Will there will be access to schedule classes at stake level?

Beta Lesson Schedules Website feedback
Post Reply
gmolleda7
New Member
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:58 pm

Will there will be access to schedule classes at stake level?

#1

Post by gmolleda7 »

There will be access to schedule classes at stake level? ie. 4th Sunday clases. Sunday school also at stake level?
lajackson
Community Moderators
Posts: 11460
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
Location: US

#2

Post by lajackson »

gmolleda7 wrote:There will be access to schedule classes at stake level? ie. 4th Sunday clases. Sunday school also at stake level?

According to the curriculum guidelines, Sunday School is scheduled at the ward level. The stake schedules the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sunday priesthood and Relief Society lessons (although the stake has the option of delegating the 4th Sunday to the bishop).
This is currently a ward/branch level only application.
This is an early rollout for beta testing and only wards can schedule at this time. I believe they plan to add stake capability, but wanted to get something out as soon as possible, hence it is not complete.

And do not forget that it said anything you enter now is for beta testing only and may very well disappear before the Scheduler goes into active production mode.

In other words, this is for testing and playing around (hence the term "sandbox"), and I would not get too serious in trying to load everything on the schedule for your ward at this point, because is probably will go away and you will have to do it again.
jasonhyer
Member
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:15 am
Location: Roy, UT

Please consider adding stake into workflow before going live

#3

Post by jasonhyer »

lajackson wrote:According to the curriculum guidelines, Sunday School is scheduled at the ward level. The stake schedules the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Sunday priesthood and Relief Society lessons (although the stake has the option of delegating the 4th Sunday to the bishop).

This is an early rollout for beta testing and only wards can schedule at this time. I believe they plan to add stake capability, but wanted to get something out as soon as possible, hence it is not complete.

First, thank you very much for providing this tool. This has been much requested in my Stake since the new calendar and directory came online and our stake is no longer actively maintaining the legacy tools, including the lesson scheduler.

My comments come from a Stake Clerk's perspective.

I hope this isn't rolled out without having the ability for the Stake to enter lesson schedules for Priesthood and Relief Society and have that roll down to the wards. My experience is that if the stake doesn't have the ability to say up front what lessons should be taught in which weeks, the wards all end up on their own schedules. Leaving it up to wards to list the lessons that the stake provides direction on would be somewhat similar to herding cats. The ability to let the stake input the lesson schedule on the previous version gave our stake the ability to have consistency in our lesson planning that we are struggling with again.

I would suggest that the stake be given the ability to input lessons for Priesthood and Relief Society but give ward administrators the option to override that schedule as there are exceptions at a ward level some times (ward conferences where a different lesson may be taught on different weeks in different wards and the schedule needs to be adjusted for the month is a good example).

I hope this is taken into consideration before this application goes live. If this goes live with only ward administration and then stake administration is added later for priesthood and relief society, it will place a bigger training burden on wards and stakes. I would much rather get the basic workflow in place before the application goes live and build out functionality later than change workflow each time the application is updated.

Jason Hyer
Stake Clerk
User avatar
AileneRHerrick
Member
Posts: 299
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:33 pm
Location: Moses Lake, Washington, United States

#4

Post by AileneRHerrick »

I like the idea of both Stake and Ward Administrators being able to edit the lesson schedule. On the current Classic Website, the lesson schedule may only be entered by someone at a Stake Level. Currently, there is nothing there, and nothing I can do about it as a ward website administrator. However, after reading the post above, I can see why it would be useful for Stake Administrators to have access.
jhowell2000
Member
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:10 pm
Location: Clayton, NC, USA

#5

Post by jhowell2000 »

Sunday School (Gospel Doctrine) lessons are edited at the ward level only RS & Priesthood lessons are input at stake leve in the current scheduler
User avatar
AileneRHerrick
Member
Posts: 299
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:33 pm
Location: Moses Lake, Washington, United States

#6

Post by AileneRHerrick »

Yeah, that's what I meant. I have the Sunday School lessons added, but not the Priesthood and Relief Society lessons. I should have been more clear. :)
jdcr256
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 557
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:53 pm
Location: Riverton, Utah

#7

Post by jdcr256 »

Currently there are not plans to add stake admin functionality in the 1.0 release. We realize the convenience of having a stake admin enter Conferences and RS/Priesthood lessons, and then have those roll down to the wards. However, the added level of complexity of adding a stake layer of admin functionality just doesn't fit with our current level of resources for this project.

The ability to for wards and auxiliaries to create and use a lesson schedule was the priority for the 1.0 release. The convenience of stake "trickle down" functionality is a lower priority. There is consideration and design for stake admin level functionality that is being considered for a later release.
User avatar
AileneRHerrick
Member
Posts: 299
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 2:33 pm
Location: Moses Lake, Washington, United States

#8

Post by AileneRHerrick »

Thank you for keeping us posted! I'm especially excited that I can add lessons from a ward level and that I won't have to rely on someone else to do it. :)
kisaac
Community Moderators
Posts: 1184
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:04 am
Location: Utah, united states

#9

Post by kisaac »

jdcr256 wrote: The convenience of stake "trickle down" functionality is a lower priority.
I'm sure that in some stakes, "convenience" and "trickle down" would not be the proper terms describing how "decisions" by the stake president is presented to the wards.
Handbook 2: 7.8.1 "Fourth Sundays: On the fourth Sunday the lesson is taught...The stake president or bishop selects the message"
Instructions for curriculum 2012, page 6
"If stake conferences or other meetings preclude the teaching of one of these lessons, stake presidents and bishops decide if it should be taught on another Sunday."
Adding such lessons to the stake calendars would continue to be the work-around in some stakes even after the scheduler goes live...
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

#10

Post by aebrown »

As a temporary measure while the "trickle down" approach is being considered, would it make sense to simply give stake-level administrators permissions to each ward's lesson schedules? This would be very similar to the Directory, where stake-level administrators have permissions to edit profiles for every member of the stake.

I get the feeling that in some cases (e.g., Maps) the product managers are concerned about stake administrators micro-managing or conflicting with the realm of ward administrators. But there are some very good arguments for giving stake administrators ward-level permissions:
  • The Handbook gives the stake president specific authority over some of these areas (as kisaac documented) and general authority over all of them.
  • Stake clerks are specifically responsible for training ward clerks; it's very difficult for them to learn what they need to know in order to provide that training with no access. This is an important issue that seems to be neglected in the current direction of the Church with its leader and clerk web applications. I know I'm going to be asked many questions by ward clerks and others about this new lesson schedule module and I will only have a vague idea how to help them. That's not good.
  • Some ward clerks need help at times, either because they are not being faithful in magnifying their callings, or because of travel or illness. A stake clerk is one resource that can step in and help in such cases.
  • In the specific case of lesson schedules, a stake clerk could provide the first pass at creating priesthood and RS lesson schedules in a way that provides consistency across the stake, then turn over administration to the wards.
So if it's not a huge effort, please consider involving stake administrators in lesson schedules.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
Post Reply

Return to “Beta Lesson Schedules”