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Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:37 am
by jds580s
janicehopkins wrote:I am in charge of Missionary in our ward and I can't see many signing up on line. If it isn't right there in front of me I would forget all about it when I got home.
I love serving our Missionaries and making sure they are taking care of.
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I can understand that. It may not be an ideal solution for your ward—It is often easy to forget once you are back home.

Many wards find great success getting signups if they send out an email with a link to calendar and some brief instructions if your members are not familiar with it.

And other wards just use the tool to simplify generating blank calendars each month to pass around on Sunday and don't use the other features.

Thanks!

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:46 am
by janicita
I would reference the Meal Train website for ideas for your new idea. I hope it becomes an official standard tool! I have been thinking of trying Meal Train in our ward, with the hope that less active would sign up. But I'm worried that coordinating the paper version with the online version will cause more work and hassle. I'm sure you have designed a way to print the calendar.

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:28 am
by jds580s
janicita wrote:I would reference the Meal Train website for ideas for your new idea. I hope it becomes an official standard tool! I have been thinking of trying Meal Train in our ward, with the hope that less active would sign up. But I'm worried that coordinating the paper version with the online version will cause more work and hassle. I'm sure you have designed a way to print the calendar.
Yes, it's easy to print a paper calendar from the MissionaryDinnerCalendar website. It prints pre-populated with all the current signups so it's easy to see what days are available and which are taken.

Many calendar administrators 1) print a paper calendar on Sunday before going to church. 2) Pass it around the various organizations while at church. 3) When back home or from a mobile device input the names of the people who signed up via paper into the online calendar.

Then some time during the week if there are still appointments available you can send out an email to ward members, non-members, investigators etc... giving them a link to the calendar where they can signup online.

I find in many wards there are tech savvy members who only want to signup online because of how convenient it is to do when at home in front of the family calendar or in a family meeting, and others who are less tech savvy who prefer to put their name down on paper rather than fiddle with phones and email. I wanted to make sure this tool was able to reach both groups equally well.

Thanks!

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:35 am
by morganbw
With reference to Paper/digital sign up conflicts, maybe assign a ward missionary to be in charge of coordinating the calendar. Once that paper calendar has gone around in that class, enter all the sign-ups online immediately. If there is a conflict work it out with both members right there.

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 5:25 am
by russellhltn
morganbw wrote:Once that paper calendar has gone around in that class, enter all the sign-ups online immediately.
I'd be cautious about that. If you're inputting people's information into an online system without their permission, you could run into trouble. Blocking off the date without saying who it is would be much safer.

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 2:29 pm
by bigjbandit
So, I just found this and love the idea behind it.

I see there haven't been any posts in a few years and wondering if you're still doing any changes to the site.

I would love to see a spot for the member's phone number and then that could be used as a reminder to the member as well as give the information to the missionaries.

With all of the changes in this new year, this could be a really helpful tool.

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 2:45 pm
by jds580s
bigjbandit wrote:So, I just found this and love the idea behind it.

I see there haven't been any posts in a few years and wondering if you're still doing any changes to the site.

I would love to see a spot for the member's phone number and then that could be used as a reminder to the member as well as give the information to the missionaries.

With all of the changes in this new year, this could be a really helpful tool.
Glad you found it!
The "Name" field can actually take more information than just a name. Many members in my own ward put their phone number or dinner time on the name line. As the administrator you can add text above the calendar to instruct members that they can do the that.

Yes, it's still under active development. I've had a number of feature requests that are bundled into what will be the next release.
An email will go out to calendar administrators when that becomes available.
Of course this is a hobby project for me so I don't have a time frame, it has to come behind higher priorities, and life seems to have a lot of those lately :)

Thanks!

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:51 pm
by sdille
I've used this tool on and off over the past couple of years. I think that it is great!

I have run into a bit of a problem. Back in 2017, as the new WML for my ward, I created a new calendar, titled, "Kelly Canyon Ward". I used the tool successfully until I was released and received a new calling. I gave the login and password information to the new WML and then forgot about it. That new WML didn't end up using the tool and didn't keep track of the login and password information. A member who remembered me using the tool has recently been called to assist the missionaries in our ward with dinners and has reached out to me because he would like to use the tool once again.

I've verified that the Kelly Canyon Ward calendar still exists, but I cannot remember the login and password information and there is not an option to reset the password or login name. Any idea on how to recover administrative rights to the calendar at this point?


Respectfully,
Shane Dille
sdilleLDS@gmail.com

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 6:28 am
by davesudweeks
sdille wrote:I've used this tool on and off over the past couple of years. I think that it is great!

I have run into a bit of a problem. Back in 2017, as the new WML for my ward, I created a new calendar, titled, "Kelly Canyon Ward". I used the tool successfully until I was released and received a new calling. I gave the login and password information to the new WML and then forgot about it. That new WML didn't end up using the tool and didn't keep track of the login and password information. A member who remembered me using the tool has recently been called to assist the missionaries in our ward with dinners and has reached out to me because he would like to use the tool once again.

I've verified that the Kelly Canyon Ward calendar still exists, but I cannot remember the login and password information and there is not an option to reset the password or login name. Any idea on how to recover administrative rights to the calendar at this point?


Respectfully,
Shane Dille
sdilleLDS@gmail.com
Good morning Shane,
This is a user-to-user help forum and the developer of this tool may not see your post. If you go to his web page (missionarydinnercalendar.com) you can click on his name at the very bottom of the page (right below the disclaimer that it is not an official page of the church) and send him an email.

Re: Missionary Dinner Calendar

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 9:54 am
by klricks
Just a FYI
The Missionaries in our area are no longer allowed to have scheduled dinners with members as it is prime time proselyting / teaching time.