Tech Forum Archive

Ministering Interview Scheduling

9 postsstarted by goold6 5,307 viewsoriginal topic

goold6
New Member
#1
I am the EQ Asst. Secretary and looking for a scheduling function within LDS tools/mobile tools/or 3rd party software to schedule the quarterly ministering interviews. I spend the majority of my time playing phone tag, email tag, text tag, etc. trying to schedule the companionship for interviews. I'm hoping there is a better way.

I've searched the various posts from all the forums (why did it take me so long to find this great resource? ) but to no avail. The closest I've found 3rd party is this...
https://calendly.com Moodle has a calendar function that displays available times for scheduling.

I know an interview time sign up list is sometimes passed around during SS or the 3rd hour but with the new schedule I see this method become less effective. And this isn't just a EQ situation; obviously the RS, Bishops, and SP have the same situation.


Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not a techie; I just want to serve more effectively.

Regards,
Michael
davesudweeks
Senior Member
#2
Under a prior bishop, I set up a private bishopric-only calendar for scheduling interviews. All bishopric members, ward clerk, and executive secretary have view/edit rights. I suspect you don't have rights to set one up, but your ward clerk could set up a private ministering interview calendar and make you the calendar editor. Your elders quorum presidency members would have to have at least "view" rights to see it.

Not sure if this will work in your situation, but it is a way to keep the ministering interview appointments within the church systems rather than looking to 3rd party apps.

In our ward, each EQ presidency member coordinates their own interviews on their own schedule with those whom they are assigned to interview.
goold6
New Member
#3
Thanks for the reply davesudweeks. I set up a google calendar for our EQ and maybe should educate myself more on that platforms capabilities.

I spoke to our Stake Ex. Secretary and he was way excited to find a better way. :)

I know in the big scheme of things this is minor but I'm a fan of efficiency.
mevans
Senior Member
#4
goold6 wrote:Thanks for the reply davesudweeks. I set up a google calendar for our EQ and maybe should educate myself more on that platforms capabilities.
While Google calendar is one solution, I believe davesudweeks was referring to setting up a calendar on the church's calendar system. I don't use the church calendar tool very much, but from my interactions with it, it's a decent tool. While the church has discontinued other applications, I believe the Calendar tool is actively maintained (I haven't been in the forum in a while, but my impression is that it regularly receives updates; it's possible things could have changed). It the church calendar works for you, the advantage is that you're staying in the church ecosystem and permissions are controlled through the church ecosystem. You might have more continuity through leadership changes.
davesudweeks
Senior Member
#5
I was referring to the calendar on lds.org.

The beauty of a private EQ (or RS) Interview calendar on LDS.org is you can assign access by calling so when callings change, access automatically changes. Though I have never tried it, I understand individual members can set the calendar to sync to their personal calendar on their personal device if they want to (one-way only from the church calendar to their personal calendar).
goold6
New Member
#6
Thank you for clarifying.
casper684
Member
#7
https://www.lds.org/help/support/ward-manage-calendar Info about private calendars. Must be approved by a ward administrator.
davesudweeks
Senior Member
#8
casper684 wrote:https://www.lds.org/help/support/ward-manage-calendar Info about private calendars. Must be approved by a ward administrator.
That is correct. As the ward clerk, I am a calendar administrator.
ldswebsite
New Member
#9
Hi, I am a new Ministering Secretary and am looking for current (2025) information about a scheduling / calendar option and if the Church has implemented anything yet. It appears Calendly (as the first poster mentioned) has the features that would make this easy for everyone including text reminders and follow up thank you emails among other things. A few years ago the Church adopted YEXT to increase search engine exposure and I am hoping they have done something similar for calendar and scheduling. The current LCR system is outgoing email only and circles does not have these features. Thank you for any help! ;-) Joan
goold6 wrote: Sun Nov 18, 2018 10:48 am I am the EQ Asst. Secretary and looking for a scheduling function within LDS tools/mobile tools/or 3rd party software to schedule the quarterly ministering interviews. I spend the majority of my time playing phone tag, email tag, text tag, etc. trying to schedule the companionship for interviews. I'm hoping there is a better way.

I've searched the various posts from all the forums (why did it take me so long to find this great resource? ) but to no avail. The closest I've found 3rd party is this...
https://calendly.com Moodle has a calendar function that displays available times for scheduling.

I know an interview time sign up list is sometimes passed around during SS or the 3rd hour but with the new schedule I see this method become less effective. And this isn't just a EQ situation; obviously the RS, Bishops, and SP have the same situation.


Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm not a techie; I just want to serve more effectively.

Regards,
Michael