CHI and OCL from CDOL with stories

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atticusewig
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CHI and OCL from CDOL with stories

#1

Post by atticusewig »

It would be interesting to see the Church Handbook of Instructions(CHI)
available to those who use the Church Directory of Leaders(CDOL). Also,
the Official Communication Library(OCL) could be tied into the system.

For example, if a letter comes out that changes the policy on adoption,
then in the section of the online CHI regarding adoption would link to the letter in the OCL.
Rather than using the church employees, the system could be modified by
the Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Clerks using the CDOL. It would be like a CHI wiki with specific sections locked down so the instructions aren't changed, but the users can link to letters in the OCL that augment of superceed the sections of the online CHI. Thus by consulting this system, one can see that a policy-change letter has occurred for that particular section of instructions.

If it wouldn't cause too much trouble, CDOL members could also add stories or experiences they had when following certain policies. This would be a bonus, but isn't necessary for real function of the CHI wiki - to collect all church instructions into a categorized site for leaders to reference when they have a question on policy issues.

- Atticus
dannykos
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#2

Post by dannykos »

or - just publish Book 1 on CDOL for those with appropriate access, and update it centrally as policy alterations are made.
MorettiDP
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#3

Post by MorettiDP »

Since Book 1 and Book 2 will be renewed by 2011, I believe this itens can be added online in near future inside LDS Access controled systems like CDOL.
dannykos
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#4

Post by dannykos »

here's hoping.
MorettiDP
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#5

Post by MorettiDP »

MorettiDP wrote:Since Book 1 and Book 2 will be renewed by 2011, I believe this itens can be added online in near future inside LDS Access controled systems like CDOL.


Sorry... LDS Account
JamesAnderson
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#6

Post by JamesAnderson »

I'm thinking something a little reverse of what the original poster is referring to.

What I think would be valuable is a listing of letters, by pages in the handbook that they supercede. For example, when Section 9 of Book 2 had a revision in 2006, they were still referring to the stake extraction director as such. Since then, what we called extraction (using the old Universal Data Entry software) has been retired and superceded with FamilySearch Indexing.

I know of some cases where because extraction was retired in favor of Indexing, the stakes simply did not call another director probably because of that name change.

So the idea is maybe not necessarily post Book 1 online, (my example of changes is from book 2), but have have the OCL, with cross references to the pages they supercede content in. and have a table on a page where a leader could find the letter, arranged how the new handbook is arranged. Basically it would work like this using a simplified way of showing what I mean, If a letter superceded a policy on page 4, then it wold be filed under that. If another letter came out and superceded page 2 it would be filed under that and show above the earlier letter in the order, or if something in page 7 was superceded, that would show below the link to page 4 revisions, and so forth.

It would not take much effort, just some simple HTML code to maintain the table of links to the letters in the OCL.

Also, since the actual Handbook would not be online in the case of Book 1 at least, there would be less of a security issue when it came to that book. A table for letters revising Book 2 would be there for those having access to the OCL, but since we now are going to have tools related to callings, maybe having specific sections for Book 2 online for each calling where having the section is part of that calling would be good. An elders quorum president would have several sections, and the revisions for that section available. Same for say the ward music chair, there would be any superceding letters linked to on the page where the link to that section was as well.

Again, probably not a lot of work but doable and it could be done around or after the WWLT broadcast also.
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nbflint
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#7

Post by nbflint »

My number one request would be to provide the Church Handbook of Instructions in electronic format. The Gospel Library App could be modified to allow for authentication to LDS Account. With authentication would come the ability to check a person's calling and determine if they should have access to the CHI. Authentication could be required each time the document is accessed to ensure security.

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nbflint
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#8

Post by nbflint »

I agree with Atticus' original idea of having the CHI available within a secure environment online. I don't always have my CHI with me but I always (almost) have an internet capable devise close by.

I can't count how many times we will teach someone a principle from the CHI and they respond, "How are we supposed to know that when we (the general membership) are not given access to the handbook?" Some of those topics are huge. Just yesterday I had a sister ask me what the Church's standing on surrogate motherhood is. She had no idea the church had a published policy about it. (I hope I'm remembering correctly, I don't have my handbook at work with me.)

I'm not making a case for expanding the distribution of the handbook; rather for making it more accessible to those to whom it has already been distributed.

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gregwanderson
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#9

Post by gregwanderson »

nimebe wrote:My number one request would be to provide the Church Handbook of Instructions in electronic format. The Gospel Library App could be modified to allow for authentication to LDS Account. With authentication would come the ability to check a person's calling and determine if they should have access to the CHI. Authentication could be required each time the document is accessed to ensure security.
Can there really be a practical way to limit access to an electronic version of the Church Handbook of Instructions (Book 1, at least)? And would it just be too tempting/easy to copy and paste sections until, within no time, the whole thing would end up at Wikipedia? I can't help thinking this is a can of worms the church doesn't want to open.

I assure you that I'm trustworthy on this. However, there's nothing in the Chuch Handbook that I, personally, find shocking or "secret" and I can see how easily some people could convince themselves that sharing it would be harmless (especially if they had a dear friend who was struggling with the nitty-gritty details of some church policy topic that affected them directly... like divorce). Please understand, I have no intention of violating policy. I simply think the temptation may be very strong for some. Even if you had an electronic reader which, somehow, didn't allow you to copy, paste or print, could you really disable all kinds of screen capture software?
russellhltn
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#10

Post by russellhltn »

nimebe wrote:Just yesterday I had a sister ask me what the Church's standing on surrogate motherhood is.
My subscription to Church News must have lapsed, since I haven't seen one in awhile, but I seem to remember that at times I'd see an excerpt or policy mentioned on Page 2 (just inside the front cover).
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

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