Unit history tool

[davesudweeks]

And the best way to "be sure it was on someone's radar" is to report via the formal feedback mechanisms (use the feedback link on any church web page, from within the app for app issues, or escalate it through your Stake President to the coordinating council he is a member of).

[jknorpp]

I'm having the same problem, i.e. all authorized callings show as "not assigned".

[jstamps]

Thanks for the advice! I didn't think about the Feedback reporting, and will do that now. I spent a lot of time on this forum a dozen years ago as a clerk, but hardly any recently. Have a great Sabbath!

[SBrown666]

Two Questions: 1. I am trying out the system to see how it works. My first issue is that there is not enough space and I have had to cut out important parts of an article I wrote. Why only 8 to 900 words??? If there needs to be a restriction perhaps around 1,500 words would be more realistic and useful? 2. As History Specialist, can I enter an article written by someone else with their approval and attributed to them? Again I have come up against the word limit as the first article I want to use is 1,200 words, not excessive, and all very relevant. Also there is an article by a new member I want to appear about her conversion, and additionally an article written by a child about her baptism in the sea. They cannot be "invited" according to callings, but their stories are vital.

[jdlessley]

For your first question a unit history FAQ states:

What should I do if the story I want to create exceeds the 5,000 character limit?
You have a few options. You can write the story and attach it as a PDF, or you could write the story in parts (for example, Part I, Part II, etc.).

For your second question a unit history FAQ answers a related question that gives your answer in the last sentence:

What should I do if I have content previously created for this year's history?
Please input any existing content into the Unit History tool. Simply copy and paste the previously created content into the story template or enter a title and attach the previously created content as a PDF or JPEG image. Make sure to credit the original authors.

The last concern about an story written by a new member and their conversion can be handled using the same method described above for your second question. There is also an additional unit history FAQ that addresses this:

How can others outside of traditional leadership roles contribute to the history?
Only certain unit leaders can author a story. However, additional content generated by other unit members may be included in a story if an authorized leader so chooses. Keep in mind, authors should never share their Church Account information for the purposes of letting someone else author a story in their name.

[davidpauldalling]

Ours is live here in Charleston SC.
I serve as the Stake History Specialist.
I am thinking notices went out to unit clerks and stake leaders.
As I am receiving questions for ward clerks.

[BrianEdwards]

Also there is an article by a new member I want to appear about her conversion, and additionally an article written by a child about her baptism in the sea. They cannot be "invited" according to callings, but their stories are vital.

To add to @jdlessley's good input, our plan locally for these types of situations, is to send an invite to the organization leader, asking them to create stories for specific events in their organizations. So for a new member's conversion story, the invite would go to the Mission Leader. And for a child baptism, the invite goes to the Primary President. Obviously these leaders could take the initiative without an invite, and create the story on their own, but that's our current plan. We'll see how it works out in practice...

[mejaka]

I'm a Ward History Specialist and I was absolutely giddy about this new tool. I love the idea of history in real time, and also the way it will nudge the emmphasis towards stories that have meaning for the faith of our wards.

The Primary secretary and I are good friends and we've spent about an hour testing things. I've sent her invitations and she's written stories; I've been able to edit those stories. I believe I've also been able to add to stories when I sent the invitations to both her and myself and she started the story. But when I include myself on the invitation and start the story, while she was able to edit it, she wasn't able to save her edits so I was never able to see them--they just vanished when she clicked "SAVE AND CLOSE" even though the "SAVED AS DRAFT" popup appeared.

I'm interested if anyone else has tried to have a story with multiple authors and how it worked. We recently had three children in one family baptized on the same day--a Primary child, a young woman, and a young man. It's a complex story involving a part-member, mine/yours family, and it was a perfect story with which to inaugurate this program in our ward. My initial efforts to have a story with multiple authors weren't working and I didn't know whether it was that I wasn't doing it correctly or that the people to whom I sent the invitation weren't responding, which is why I ended up sitting down with my friend and trying a few things. (I'll also be talking to all the invitees tomorrow...)

Has anyone managed to invite several people to participate in authoring a single story? How did you manage it?

[dajoker]

I haven't tried the multiple authors thing, but I have authored several things for histories sent to me for our stake, and found a few other bugs that were pretty frustrating. For now, I'd probably recommend treating this as beta software (it's brand new after all) since I have also lost data doing simple things that seem like they should not behave that way.

One of the features of the Unit History tool is the ability to tag people mentioned in the entry. This doesn't actually limit you to people as you can type in complete nonsense, but it's a nice idea that, if people can avoid typos, could have some interesting potential going forward. The problem with this is that, in multiple computers, and various browsers, if you have multiple people tagged, and you erase any one of them, it erases all of them. I almost gave up on this tool the first time I used it, entered the Primary history, including names of people baptized throughout the year, tried to delete the second-to-last one because I realized it was a duplicate, and lost the whole list. I know this isn't official, and I do not expect the product manager to come back and see this, but beware: it's beta software.

Also, as a note, the site is open to at least one stake in Provo. When it was made available an e-mail was sent to people like me (I have access). In general I think this idea is great to better capture histories, including miracles that happen today for many people but may be forgotten/lost by the end of the year or if only able to be recorded by organization presidents.

Hopefully the implementation can be improved quickly, but my one attempt to submit other feedback via the site resulted in, "You used the wrong feedback link... try the other less-obvious one." and a closed ticket, so I didn't, as I don't have time to send detailed feedback twice when it isn't appreciated the first time (I may have a bad attitude about this, but I don't like to be fooled twice).

[cljgentry]

Does anyone know the photos-with-people-in-them policy? We usually have to get signed consent for photos with people in them, and submit it with the physical/paper ward history. With this new online way, do we get the form signed, then upload it as a document with the story?