Tech Forum

I am a web/mobile developer from Jamaica who is also a branch president. Would it be appropriate to develop and use an application that randomly selects speakers and assigns pre-entered topics in advance and emails/sms members an invitation to accept or reject an assignment to speak. I had started working on this but decided to stop after reading the scriptures about directing the affairs of the church based on the spirit.

leocrawf wrote:I am a web/mobile developer from Jamaica who is also a branch president. Would it be appropriate to develop and use an application that randomly selects speakers and assigns pre-entered topics in advance and emails/sms members an invitation to accept or reject an assignment to speak. I had started working on this but decided to stop after reading the scriptures about directing the affairs of the church based on the spirit.

I'm not going to comment on the appropriateness of your idea in anyway, because that is really up to you to decide. But I will say that the Scriptures are designed by the Lord to be a means for personal inspiration, and inspiration is a key element of our faith.

leocrawf wrote:I am a web/mobile developer from Jamaica who is also a branch president. Would it be appropriate to develop and use an application that randomly selects speakers and assigns pre-entered topics in advance and emails/sms members an invitation to accept or reject an assignment to speak. I had started working on this but decided to stop after reading the scriptures about directing the affairs of the church based on the spirit.

I would much rather have a member of the branch/ward Bishopric contact me in person and invite me to speak instead of receiving an Email. I'd like to know that I was invited by someone who felt inspired and wasn't simply filling a time slot.

You lose the personal contact that is an opportunity to resolve any questions, inspire, testify, and express appreciation. There is typically some discussion about the topic and specific points to be covered, length of talk, who else is speaking, etc. that goes on when I have asked someone to speak, so it's not something that would fit in an SMS message.

scgallafent wrote:You lose the personal contact that is an opportunity to resolve any questions, inspire, testify, and express appreciation. There is typically some discussion about the topic and specific points to be covered, length of talk, who else is speaking, etc. that goes on when I have asked someone to speak, so it's not something that would fit in an SMS message.

Well that what i thought why i have stopped, but just wanted to through it out to a group of gospel oriented techies.

The Church Handbook of Instructions also has excellent information on speakers and topics for sacrament meeting. You may wish to look in the section on Meetings.

What is worthwhile is tracking who has spoken and when. That way you don't keep asking the same people over and over and missing others. You can integrate it with the telephone directory so you can call them.

leocrawf wrote:Well that what i thought why i have stopped, but just wanted to through it out to a group of gospel oriented techies.

President,

The reference to the CHI by lajackson is good counsel as well as mkmurray's comment about the scriptures. May I also suggest that you talk with your District or Mission President when you need 'Gospel Oriented' advice. Techies are good for Technical advice.

leocrawf wrote:I am a web/mobile developer from Jamaica who is also a branch president. Would it be appropriate to develop and use an application that randomly selects speakers and assigns pre-entered topics in advance and emails/sms members an invitation to accept or reject an assignment to speak. I had started working on this but decided to stop after reading the scriptures about directing the affairs of the church based on the spirit.

I think you are right to stop as you hit the nail on the head. Giving out speaking assignments should like many things be a personal thing. It is also during that one that much else can be discovered.

I do however agree with Murray as technology can be used effectively here if you instead use it to track the history of your previous speakers and topics to help you prepare for the future speakers.
I dont think a new application is needed as I found a spreadsheet could do the job too.

Technology works best when it assist us rather than does the main job for us.

I dont think a new application is needed as I found a spreadsheet could do the job too.

Could you please give a url to download this spreadsheet?