Gospel Living' app circles

[avonnied]

I will say there is quite a bit of confusion on this.. if this is a youth only app it hasn't been communicated very well to that effect..

maybe an email should be sent out letting everyone know that it is a youth only app for now..

most of the online references (like in the new Era) don't say anything about being a youth only app

[ceciliamckinney31]

How do you get the circles to sync??

[lajackson]

I will say there is quite a bit of confusion on this.. if this is a youth only app it hasn't been communicated very well to that effect.

Since the beginning, the church has said this was an app for children and youth.

That said, the Church is well aware that the app could be used very beneficially by adults, and they have already announced that future revisions to the app will include those features, the ability to adjust circles, and many other feature requests that have inundated them.

[davesudweeks]

In fact, the app was first announced in the Face-to-Face event with Elder Gong for the new program for children and youth. I don't know how more clear of a message that could be. All the examples in that event were children and youth - no adults (except for Elder Gong's "really cool quorum").

The app is not "only" for children and youth, but I think that was the focus given to the programmers for the first roll-out (just a hunch on my part - I have no special knowledge about it). It has useful content for everyone right now on the Discover page. It just doesn't have customized circles for other organizations yet but the church has announced they are working on that. The post of new features being worked on is also on the Discover page (called "You Asked, We Listened. Here's What's Coming In Gospel Living").

[lajackson]

... (except for Elder Gong's "really cool quorum").

That is what got my hopes up, and the hopes of all our leaders. I thought, this is great for the youth, and it will be even greater for the elders quorum and the Relief Society.

Of course, the developers forgot an item or two even for the youth, such as the real world challenges of two-ward Young Men and Young Women, parents no longer together but both still involved with their children, and a few other things.

I hope they get those problems solved quickly for the youth so that they will be able to open the app up to more seasoned folks who, oddly enough, still need all the help they can get in living the gospel.

Somehow I thought old age would be a nice and peaceful and serene time. Instead, I am finding that it is chock-full of patience opportunities.

[russellhltn]

most of the online references (like in the new Era) don't say anything about being a youth only app

I wouldn't say it's "youth only" since it's intended to involve the parents as well.

But you'll notice all the places it's appeared (New Era, Face-to-Face) are youth focused.

[corwinslack]

The public announcement said that there was a Quorum of the Twelve circle. Circles seem to be away for us to manage some of the risk of social media and loosely regulated FB and other groups that do not conform to church policy.

If this is targeted for youth then why doesn't the roll out materials say that?

Frankly if there is not a huge and inclusive push to implement this app I predict failure.

[johnshaw]

The public announcement said that there was a Quorum of the Twelve circle. Circles seem to be away for us to manage some of the risk of social media and loosely regulated FB and other groups that do not conform to church policy.

If this is targeted for youth then why doesn't the roll out materials say that?

Frankly if there is not a huge and inclusive push to implement this app I predict failure.

The public announcement said, The app will be available this year. Period, End of Sentence, nothing about expectations.

I learned a decade ago that Church IT is responsible to other departments in the church. The unfortunate truth for leaders and members is that we're not the technical customer of the tools and apps developed by the church. To have expectations is just to be let down. I guarantee, 100% positive that when an update comes out it'll have some kind of crazy new thing that every will say, WHAT???? and not some very basic thing everyone thinks should be in it. Just look at the content in the 'Discover' app and how it's changing and evolving, and you can see the round-robin church-department 'turns' at enhancing the new tools.

The app fails because of 2 things. Leaders want to use it to communicate but a substantial portion of the 11/12/13/14 year olds still have NO device to use. Enough families don't provide this to children to make it nearly impossible to use as a tool for 'children and youth' because the 'children and youth' are not in the tool. IF you have to maintain a second tool to communicate or still have to rely on word-of-mouth type efforts, the tool will NOT be a place that people do anything. And 2nd, that we, as a church, already communicate so poorly that we have introduced a communication tool that only applies to 1/2 the users and something we can't get everyone to use. So, who is supposed to use it?

[kramann]

Please, please, please put together an Elder's Quorum Member Circle. We are excited to get this app working for our quorum. I also would like an Elder's Quorum Presidency Circle. Kelly Amann EQ President

[geneanhainsworth]

Is there a reason the specialists for quorums are not included in the circle? Is there a way to add them?

Our unit is facing the same issue for Aaronic priesthood quorums and YW classes: the advisors are automatically included in the circles but none of the specialists are.

I’ve looked through LDStools and been unable to find a correlation between how one’s youth specialist calling appears and if it’s included in a class/quorum-specific youth circle.

For example: in our ward some specialist callings are listed in “YW Presidency” in LDStools while others are listed under “Additional YW Assignments.” None are included in the circles. So I surmise maybe a lack of assignment or affiliation with a specific class precluded any off the specialists from being assigned to their class-specific circles?

But no, that hypothesis was debunked...the Aaronic priesthood specialist callings are assigned/listed under a specific quorum in LDStools, yet none of our YM specialists are included in the circles either. So...??

It appears the circles are generated automatically and are based on membership record info. So is it possible a factor could be how our calling data is classified and the data inputted by the unit clerk?

A simple info flow chart/schematics tree created by a tech writer would do wonders to help us untangle this. (Our ward clerk is a great guy—of an older generational and easily flummoxed by technology.)

I’ve sent two pieces of feedback via the app—one addressing specialists needing inclusion in the circles; the other suggesting an FAQ or graphic flowchart determining which callings are included in which circles (to hopefully assist ward clerks in cleaning up how’s assignments and callings are inputted and categorized on their end)

I know, I know, my own ignorance and lack of savvy are showing in how I’ve tried to communicate the problems we’re having

***For those whose specialists ARE included in the circles—what do you suppose made it work for your unit? How are the callings showing up in your LDStools??