Annual ward history template?

[chriswoodut]

I'm on my fourth year doing a history, either for ward or stake RS. I think all of these ideas are great.

There actually is a template available. Here is the link: https://www.lds.org/callings/church-his ... rt-eng.pdf

This is very basic, and I think might leave out some interesting details. However, maybe this is enough? I just discovered this form a couple of days ago, AFTER I had already finished my history for 2018.

That's a very different history than I do. I think if those are the church wants asnwered, I think a Bishop would likely choose a different person to do the history than me. Like... himself or a counselor.

[davesudweeks]

That's a very different history than I do. I think if those are the church wants asnwered, I think a Bishop would likely choose a different person to do the history than me. Like... himself or a counselor.

I think those are actually quite good questions for auxiliary leaders to consider, but each unit is different and the answers would be quite different for different organizations. As the ward clerk, I see my role as providing the general statistical information for the year and compiling the organization responses to those questions into a single document. I review the individual organization portions for format and spelling, but leave them as submitted by the organization president otherwise. I have provided those suggested questions to our ward organizations, but if they don't use them I don't worry about it.

Compiling the ward history is also a good assignment for an assistant clerk or someone else who could use the experience.

[KerryBird]

I have been a stake or ward clerk for many years. I love how we are getting more “paperless” and can do so much online. I think it is time for our annual histories to go paperless. I imagine that there is a huge storage facility somewhere with years of records. We can save a lot of trees and save storage beginning now with a simple change to submit all future records online

[scgallafent]

I have been a stake or ward clerk for many years. I love how we are getting more “paperless” and can do so much online. I think it is time for our annual histories to go paperless. I imagine that there is a huge storage facility somewhere with years of records. We can save a lot of trees and save storage beginning now with a simple change to submit all future records online

Annual histories can be submitted electronically. The instructions are in the "Stake, District, and Mission Annual Histories" guide.

[KerryBird]

Can I suggest that the Sustaining of Officers form used in stake and ward conferences go paperless? We fill out the form online and it could be submitted to the Church Historical Department after conference, instead of saving a paper copy to mail in with the annual history. I am a big fan of submitting the annual history online, but haven’t tried it for the stake yet. Has any other stake clerk tried? How did you do it?

[scgallafent]

Can I suggest that the Sustaining of Officers form used in stake and ward conferences go paperless? We fill out the form online and it could be submitted to the Church Historical Department after conference, instead of saving a paper copy to mail in with the annual history. I am a big fan of submitting the annual history online, but haven’t tried it for the stake yet. Has any other stake clerk tried? How did you do it?

The form is supposed to be included with the annual history. One option is to save the PDF file that is generated when you print the form from LCR and then include that with the history when it is submitted electronically. Our ward typically has ward conference in January, so the clerk emails himself a copy of the form so that he can find it twelve months later when working on the history.

[KerryBird]

I was aware of that option, but I get so much from the wards in paper form that it doesn’t work.
If I used Word, that would be an option. I also don’t have Adobe to do a huge PDF. The Church doesn’t pay for this software on the unit computers, either. So, I don’t know if very many are submitted electronically.
What I want is an app in LCR where I can add all of the photos and documents for my stake history. It could let me know when the alloted memory is reached.

[chriswoodut]

I was aware of that option, but I get so much from the wards in paper form that it doesn’t work.
If I used Word, that would be an option. I also don’t have Adobe to do a huge PDF. The Church doesn’t pay for this software on the unit computers, either. So, I don’t know if very many are submitted electronically.
What I want is an app in LCR where I can add all of the photos and documents for my stake history. It could let me know when the alloted memory is reached.

I use Google Docs to create the ward history. Then I export it as a PDF (google doc function) and email it to the stake. All free tools.

[KerryBird]

How would you get nine ward and four stake auxiliary reports into one document and keep it under 12 meg? I am willing to give it a try. What could I tell the ward clerks that would help them have it ready for next year?

[chriswoodut]

How would you get nine ward and four stake auxiliary reports into one document and keep it under 12 meg? I am willing to give it a try. What could I tell the ward clerks that would help them have it ready for next year?

What is the 12 meg limit from? Email limit? You can transfer via another method -- I'm not sure who you're transferring it to. My ward's history pdf for 2018 is 36 pages and is 8 meg due to the photos. In 2017 it was 13.5 meg and about that for 2016. For submission to HQ, I wouldn't think they would want the entire stake all in one PDF, would they? I would think they are storing them at the ward level rather than the stake level. Putting them all in one PDF would be a headache later for anyone wanting to access them.

EDIT:
You can use https://www.sendthisfile.com to securely transfer files up to 2gb and the receiver doesn't need to have an account to access it (just an email address).