Submit annual history online?

Discuss where to obtain or how to fill out specific reports or forms.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34418
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

Re: Submit annual history online?

#11

Post by russellhltn »

jamesfindlay wrote:I have been assigned by the Church History Department to begin gathering requirements for a possible electronic annual history submission tool. I have read through the comments above and have noted the pain points expressed. What other pain points on the current process do you have that you would like to share? What would you like to see in a proposed electronic submission tool?
johnshaw wrote:I'd love to see something like what I can do with FamilySearch and my ancestors. The 'report' is great, but what about fun videos from Youth Conferences and YW Camps. Is there a way to pull in a social media scrape as well as many wards/stakes have created social media, those are my things.
Which begs the question of what exactly is on the table? It might be good to clarify that before everyone goes too far afield. Is multimedia being considered?
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
jamesfindlay
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:45 pm

Re: Submit annual history online?

#12

Post by jamesfindlay »

Yes, multimedia is being considered. Video, audio, photos. There is also provisions for in-tool text creation as well as uploading of pdf, word, excel, powerpoint.
jamesfindlay
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:45 pm

Re: Submit annual history online?

#13

Post by jamesfindlay »

All of this is currently in our requirements document. Workflows are planned that allow for review and approval at the ward and stake levels. Thanks for the feedback. What if we made it so members of the Ward Council could log in and add stuff to the accumulating annual history? Would the do it?
User avatar
mfmohlma
Senior Member
Posts: 854
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:45 pm
Location: Hillsboro, OR

Re: Submit annual history online?

#14

Post by mfmohlma »

It would be great if you could have your history as a "living document" where members could upload what they think is relevant for the history during the year, the history editor could edit it and then have the leadership "pre-approve" snippets of it as the year goes along. This would give a fresher look at the history and avoid the yearly crunch.

I love the idea of being able to add videos and other media as well.
jamesfindlay
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:45 pm

Re: Submit annual history online?

#15

Post by jamesfindlay »

Yes, that is also in the plan. Great thoughts! Keep them coming and spread the word if you can. We want to understand our audience needs as much as possible!
simsbc
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2015 7:40 pm

Re: Submit annual history online?

#16

Post by simsbc »

It is very important to be able to capture any possible document and import it into your main program. For me right now, it is MS Word because you can attach and import almost anything including PDF's. Pictures and video are very important to the history and while Word does great with text and pictures, it is difficult to use for video. Most folks do not have the knowledge to configure these programs, so any supplied program would need to be very simple to operate.
Also it would be very helpful to have a list of what is really important, as opposed to what is thought to be important.
jamesfindlay
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:45 pm

Re: Submit annual history online?

#17

Post by jamesfindlay »

simsbc wrote:Also it would be very helpful to have a list of what is really important, as opposed to what is thought to be important.
What do you mean by this?
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34418
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

Re: Submit annual history online?

#18

Post by russellhltn »

jamesfindlay wrote:
simsbc wrote:Also it would be very helpful to have a list of what is really important, as opposed to what is thought to be important.
What do you mean by this?
I'll take a stab at it. What are people going to look for when they want to look at the history of a ward? A collection of Sunday programs might be nice for the part that documents who held what calling, but the bulk is likely to be uninteresting. (A sample of one or two would be sufficient.)

OTOH, there are likely some changes that will be of interest that might be forgotten. A favorite of mine is building changes. Maybe not new carpets as much as significant changes to the building - such as expansions. Future historians might be curious about when WiFi was rolled out.

I think a "checklist" of things that should be in the history is an excellent idea.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
jamesfindlay
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 3:45 pm

Re: Submit annual history online?

#19

Post by jamesfindlay »

russellhltn wrote:
jamesfindlay wrote:
simsbc wrote:Also it would be very helpful to have a list of what is really important, as opposed to what is thought to be important.
What do you mean by this?
I'll take a stab at it. What are people going to look for when they want to look at the history of a ward? A collection of Sunday programs might be nice for the part that documents who held what calling, but the bulk is likely to be uninteresting. (A sample of one or two would be sufficient.)

OTOH, there are likely some changes that will be of interest that might be forgotten. A favorite of mine is building changes. Maybe not new carpets as much as significant changes to the building - such as expansions. Future historians might be curious about when WiFi was rolled out.

I think a "checklist" of things that should be in the history is an excellent idea.
Indeed. Have you seen the materials posted here:
https://www.lds.org/callings/church-his ... e?lang=eng
dellellison
New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 10:28 am

Re: Submit annual history online?

#20

Post by dellellison »

manielsen2002 wrote:... The problem is that they limit the size to under 10-12 meg attachments in emails. As time goes on, that limitation will become a problem, and in fact it is already a problem. ...
Who has some good solutions on how to more easily fit the annual history into 10-12 meg?
We usually collect all docs and put in a word doc and then print to pdf and then compress to zip file.
While we are collecting docs to put into word doc, we receive all different types of docs from wards.
We can only import the first page of a pdf doc so we have to use snipit to get the other pages but don't know if there is a better way.
Are there other text formats that will compress more efficiently?
Any other ideas or hints?
Thanks in advance
Post Reply

Return to “Reports and Forms”