Handout for ward members- introduce calendar, etc

I've made a double-sided page to handout to our ward members introducing the new Ward Tools on LDS.org. I've made it in part based on questions I've already answered about how to see the directory and calendar, and in part to inspire the local leaders that they need to get up to speed with it as well.

While we really haven't officially made the switch yet to the calendar, the word is out, and people are already asking to use it. Tell me what you think.

I wish I had this ready at the start of tithing settlement!

I'll include PDF and openoffice files, of the same document, if anyone wants to use it as a template for their own handout.

I'd like to see whatever you've made as well!

kisaac wrote: I'd like to see whatever you've made as well!

Here is what I made for us to hand out with tithing settlement. It's not nearly as fancy as yours. It referred to new.lds.org since we did most of our tithing settlement Nov 16 - Nov 23.

These handouts are great. I was just starting to think of something I would work on too, so it saves me the effort.

I like the two-page handout posted at the beginning of this discussion... but... I'm afraid it's just too wordy and I'm not sure people in my ward would want to read the whole thing.

I'm running into what could be a very exciting opportunity. I talked some about the new LDS.org in our PEC meeting this morning and people seemed to agree that it would be good to give the whole ward (or at least a big chunk of the ward) a detailed tutorial on all of this (including how to get the most out of the new calendar system). So, since there's a Fifth Sunday in January, I may get the chance to give such a tutorial during a combined Priesthood and Relief Society meeting.

Perhaps we should all lobby for the chance to take time on the fifth Sunday in January. Perhaps we could all share ideas on how to best instruct the ward members in such a setting. What are the FAQs of the general membership when it comes to the church web site and the local uses? If you had, say, 30 minutes to dazzle a captive audience about what's so special, what would you do?

Thanks for sharing the ideas of how to teach our ward members about the new tools. In my ward the Bishopric has been asking me do a 5th Sunday lesson since this past summer.

I was hoping that an more detailed Powerpoint presentation would be shared. So far the introduction videos, and help messages have been good, but more tutorials are needed.

Please keep sharing ideas!

Thanks!

GregAnderson wrote:If you had, say, 30 minutes to dazzle a captive audience about what's so special, what would you do?

Using PowerPoint, a scripted simulated walk though of the site and features. Why PowerPoint? Because you can rely on it to work at showtime.

What I usually do for that kind of thing is just take a number if screen shots and make them PowerPoint slides. Then as i do the presentation, I move the mouse - which makes the pointer appear - and I click on the appropriate place on the screen. As long as you don't deviate from the script the audience will never know it's not the live site.

my January 5th sunday has been 'arranged' for me by tour area presidency - who want us to use the time to present new pass-along cards, their merits and usage.

Not that I object to being instructed - but I did kind of already have a plan to share the new website tools / calendar offering instead… oh well.

GregAnderson wrote:I like the two-page handout posted at the beginning of this discussion... but... I'm afraid it's just too wordy and I'm not sure people in my ward would want to read the whole thing.

I didn't expect everyone to read (or need) the whole thing, but to have as a reference- so they can use what they do need. We have a wide gap of computer experience in our ward. I find many people need no instruction at all, especially if they've used computers, but many others still need detailed "step-by-step" instructions just to get logged-on. I don't want to leave anyone behind, or have them feel the church is becoming "technical" and they can't keep up (I heard somebody say that!) I only had half my ward signed up on LUWS!

The plan now is to highlight these points, and get more specific in small chunks in the ward announcement sheet for the next few months.

This was based on the questions I'm already seeing. Those question have not been specific about the directory or calendar use, but general, as in "How Do I Log on," "I've forgot my password," etc. Your ward may be different.

We've already handed out a leadership packet on using the new calendar, and plan to have a "live" demonstration in PEC with projector and laptop, and PowerPoint is a good idea.

A fifth Sunday meeting has also been discussed, but not yet scheduled, also using a "live" how-to session. It's also been suggested that we use our family history library computers (we have it in our building) as a "training resource."[INDENT]

"If you have questions, problems or would like to see how you can use your computer to do family history or use the new LDS.org tools, meet Brother Tech in the family history library tuesday night..."

[/INDENT]

RussellHltn wrote:Using PowerPoint, a scripted simulated walk though of the site and features. Why PowerPoint? Because you can rely on it to work at showtime.

... As long as you don't deviate from the script the audience will never know it's not the live site.

really great idea! And do you have the same in a "handout" you give before or after?

RussellHltn wrote:Why PowerPoint? Because you can rely on it to work at showtime.

I should have also added that the screen updates are faster as well.

kisaac wrote:And do you have the same in a "handout" you give before or after?

No, I haven't done handouts. If I did, I'd probably just stick to the "meat" of the presentation - such as a list of what you can expect to to find on the site and a list of steps to get logged on.

We are lost in a sea of new options and choices without any instructions etc. on the new.lds.org login site. Here are a few things that I feel are being lost:

1. How does a user know what ward/branch calendar they can view and access? Example I am the Stake Website Administer/Ast Stake Clerk and also serve as a 2nd Councilor in a YSA Branch. When I access the new calendars I think that the Ward level calendars are my home ward.. How can I access the Branch Calendar, can or is each Ward/Branch calendar labeled so you know what one is displaying or you can check to display... in the old admin of the lds.org Stake/Ward sites (the Green Background), it was very clear that you had to go to a specific Ward or the Stake Admin area... now it seems to blend and it isn't clear what you can or can't do.

2. Stake Lesson schedules for Priesthood/Relief Society and also Sunday School lesson schedules. We like to keep our Wards and Branches in the Stake on the same lessons weekly... we use to use the lesson schedule function to do this... is this being done away with and replaced by the individual study aids?

3. Not being able to log in to a seperate "Admin" area.. I'm not sure what a user without admin acces can see/do in the Calendar functions. Could there be a division similar to what there is in the new Tools dropdown menu from regular options and admin options?

4. We need to have some training/help options..

I agree. There is a great deal of information and new features and training materials would be great. But, there is some information available by clicking on the Help button.

In response to your questions here is what I have found:

1. The Help information indicates that a major update will be coming in Feb to address some of the issues around distinguishing between stake, wards, and branches. Because I can't seem to find a lot about the release I am not sure if all of the concerns will be addressed. Some of that distinction still may have to be at how each unit labels their calendars.

2. The Help indicates that lesson schedules have not yet been developed but there seems to be a plan to do so. As a temporary solution - a stake lesson calendar has been created with an event each Sunday with the Priesthood/RS lesson to be taught.

3. I am a stake clerk and I have additional menu options available to me. As an assistant stake clerk I would think you to would have other menu options available. If you haven't yet, get with your stake clerk or other cleks and see what is available to them.

4. I have found many posts asking the same question. Some have include some attachments. As I read the Help information I am putting some tranny material together but hoping to see more here soon or from the development staff.

Wishing you luck as we plow through all of this. There are some really nice new features.

I've started putting together some help materials at http://tech.lds.org/ldshelp. The calendar has been my main focus, but it seems that the questions never end. I'll try to fill in the gaps of what you asked to add it to the help. I think some of your questions might be answered by the Viewing Calendars page. What other types of instructional materials would you like to see?

I can see how many people are having a difficult time as modules of the classic LUWS are developed and made available. Ideally all the modules of the LUWS would be developed and released at the same time. The new replacing the old. But there is considerable amount of development that is taking place and it is module by module rather than all at once. Thus we find ourselves with the classic LUWS still around and the decision as to whether to use the new, still in development, calendar and directory. We still have access to those parts of the classic LUWS for which there are no new modules yet available such as the home page for convenient information and areas such as the News and Information section and Lessons Schedules.

The first two modules from the LUWS that have been made available, albeit in beta or still in development, are the calendar and the directories, both unit member and leader. The part that causes a bit of confusion for some people is having the new calendar and directory accessed through the home page of lds.org rather than from a unit home page. Bouncing between the classic LUWS and lds.org to get information that had been available from one location, a home page, can be problematic for some people.

For those of us following the transition from the beginning there is not much difficulty in understanding how to get the information we need.

I guess what I am getting to is that the training material needs to have a bit of history and roadmap as to what is happening. This would help answer why we have the situation we find ourselves in today and what we can expect as the development continues until we reach the new LUWS.

I would think that a help topic available on lds.org about the transition from the classic LUWS to the new LUWS would be of considerable help to the membership. Currently a good portion of what I describe as needed is available in the new calendar help. The effort put into that resource is wonderful and helpful. Not everyone looking to get this generalized program information knows to look in the calendar help. Some of that information needs to find its way to the help on lds.org so that it is more readily available since it applies to more than just the calendar.

I can see how many people are having a difficult time as modules of the classic LUWS are developed and made available.

TinMan raises his hand. That is such great insight. Thank you.

Thanks the new tools and site are incredible and exciting! Just reminds me of the Wild, Wild West a bit... as members of the Stakes and Ward forge their way through.. it is exciting to finally see members starting to see value in using the logged in parts of lds.org now...

Do you happen to have the PP presentation you used?

I also created an information sheet to introduce the calendar to the ward council, in case this benefits some of you. I have had a hard time getting others to try it out.

Our stake is also getting the word out about the new website. To get the ball rolling we did a presentation in Stake Presidency meeting to explain to the Stake President and Councilors about the new site. They had known almost nothing about it got really excited. We're going to do a similar presentation to all the Bishoprics in the stake in a few weeks. I think that it's important to remember that the leaders probably know as little about the website as the general members. The Bishoprics/Stake Presidencies have some amazing tools available to them that mostly like they won't know about unless we point it out to them.

As a ward clerk I need to know a lot of this so I can help guide those in the different presidencies. My Bishop is great, as he has been leading the charge, and is better able to explain things than I am, as he has played on the new.lds.org site long before it went live, while I hopped on just a couple weeks beforehand. Our stake presidency use computers every day at their jobs, so they are computer literate (for high council members it is hit or miss). The stake tech support guy is a member of our ward, so just a word in his ear helped make the stake presidency aware of how far along things where/are.

The third Sunday the assistant clerk (four of us, plus the ward clerk) are invited to the bishopric meeting, as a clerk's training session. One of us is asked to give a lesson based on our calling, in my case it was how to use the map feature to find a unit name and number to help speed up the request of records (prior to MLS 3.3). The ward clerk did an overview of the new.lds.org website for the bishopric ward council meeting last year, and it helped make the local axillary presidents aware of what was available last year.

The thing that would help the most, and that the presidencies would like, is to know who is able to view what based on their callings. As an assistant ward clerk for membership I am able to view callings and organizations, yet a secretary for one of those organizations/auxiliary is not able to. The person that I am helping, or training, may not have the same permissions and tools as I do, and so this makes it harder. I can explain that the tools menu is broken into two parts, the upper portion is for all members, while the lower part is for your calling - that is easy. Yet when I try suggesting a tool to use based on their calling, and it doesn't show up, or I provide a link to use after they log in, and it doesn't work, it reminds me that I don't know who can do what on-line. I know that we can only view the data on-line, we still have to be in the clerk's office, using the stake provided computer, running MLS, to make the actual changes, and I am able to explain that any that ask.

Provide the information to those of us that will be conducting the training, and let us decide what to pass along, based on our audience. I am in a smart ward, even if it is not a BYU ward, we have only two members without a computer, and two others chose not to use email, out of 500+ members. The Relief Society has a move-in packet they provide to new sisters, and I was consulted on updating the LUWS log-in and registration info, and where to find the new ward calendar(s). Over the next couple weeks the presidencies will be taking a New Family Search training, and that is also going to be a jumping off point for the new lds.org site. After the presidencies are trained they will be holding training in the different organizations, such as EQ, HP, RS, and YM/YW.

My biggest concern is having the proper information available so I can pass it along to who needs it. I like the first PDF, where it was two-sided, and helped the average member get logged in to the church web site. I think a second sheet based on callings will be helpful for our ward, yet I still need to find the information explaining who can do what, and what tools are available to each calling.

You folks have given me a couple ideas on how to help get the information out there. Thank you

I pondered how to do a brief one or two page summary, but decided that members in my unit would be best served with a longer document showing how to use the calendar with the tasks they will most likely perform.

I don't expect to print this out for each member, although I might e-mail it to the membership. I'll probably produce a copy for each presidency, but that'd be the extent of my hard copies.

jacoblindseth wrote:Do you happen to have the PP presentation you used?

I had posted this in a different thread: https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.p ... w-calendar
but, here is what I said and posted there. Maybe it will help some others with ideas:

I have been asked by our Bishop to do a Ward "activity" where I go over the new tools and websites and such. I have titled my presentation "On The Web, But Not Of The Web---A Guide to the LDS Superhighway". I will be using the power point files shown here. You will notice that it says the presentation is being done by Bro. Seymour D. Webb. That is just meant to be funny (get it? "See More of the Web") Anyway, I plan to use this and a slightly modified version of the "How to sign in" document previously attached in this thread by another member. As you can see, I will be using this in conjunction with an actual connection to see the sites. I also will be demoing a few of the I-Phone/Android apps that are available.

Thanks to all of you for producing and sharing great handouts and presentations for those of us without this talent. I will make use of these when I feel our ward and stake are ready... And I will give credit to those created them....

nutterb wrote:I pondered how to do a brief one or two page summary, but decided that members in my unit would be best served with a longer document showing how to use the calendar with the tasks they will most likely perform.

I don't expect to print this out for each member, although I might e-mail it to the membership. I'll probably produce a copy for each presidency, but that'd be the extent of my hard copies.

Very complete, and thank you, all! If you post it, may we use it? I intended to get far more detailed later then the one that stated this thread as well. While my original document was a very general introduction, this more detailed ones will be fabulous for different purposes, especially for leader training. How to distribute them? Yes, each editor probably needs a hard copy of calendar instructions given at Ward Council.

For the ward...

This and any PDF (unsure on power point?) can be placed in "news and information" section of your "classic" website (because there is not a way to do it on LDS.org yet.) I will then send each member a broadcast email with a link to that specific document by calling it up on my screen and copying the URL to paste into my email. I'll use tinyurl perhaps? That way, I'm sending a small "text only" email with no attachments. You can't attach files when sending to your leaders or ward via the LDS.org "clerk and leader tool" broadcast email service.

If I use the directories' email function, however, it uses my own email client, (mailto:,) so I probably could attached a PDF, but some members on dial-up will not like me because of the download time! (And, my provider once accused me of spamming when I sent PDF's to 32 family addresses.)

Alternately, you could do it similarly by posting PDF's on google docs and distributing that URL, but why not keep it "in-house?"

Use it to your heart's content. Let me know if you see any room for improvement*.



*Especially if you notice I missed any names or contact info. I tried to scrub them all out, but I've been known to make mistakes.

nutterb wrote:Use it to your heart's content. Let me know if you see any room for improvement*.

*Especially if you notice I missed any names or contact info. I tried to scrub them all out, but I've been known to make mistakes.

I quickly looked over your very good document and found a couple of items that you may want to look at.

The first is just something that hit me as unclear that could cause more questions or misunderstanding. On page 2, item 1, Subscribed Calendars, the explanation caused me to reread it several times. Without any previous experience with the calendar or a good understanding of the calender it just doesn't seem to get across what checking or unchecking a calendar title really does. You may want to consider something like the following. "Calendars to which you have subscribed (described later) may be displayed on your customized calendar by checking the box next to the title. Events for unchecked calendars will not be displayed."

The next applies more to the setup of resources at a location than the explanations of the calendar. On page 3, in the graphic of the Event Details, a resource listed is "For Information Only". It is possible to have conflicts for events that have this resource selected when actually no resource is desired. Is it possible that this resource was added with the intent to avoid creating conflicts? To avoid creating conflicts for events that are "information only" use the Location "Other Location" rather than an actual location and then put something descriptive in the Location Details such as "This is for information only".

I'm missing something really obvious and can't seem to figure out how to edit a post :facepalm:

Here's an updated version. Sorry it took so long.

nutterb wrote:I'm missing something really obvious and can't seem to figure out how to edit a post :facepalm:

You can't - you're limited as to how much time can pass before you can do back and edit a prior post.

RussellHltn wrote:You can't - you're limited as to how much time can pass before you can do back and edit a prior post.

That's great! I much prefer system settings over user incompetence!

nutterb wrote:I'm missing something really obvious and can't seem to figure out how to edit a post :facepalm:

Here's an updated version. Sorry it took so long.

That's a nice handout -- it's very helpful to see all the good ideas that are coming from the community.

One thing that's a bit tricky in documenting the calendar is dealing with all the different permissions. One particular possible point of confusion in your handout: your first screen shot has both a Create Event button and a Subscribed Locations box. Neither of those will be present for regular members -- you have to be at least an editor to see either of those elements. But if your primary audience is calendar editors and approvers, then that's not a problem.

Has anyone made an updated version of the handout for the new LDS.ORG? The graphics in this handout are out of date now.