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Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:03 am
by mlh78
Let me preface this by acknowledging that I am being lazy...

We have a form that we use in the stake to track a calling (i.e., assignments to release, call, sustain, and set apart and related dates). I was hoping to convert the form to a PDF form with drop down menus to select positions and dates. Given Pres. Uchtdorf's counsel to simplify our service and the nonessential nature of the task, I am not going to do it. But I thought I would check to see if any of you have such a form that you would be willing to share.

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:29 pm
by lehrschallbrian
I use a google spreadsheet

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:01 pm
by johnshaw
We use a form that automatically updates our google spreadsheet (for the initial request) then track through additional fields in the google spreadsheet.

What i would give to have a workflow app from the church that could route a request to stk presidency or bishopric, handle the assignment for the call, sustain, then the setting apart.

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:40 pm
by rbest
We have a similar sheet for tracking who is being released. What callings need to be filled. Potential canidates for the calling. approved (by Bishopric or Stake). Contacted to meet with bishopric. Accepted the calling. Substained in appropriate meeting. AND Set apart.
With the transiet nature of our ward this spreadsheet averages 2 pages and is difucult to stay on top of the details and cordinate the information with MLS. If a tool were available in MLS or preferable web based it would save us a considerable amount of manual tracking, and reduce confusion.

Re: Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:18 pm
by jsedmonds
I use Google Spreadsheet as well and have tried to use filters and auto formatting to help simplify the process. But at a stake level I find at times so many things are on the go it still proves difficult to track everything.

Funny that of all the things I do I find that tracking these things the most time consuming. I hope that some day a tool is created for this purpose.

Re: Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 5:37 am
by johnshaw
The leader.lds.org website/solution has a built-in work-flow, it has the ability to flow from ward calling to ward calling, then to stake calling. If we/ICS truly is looking to follow Pres. Uchtdorf's call to simplify, they would provide a solution that automatically tracks this without EVERY ward and stake needing to create their own system... Easily thousands and thousands of volunteer hours are spent each year in this effort.

It is amazing to me this has not be prioritized at the central office.

We use Google Spreadsheets as well.. We have dashboards for each High Councilman and Bishop to see the status of their submissions and what the next-step is related to the calling/ordination/advancement.

Re: Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 5:51 pm
by MGMims
Can I get some links to some of these google spreadsheets with maybe just the header row and no data?

Re: Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 5:03 pm
by jsedmonds
JohnShaw wrote: We use Google Spreadsheets as well.. We have dashboards for each High Councilman and Bishop to see the status of their submissions and what the next-step is related to the calling/ordination/advancement.
I've been looking into a way to automatically update High Councilor and Bishop's so they can see progress versus me doing via E-mail, phone call or recently by updating a google document only they can see. I'm going to be googling "dashboards" but would you share what exactly you've done?

Re: Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:29 pm
by mlh78
jsedmonds wrote:I'm going to be googling "dashboards" but would you share what exactly you've done?
Just did the same; eyes glazed over very quickly. Here's to hoping JohnShaw has some sort of a template he is willing to share.

Re: Form for Tracking Calling

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 9:06 am
by johnshaw
I've attached the Form we publish for requesting a stake calling (required for SP and HC approval), or tracking a Stake Calling the SP or HC submit.

To create a form Just go to your google Drive and select Create --> Form - Each piece of input you request in the Form will populate a column on a google spreadsheet the column heading is the same as the data on the form (you might want to practice a bit before proceeding to make sure you get how that works).

After the spreadsheet is created, you can add columns that aren't typically visible to the process (checked with Bishop, interviewed, counselors selected, etc...) - Note - when you move the inputs on the form around, it does not move them in the spreadsheet, where they were originally in the spreadsheet (when you did your first submit to create the spreadsheet) is where they will be regardless of whether you change the order on the form.

So, for our Dashboards we create separate spreadsheets for each ward and have the following subheadings pulled from the original spreadsheet: (this is only a sub-set of the original spreadsheet and is shared with the Bishop and the HighCouncil representative for that ward)

Name | Ward or Branch | Calling or Ordination | Next Action
Col1 | Col2 | Col3 | Col13

To import the subset of data for the dashboard we use a google function called importrange (http://support.google.com/drive/bin/ans ... wer=155183)

Here is an import range query where we are pulling in data from an original google spreadsheet and selecting specific columns along with matching on a particular ward
=query(ImportRange("0Ag_lRbc5yyFrdHQ2NkNvBigUGLYNUMBERKEEPSASDEF","InProcess!B1:
Z999"),"Select Col1, Col2, Col3, Col13 where (Col2 contains '1st Ward')",0)

I realize this gets into some complicated stuff, but there's a bunch of examples out there if you test it out. The Big UGLY Number is the id of the spreadsheet url, the inProcess is the worksheet referenced in the spreadsheet along with the range of data to import.. of those ranges, we're selecting Col1,2,3,13 where Col2 is the ward)

So this enables us to see the columns I listed above in a separate spreadsheet, share that spreadsheet with just the HC and the Bishop, they always know where in the process the calling is because we are populating the NEXT Action, when we return and report we update the next action piece.

Now, is that so hard :)
Liberty Stake Calling_Ordination Submission Form.pdf
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