It was an online tool that allowed you to submit a form for a Stake Calling, a calling that was ward based but approved by stake (e.g. Elders Quorum leadership) etc. or a form for a release. The form would capture the name, the calling being talked about, the Unit the person was in (from a drop down), what the current calling was, whether a release was also needed (check box) which would trigger a release record as well, who was submitting the request as well as their email. This would then trigger an email to me as Clerk with the detail.
Inevitably, this would feed a database and in the admin part of the system, you had a dashboard with callings at various stages. As the system is now offline, I will attempt to list them from memory:
1. Stake Presidency approval - This would enable names to be discussed in Stake Presidency meetings and once prayerfully considered, you would select from a drop down either Approved or Not Approved. If Approved, you had the option to then Send to the High Council for sustaining. You could select the deadline for Votes (default was two days), and also select who would carry out the interview and calling once it had been sustained or not. This would then automatically email all the High Council members who names and email addresses were set up in the system.
2. High Council Approval - HC members would click on the link in their email which would specify the name and the proposed calling. It would take them to the site where they can log in and set their sustaining to Sustained, Opposed and also give them a box to fill in with comments should they wish to. In the admin part, you can view the HC Approval status which listed all of the HC and whether they had voted or not and what they had voted and you could see any comments to relay back to the Stake Presidency. Once you had all the votes in, or the deadline had passed you could mark the "Final Approval" as approved or not as the case may be. If marked as approved, an email was sent out to the assigned person to carry out the interview and click a link to fill in details such as the date interview was scheduled, when it took place, whether they had accepted the calling or not.
3. Interview stage - This would be a list of those who was at interview stage and you can track the progress.
4. For sustaining - List of those that had been interviewed and had accepted the calling. At this point, you could click on the Report section and produce a report of all those that were at this stage that needed sustaining and releasing that could be sent to the High Council and other Stake officers who could then have a calling sustained in the units and conduct the releases from the pulpit. The wording they might like to use was also included. This section also had a place to record the date the sustaining or release was done in each unit and by whom. You could also record a blanket date for the whole stake as necessary.
5. Set apart - This section was for recording the date the person was set apart and by whom.
6. LCR - This section was split into two. One for had it been recorded in LCR , the other had the setting apart been recorded in LCR. Often, the sustaining is done and it can be some time before the setting apart is taken care of for whatever reason. This just helps keep track of who still needs to be set apart.
I may have missed a bit, but the callings section also gave a list of all those that were progressing through the system so that you could amend, cancel or delete a request. The database would also keep a record of any other callings and individual was being considered for and you could report on individuals to see what historic callings might have been recorded years back.
The automation and ease of tracking in this system was what made it great. Emails were automatically generated and sent to those that needed to act on the next stage. It could also track priesthood ordinations from beginning to end too.
It also sent out a weekly email to everyone on the stake presidency to show where callings were in the process.
If the wards were savvy, they could also use this system to track and progress all their callings too and it would dovetail into stake.
I have the email address of the amazing person who set up this system if you would like to get in contact with them and I'm sure they could give you a better run down. I am sure I have missed out loads.
which I have found invaluable over the years at stake level for keeping track of callings, sustainings etc. does anyone have any tips on spreadsheets or their preferred way of keeping track of callings?
