info about home teaching services in LDS Tools (and therefore for Leader and Clerk Resources):

Justin Krebs (LDS Tools Project Manager), June 20, 2014 wrote:We plan to add all of these items in a future release in the coming months including home and visiting teaching reports for quorum and auxiliary presidencies, stay tuned!

Justin Krebs (LDS Tools Project Manager), June 23, 2014 wrote:We are planning to add home and visiting teaching data and reports to LDS Tools later this year for stake presidencies, bishoprics, clerks and ward council members along with their presidencies. We are not currently planning on adding the ability for members to see their home or visiting teachers or who they home or visit teach. That may be something that we will add in the future based on priesthood council direction.

When does it start???????

Will you be able to report home/visiting teaching visits through your LDS account? That feature alone would be enormously helpful and appreciated!

stevereed wrote:Will you be able to report home/visiting teaching visits through your LDS account?

We do not know the scope of the HT/VT management capabilities that will come in the updated release of Leader and Clerk Resources. Since that site and the applications made available through that site are intended for leaders and clerks and not the general membership I doubt that members will be able to report their HT/VT online. The HT/VT management release later this year will be more along the lines of what is currently available in MLS. Members currently report HT/VT results to a designated leader who then inputs the results into MLS. That part most likely will not change in this HT/VT management capability online at Leader and Clerk Resources.

LDS Account would not be used for this purpose because it is a security application. When an online HT/VT reporting capablilty is released it is very likely that a member will have to sign in to the site or application using their LDS Account credentials.

stevereed wrote:Will you be able to report home/visiting teaching visits through your LDS account? That feature alone would be enormously helpful and appreciated!

Steve, we can't trust that members of the church will contain themselves when 'reporting' on their neighbors. The problems area round a private institution collecting data that could be private and protected, from a legal perspective.

Laws come into play about storage and discovery in these cases the church would just rather avoid. Think about the prospect of someone reporting online that Bro. Smith continues to beat is wife, etc.. It's just TOOOOO dangerous. It'll never happen

Thanks JD,

Does anyone know if the church is considering an online reporting feature? It would be nice to be able to see who your home teachers are, and what families you are assigned when you log into your account, or viewing the LDS Tools app. A step further would be the ability to simply tap a button next to your families for that month to send the report in.

I was just released from a second term as Elders Quorum president and it is quite the chore to print out paper slips and pass them around. It seems that many elders simply lose them and then don't know who their families are weeks or months later.

We can view various church leaders and callings online, so why not be able to see your home teachers? This seems like it would be such a fundamentally important feature to give to home and visiting teachers, I'm just curious as to why it doesn't exist?

I even built my own home teaching reporting tool using Wordpress at http://returnreport.com/. It's very basic, there is no database of information, it's just a simple web form.

johnshaw wrote: Steve, we can't trust that members of the church will contain themselves when 'reporting' on their neighbors. The problems area round a private institution collecting data that could be private and protected, from a legal perspective.

Laws come into play about storage and discovery in these cases the church would just rather avoid. Think about the prospect of someone reporting online that Bro. Smith continues to beat is wife, etc.. It's just TOOOOO dangerous. It'll never happen

Oops, I just barely saw this. I understand the problems in having some kind of online reporting where information about families is being stored. I agree that online reporting that involves storing detailed information about families is probably not the best thing to do.

However, I want to be clear that I am NOT requesting a feature where text would be recorded, just a simple checkbox or button that indicates that a visit was made. This is already available in MLS, but it is done manually by a leader. All I am suggesting is extending this feature to maybe at least the senior companion so he could report that a visit was made though the system.

Sample implementation
The way this could work is a home/visiting teacher could log into their account or pull up LDS Tools, click on Home/Visiting Teaching and view a tab where they could see both the home and visiting teachers assigned to their household as well as the home and visiting teachers that they are assigned to (This might be helpful for husbands who might not know who their spouse's visiting teachers are since they only visit the women while the home teachers visit the family). On the assigned families page there could be a simple "report visit" button, when clicked, a date is entered for the visit and the system records it (like I mentioned earlier, we are already recording this information). Leaderships could still hold interviews, as they currently do, to understand the specific needs of each family.

This way, home teachers could report their visits immediately and conveniently. Certainly a home teacher could simply lie about visiting a family, but they could just as easily lie by emailing their district supervisor. If we are trusting the well-being of families with these home teachers, couldn't we likewise trust them to push a button indicating they made a visit? I would assume that lying home teachers would be less of a concern than honest home teachers NOT reporting at all because they can't remember who they need to report to (which is very common from my experience).

stevereed wrote:I want to be clear that I am NOT requesting a feature where text would be recorded, just a simple checkbox or button that indicates that a visit was made. This is already available in MLS, but it is done manually by a leader. All I am suggesting is extending this feature to maybe at least the senior companion so he could report that a visit was made though the system.

First, I have no insight into what is planned for online HT/VT recording if it happens late this Fall. I expect, though, that it will be very similar to MLS now, where the secretary or leader simply records whether or not a visit was made.

I would not expect members to have access to record their own visits. I would expect the member to report to the HT or VT supervisor, and for the priesthood or Relief Society to then record the visit, just as they do now in MLS. Or maybe even get the ward clerk to do it for them still.

I do appreciate your suggestion that the companionship be able to record the visit. I do not know if that is in the plans, but you would certainly be able to request it using any of the Feedback pages at LDS.org to suggest it.

Ok, I just didn't know if the folks who were in a position to create or approve these features lurked in these forums or not In the mean time, I guess we'll keep using ReturnReport.com

stevereed wrote:Ok, I just didn't know if the folks who were in a position to create or approve these features lurked in these forums or not

The developers sometimes visit, but I've not seen evidence that those that make that kind of decision lurk here.

stevereed wrote:Does anyone know if the church is considering an online reporting feature?

Online HT/VT has been a long running forum topic. It has been discussed long before this forum came to be in 2006 in the Yahoo group that was the forerunner of LDSTech Forum. Those discussions showed that the Church had considered some of the private development efforts but then decided not to use any of what had been done. So there is evidence that consideration has been ongoing for quite some time.

Unfortunately, those who discuss these capabilities and make the decisions about possible implementation do not release any of that information. All we can do is speculate and continue to provide feedback through the LDS.org feedback link and up the chain through priesthood leadership.

The announcement in July was the first we heard in the forum community about anything official for online HT/VT capabilities. Even that announcement has provided no details as to the capability that will be rolled out later this year.

stevereed wrote:Will you be able to report home/visiting teaching visits through your LDS account? That feature alone would be enormously helpful and appreciated!

Members will NOT be able to self-report their home and visiting teaching visits online.