Meetings. It’s what we do in this church. Especially in leadership. I
often wonder if the only reason we have meetings is so people in the
meetings feel important. Meetings could be cut in half with twice as
much getting done. It’s just a matter of getting away from doing it as
it has always been done. This is where the traditions of church meetings
slow progress at times. We have a tradition of solving problems by
getting everyone in a room and then hammering out a solution….or at
least trying to. But typically all that happens is discussion about
issues and then assignments are given out. “You call them, and then I
will call him, and then we can meet up together in a week and talk
about what they said and then I’ll tell you what he said and then we can
figure out what to do with her.”
There is a lot to be said on this topic, (of which I will address at
a later date, and of which I want to hear from you) but for now I want
to give you an awesome tip that I have been using as a High Priest Group
Leader that has saved hours of time and many phone calls. It’s a little
thing called Google Docs. I am sure many out there
already use Google
Docs in school or business. The best thing about Google Docs is the
capacity to share documents and spreadsheets with others. If you change
something on a spreadsheet everyone else (counselors, assistants) sees
the change happen in real time. I don’t want to spend time on the
logistics of Google Docs but mainly paint the picture of how I use it
for collecting home teaching numbers.
I create a spreadsheet in Google Docs that I share with those in my group leadership. Each month gets its own tab. I adjust the new months spreadsheet to reflect the
current home teaching routes. As my assistants and myself gather
information as the month goes on we aren’t bothered with calling each
other to relay the information. We simply gather the information and
enter it into the spreadsheet online and it is current for everyone
without a phone call made.
Obviously, Google Docs isn’t limited to home teaching. It can be used to
correlate any information. Even my bishop and I use it to correlate
information. Check it out and please share other ways of using Google
Docs in church correlation.
For other Mormon life hacks visit www.mormonlifehacker.com
Our Elders Quorum had horrible home teaching percentages when we got put into the presidency. We also live in a rural area where you have to drive 10-15 miles across to meet as a presidency. We implemented using a Google Spreadsheet for reporting and tracking our home teaching. We divided the routes into thirds and each of the presidency was responsible for a district. We called on the 15th of the month to see if they had already done it and/or to remind them. On the 25th if they didn't have an appointment set we would either commit them to do it or ask them if we could help. As we would call, we would update the spreadsheet in real time. When a family was visited we put in the date. If the hometeachers had an appointment we would put it in as an appointment and then follow up to make sure it was done. As a presidency we also do ministering visits on Tuesday nights. We could look at our spreadsheet and see what families hadn't been visited by anyone in a large period of time. Also, after the 25th we would have identified who wasn't going to get their home teaching done and go do it for them. We keep track of whether they were visited by their home teachers or by us, just so that we could go back and look at companionships that weren't getting it done. We gave the Ward Clerk access to our spreadsheet for reporting purposes. The other thing we would do is use a free conference calling service and have our presidency meetings on the phone while updating our spreadsheet with activities, special needs, Bishopric assignments, etc. Our third month in we had a 100% home teaching month.