Tech Forum

I would like help from the community for a project I am undertaking.

I wish to compile a notebook documenting a typical Stake's Technology Specialist's relevant records and instructions (operation manuals, inventory, network map, location of connections, wiring diagrams, etc.). The purpose of the notebook will be for reference and will be handed down to the next STS.

I know this will be Stake specific but I am planning on making templates for distribution to about 40 STS's at our area at our upcoming Chapter meeting. I have already started one of my own but I would appreciate additional ideas from the community as to what subjects, documents, hand-outs, resources, etc. you think I should create and include.

Thanks in advance,

Mike Fish

This is a great idea, and I appreciate your willingness to spearhead this effort and share ideas. Here are a couple of thoughts I've had in addition to the ones you mentioned:

• Log: I've unfortunately not been very consistent in this, so I only have a partial log of the support incidents I've worked on, but I've often wished I had a complete log. The log would list the date, the hardware involved, the people involved, and a brief description of what was done. Issues often repeat themselves, and so it's helpful to know when and how other units dealt with an issue. Also, when dealing with an ISP or the GSC it's helpful to be able to give the history (e.g., "we've had an outage three times in the last 4 months").
• Tools: Although we need to create network maps, etc., it's not easy to know what tools will facilitate the creation of those maps.

I work for the Meetinghouse Technology Coordination team and we would love to hear from anyone regarding their efforts towards creating a Stake Meetinghouse Technology notebook. We are looking to add some content onto mhtech.lds.org relating to this topic. If anyone wants to share with us their ideas, please post them here or email us at mht@ldschurch.org.

I think the FIR system is a perfect vehicle for documenting support incidents. I'm surprised to see no mention of it anywhere on mhtech.

One nice thing I've kept is a list of Units, Unit Numbers, Property Numbers for meetinghouse, firewall sn, subnets, any static assigned devices (used to have firewall type but they are all 881W now) - Satellite Serial numbers are also good to keep. Serial Numbers of clerk computers and licensing (Microsoft Licensing) and any special licenses the units have added like TroopMaster for instance [yes I've emailed the license information to the church, yes the stake president authorized the additional hardware] - as well as the month/year the computer was installed and when the 4th year R&I should have $$ added to replace the computer. I keep a serial number for all our new LCD TV's as well and any additional items like ROKU devices, etc.. that have been purchased through other sources.

TM has centralized much of this and is automated... I've started listing my static assignments in a notes field for the ISP under tm.lds.org - so that is a place it is located as well.

JohnShaw wrote: I've started listing my static assignments in a notes field for the ISP under tm.lds.org - so that is a place it is located as well.

Ohhh, I'm stealing that one. It would be nice if clerk support made a place to store this STS information. For one, it could help automate the scheduling of replacement equipment.

I also list the church monitors and printers as well as the "made on date" for the same.

I also have a list of MAC addresses for our APs. I have it in the "WiFi Analyzer" App in the Android. That way I can see which LDS Access is which when I'm in a "in between" room.

Update: Here is what I have collected so far.

Items to include in Notebook
Emergency contact information
Website links/references
Log of problems
Unit numbers for Wards and Stake
Ward meeting times
High Councilor’s ward assignments, contact information
Broadcast schedule
Inventory of electronics
Building and Ward floor-plans
Wiring diagrams
Network topology map
History of improvements
Plan of future upgrades
Stake Conference Webcasting checklist

Any other ideas?

A) Inventory of electronics could include:
1) Firewall Serial Number, model, subnet network address with mask range
2) Number of wireless access points (AP), vendor and model number
3) HVAC networked controller (e.q., Honeywell WebStat)
4) Networked printer addresses
5) Other groups in a meetinghouse with equipment that is networked (e.q., CES, FM, ERC)

Some information (ward meeting times, HC contact info, broadcast schedule, Network IP and range, etc) could be found on-line. I think it would be preferable to list where the data could be found to avoid stale info or needless tasks of updating it.

I understand the possibility of notebook information getting stale, but the purpose is to have all information in one place. For instance, where are all Ward's meeting times displayed on one web page? And where does it show which ward a High Councilor is assigned to work with? IP address ranges and subnets are only the beginning. A new STS won't know what static IP addresses have been assigned to Clerk PC's, networked printers and network devices.

IMO, newly called Stake Technology Specialists will not know where to go to get those pieces of information. If I want a newly called STS to 'hit the ground running', a notebook with important information (in one place) would be better than him having to research information on his own. After he gets into his calling, he could verify and update stale information in the notebook against current information on the Internet. The old, outdated information could be used as a log or archive.