Callings app or Software?

Our bishopric uses an old magnetic board in the bishops office to track callings and consider new assignments. The Bishop is considering a more up to date method and is even willing to personally donate a large screen tv so it can be mounted to his office wall. Has anyone developed software that would mimic the function of the magnetic board where you can move names around to spots underneath headings? Perhaps an app that can be run on an iPad and mirrored to a tv, or else software that can run on a laptop feeding the tv?

wrigjef wrote:Our bishopric uses an old magnetic board in the bishops office to track callings and consider new assignments. The Bishop is considering a more up to date method and is even willing to personally donate a large screen tv so it can be mounted to his office wall. Has anyone developed software that would mimic the function of the magnetic board where you can move names around to spots underneath headings? Perhaps an app that can be run on an iPad and mirrored to a tv, or else software that can run on a laptop feeding the tv?

There are some other posts on the forum where individuals have created apps, but the problem is populating them without violating church policies on protecting private membership information. My only recommendation on the TV is to check with the FM group first - your unit does not own the building, you are tenants. The FM group owns the building and if you mount a TV to the bishop's office wall without permission, you may show up one Sunday to find it was removed.

I would expect that the privacy issue could be taken care of by keeping the populated software or iPad secure following policy just like we do with other confidential records. FM has already said no to the tv but we got around that before by running it through the stake. If we can sell the stake president on the idea/need, FM typically does whatever is directed by the Stake. FM didn’t want us to have whiteboards mounted either but a call from the Stake President changed that.

I always cringe when someone suggests creating a new database that duplicates an existing database. Keeping the two databases synchronized can be a full time job.

The Tools app and the Directory are automatically synchronized with the data in LCR. If leaders are not satisfied with the way LCR, the Tools app, and the Directory display callings, they should raise the issue with their area coordinating council.

If a bishopric wants to see the current callings displayed during bishopric meeting, they could use a TV or monitor mounted on an A/V cart. A laptop could be connected via HDMI, or you could use a Chromecast to cast your laptop display or your Android phone screen to the TV or monitor.

wrigjef wrote:I would expect that the privacy issue could be taken care of by keeping the populated software or iPad secure following policy just like we do with other confidential records.

That's assuming the software and it's data is stored on the local device and not in the cloud somewhere. Anymore, that seems to be so "last decade" way of doing things.

Even so, the Meetinghouse Technology Policy says:

4.9.3 The use of MLS data and membership information in third party software is prohibited

My personal belief is that anyone entering personal information about someone else into an electronic system, without their consent, and the system was not created by the church, is assuming all legal risk should anything go wrong. The church is unlikely to come to their defense when they've used systems not spelled out by policy. That risk my be low, but it's not zero. And the fall out could be life-altering.

In this case, it's likely a moot point as I don't know as the software exists. "Position Management Software" is close, but deals with a business/HR setting. To really be useful, the software would need to understand priesthood office and gender requirements for each of the positions.

I know I've walked into a bishop's office to find an array of pink and blue 3x5" index cards on the floor. Not elegant, but simple and cheap.

drepouille wrote:I always cringe when someone suggests creating a new database that duplicates an existing database. Keeping the two databases synchronized can be a full time job.

The Tools app and the Directory are automatically synchronized with the data in LCR. If leaders are not satisfied with the way LCR, the Tools app, and the Directory display callings, they should raise the issue with their area coordinating council.

If a bishopric wants to see the current callings displayed during bishopric meeting, they could use a TV or monitor mounted on an A/V cart. A laptop could be connected via HDMI, or you could use a Chromecast to cast your laptop display or your Android phone screen to the TV or monitor.

I don’t believe in duplicating what already exists either, especially in a database. The only thing that I am trying to duplicate is the functionality of a magnetic calling board.

russellhltn wrote:That's assuming the software and it's data is stored on the local device and not in the cloud somewhere. Anymore, that seems to be so "last decade" way of doing things.

Even so, the Meetinghouse Technology Policy says:

4.9.3 The use of MLS data and membership information in third party software is prohibited

My personal belief is that anyone entering personal information about someone else into an electronic system, without their consent, and the system was not created by the church, is assuming all legal risk should anything go wrong. The church is unlikely to come to their defense when they've used systems not spelled out by policy. That risk my be low, but it's not zero. And the fall out could be life-altering.

In this case, it's likely a moot point as I don't know as the software exists. "Position Management Software"
is close, but deals with a business/HR setting. To really be useful, the software would need to understand priesthood office and gender requirements for each of the positions.

I know I've walked into a bishop's office to find an array of pink and blue 3x5" index cards on the floor. Not elegant, but simple and cheap.

I was asking for advice. I expect that most people here have put confidential information on an agenda in word or put together notes or calling information into an excel spreadsheet. That's confidential information in third party software.

For right now I’ve downloaded a copy of “stickies” from post it notes.

If leaders are not satisfied with the way LCR, the Tools app, and the Directory display callings.....

I think the Church is unlikely to provide this type of "sticky-note" capability, to help leaders as they consider how to manage the domino-effect of potential changes. I echo the concern with data on the cloud... and yes, this also means Google Drive which I'm sure is heavily used around the church for all the right reasons. I think we should always keep in mind that anything put on the cloud is potentially visible to others, so we should limit whatever info we include, and always password-protect or otherwise safeguard the data. That said, basic info like a member's name and their calling, is different than the cellphones, addresses, and other more personal info.

So more to the O.P.'s point, hopefully whatever solution is chosen, allows for the data to be protected, or at least a very minimal amount of data should be included in the app's "sticky notes".

The tools in LCR are great for seeing who is currently serving across all organizations in a ward, but doesn't provide any functionality to managing proposed changes. I'm hoping they come out with something similar to the "proposed ministering" functionality, where an EQP or RSP can modify companionships and assignments, see what has changed, then submit for review without modifying what's live in production. Once reviewed, approved changes can then be published. It'd be amazing to have that same functionality for callings.

One additional consideration with the ministering "Proposed Assignments", is that this exists not only as a sandbox for EQ/RS leaders to "move pieces around the chessboard", but also as a placeholder for the Bishop's review and approval. Not discounting your point, but it may be that the need to have a digital way for the Bishop to review and then approve tons of ministering assignments that the EQ/RS developed independently from him, may have bumped this up on the development priority list. And since there's old-school workarounds for a Bishopric to manage potential ward callings, the Church might not prioritize this.

But it's always good to submit this as Feedback, if you haven't already, via the "Feedback" button at the bottom of most every Church webpage.

I created https://callingmanager.com/ as one solution to this problem. It is essential a digital replacement for a traditional magnet board.

The way I addressed the "duplicate database" concerns raised above, along with the restrictions on transmitting sensitive member record data was to move all the data parsing to the local users browser with nothing transmitted to the website.
After the page has loaded you can even disconnect from the internet before inputting any data and work completely offline.

The disadvantage of this approach is that there is no way to save proposed changes and revisit them later, but that was the best solution I could come up with which stays within the guidelines the church has set. The website does offer the ability to print at the end of a session - either all callings, or just the changes that were made which can be helpful when issuing callings and releases, reading over the pulpit, or handing off to a membership clerk to input.

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