Home and Visiting Teaching Planning Program

So you have the BIG idea that the Church or community needs to develop. Discuss that idea here. Maybe you just want to make a suggestion on a new forum topic. Let us know.
Circuit-p40
New Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:38 pm

Home and Visiting Teaching Planning Program

#1

Post by Circuit-p40 »

Has anyone built or does anyone know of a program that would facilitate the planning of Home and Visiting teaching? I have had this idea to do it for a while but I wanted to know if anyone has built one yet. If not what do you recommend building it in?
User avatar
WelchTC
Senior Member
Posts: 2085
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 8:51 am
Location: Kaysville, UT, USA
Contact:

#2

Post by WelchTC »

Visit http://www.ldsteach.com as they have some good resources. I also know of this tool. I've seen programs out there that allow you to track HT/VT but I'm not sure if I've seen anything specific for "planning".

Tom
grhart-p40
New Member
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:49 am
Location: Palo Alto, CA

#3

Post by grhart-p40 »

Here are two examples from http://www.ldsoss.org. The first one uses MLS for the organizing and the web for sharing, gathering reports, and tracking visit history. The second one may be more of what you're asking about.

-Greg
Circuit-p40
New Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:38 pm

Great Ideas

#4

Post by Circuit-p40 »

Thanks for your input but I was thinking of some way that is a little more user friendly, perhaps something with a drag and drop feature that would allow the elders quorum to visually see who is assigned to whom and who still needs to teach.

My idea is to basically be able to import the list of all the elders in the quorum to the program and then the program would create a bunch of boxes with each person's name in it. The elders quorum presidency would then be able to see instantly who hasn't been assigned and who has. It would then be able to cerate a printout or export to a spreadsheet.

I am thinking of witting this in one of three languages VB, flash, or Javascript.

Since I have never been a ward clerk before I was wondering if the clerks can even hand out that kind of list in a digital format and if so what format is it in?
User avatar
thedqs
Community Moderators
Posts: 1042
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:53 am
Location: Redmond, WA
Contact:

#5

Post by thedqs »

They do but you'd have to parse the csv file that has all the ward membership info, there might be another way, but I helped with MIS when that was the only exporting method.

If you have a techy ward clerk you might be able to get him to pre-format it.
- David
Circuit-p40
New Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:38 pm

Good point

#6

Post by Circuit-p40 »

That is great. CSVs are really simple to parse and if that is the default method then it would be easy to get all the info you need and you wouldn't have to have a techy ward clerk. I hope in the future all the ward clerk would have to do would be to mark a member as a Elders Quorum president or Relief Society President and MLS or MIS (I can't remember what program it is called) would automatically generate en encrypted email and send the attached program with all the names entered in it already.

I know that is far off in the future but for now I will try and work on the standalone version.

Thanks for all the input and if you have any ideas for this project or would like to help post your desire or ideas here and we will set something up.
User avatar
thedqs
Community Moderators
Posts: 1042
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:53 am
Location: Redmond, WA
Contact:

#7

Post by thedqs »

The only reason why I mentioned that the ward clerk give you a modified csv was to take out all the sensitive information. Though you could make the program and then give it to him and he gives you the results. Anyway good luck!
- David
User avatar
brado426
Member
Posts: 313
Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:50 pm
Location: Foothill Ranch, CA
Contact:

HT/VT Reporting

#8

Post by brado426 »

Hi Folks,

I'm the guy that developed one of the Home/Visiting Teaching applications that Tom mentioned earlier in this thread. Since Tom posted a link to the site, I feel that I can freely talk about it now.

HTReporting.com automatically e-mails the home teachers requesting a home teaching status and provides them with a link to click on to do so. Clicking on this link directs the teacher to the htreporting.com website. The home teacher's companion and households are then displayed in his web browser. The home teacher can then specify "Visited", "Not Visited", or "Appointment Made" for each of their assigned households using drop-down lists. The home teacher has the option of typing in a comment for the presidency. If they enter a comment, this comment is automatically e-mailed to all presidency members.

The home teaching file must be exported from the MLS system and uploaded to the htreporting.com website. This process must be repeated any time the home teaching assignments change. Any of the presidency members can upload a new home teaching list at any time as changes are made to it. The presidency members have the ability to report for any home teachers that either do not report or do not have e-mail.

Several security features are included to ensure that the data doesn't end up on Google or Yahoo and to keep the data secure such as SSL and passwords embedded in the URL.

The site does not allow you to change companionships or home teachers. Two-way communication with the MLS data would be required for this feature, which is not currently possible.

A nice report is generated that displays the totals and results. The website styles could certainly be better, but the functionality is there.

The major benefits we have realized so far are:

1. Centralized Home Teaching Repository - All presidency members have real-time access to the home teaching information and can update it at any time

2. New channel of communication between teachers and presidency - The ability for the teacher to enter a comment for the presidency has proved to be extremely valuable as information is relayed would have otherwise not been communicated. Also, there is no longer any confusion about who is assigned to which household or companion. No more passed out slips of paper to lose.

3. Significantly decreased time spent on reporting tasks - We now make 10% of the phone calls we used to. It is really now a one-man job.

4. We now find ourselves spending more time teaching and helping our families, and less time reporting.

This application was created using C# and ASP.NET 2.0.


Thanks for listening,

Brad O.
User avatar
mkmurray
Senior Member
Posts: 3266
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:56 pm
Location: Utah
Contact:

Security Issues

#9

Post by mkmurray »

brado426 wrote:The home teaching file must be exported from the MLS system and uploaded to the htreporting.com website.

Tom,

I know in other threads we've talked about the risks in uploading member information to another server not managed by the Church, secure or not. Does the home teaching file incur any of this risk?



To all,

I would take Brad's explanation of the utility as a chance to help improve and add to what has currently been developed.

However, I do have a caution to everyone; Brad was careful not to cross the line, but we don't want to get too close to advertising and promoting a certain program or site, even if it's open source. I don't want someone seeing Brad's post and thinking it is their turn to put in a plug for their software. That is not what these forums are about.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.
User avatar
brado426
Member
Posts: 313
Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:50 pm
Location: Foothill Ranch, CA
Contact:

Valid point, mkmurray.

#10

Post by brado426 »

You raise valid concerns, mkmurray. I admit I had the same concerns and pushed forward with this project anyway because of the extreme benefit I felt it would provide. I dealt with the situation by adding multiple security features, but we all know that nothing is 100% secure.

I do not want to do anything that is not approved of by the church and am willing to make any necessary changes to make this a success. My hope is that this system could one day be endorsed by and even encouraged by the church, however there are still several unanswered questions in my mind.

Brad O.
Locked

Return to “Ideas & Suggestions”