JAHS Posted October 23, 2016 Posted October 23, 2016 58 minutes ago, amo said: " When a personal visit is not possible, visiting teachers may use phone calls, letters, e-mail, or other means to watch over and strengthen sisters. " (Handbook 2,2010, #9) So, when it comes to reporting, what Elder Holland said is pretty much the same visiting teachers from the RS do, right ? It is now. In reality I am sure many wards and branches have been doing this for a long time; especially those who have long distances to travel or are assigned too many families and can only make an in person visit a few times per year rather than every month. Elder Holland was just verifying that these other types of contacts are completely acceptable in these circumstances so that home teachers don't feel as if they are failing when they can't visit everyone every month.
Bernard Gui Posted October 23, 2016 Posted October 23, 2016 (edited) My companion and I have over 50 families to contact..........by mail..... They are members who don't want personal visits, but will accept a letter. Every month we mail a gospel message and an invitation to call on us if they ever have a need. These are counted as contacts. After almost three years, none have called, and only two have said to knock it off. Perhaps some day we will get that call. Edited October 23, 2016 by Bernard Gui
Scott Lloyd Posted October 23, 2016 Posted October 23, 2016 3 hours ago, Bernard Gui said: My companion and I have over 50 families to contact..........by mail..... They are members who don't want personal visits, but will accept a letter. Every month we mail a gospel message and an invitation to call on us if they ever have a need. These are counted as contacts. After almost three years, none have called, and only two have said to knock it off. Perhaps some day we will get that call. Do you email any of them? 1
Bernard Gui Posted October 23, 2016 Posted October 23, 2016 7 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said: Do you email any of them? No. These folks haven't been active for years and have not entered their emails on their records.
amo Posted October 25, 2016 Author Posted October 25, 2016 On 10/23/2016 at 1:10 AM, Bernard Gui said: My companion and I have over 50 families to contact.......... And are those 50 families part of your Home Teaching assignment or are they some sort of a special program instituted in your unit to care for the less-active members ?
stemelbow Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 On 10/22/2016 at 11:10 PM, Bernard Gui said: My companion and I have over 50 families to contact..........by mail..... They are members who don't want personal visits, but will accept a letter. Every month we mail a gospel message and an invitation to call on us if they ever have a need. These are counted as contacts. After almost three years, none have called, and only two have said to knock it off. Perhaps some day we will get that call. How'd that get handed to you? I'm intrigued by this though. So many members out there have no contact at all with their local wards. A notice and letter is at least something.
stemelbow Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 Our stake is still doing our pilot program. Frequency of assigned visits is based on activity rates. Those less active or struggling in other ways are visited monthly. Those semi-active and semi-involved are once every other month. those active but seem somehow less involved are visited every three months. Those actively engaged are visited every 6 mos. But with that, we're not supposed to be about checking off visits as assigned, but supposed to try and get as involved as we can with those whom we home teach. At the start of this, which has had to have been 8 or 9 years ago, we were told count everything and anything as actual visits. You can take them to a ball game, or invite them to a picnic. Go golfing with the dad, or whatever. Just try and have a presence and message on the assigned months. I'd say after all this time, ti hasn't worked that well. No better or worse than the normal home teaching program. We all had hoped it'd get us closer to those less involved but it hasn't really done that, save for maybe in a case or two.
Rain Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 48 minutes ago, stemelbow said: Our stake is still doing our pilot program. Frequency of assigned visits is based on activity rates. Those less active or struggling in other ways are visited monthly. Those semi-active and semi-involved are once every other month. those active but seem somehow less involved are visited every three months. Those actively engaged are visited every 6 mos. But with that, we're not supposed to be about checking off visits as assigned, but supposed to try and get as involved as we can with those whom we home teach. At the start of this, which has had to have been 8 or 9 years ago, we were told count everything and anything as actual visits. You can take them to a ball game, or invite them to a picnic. Go golfing with the dad, or whatever. Just try and have a presence and message on the assigned months. I'd say after all this time, ti hasn't worked that well. No better or worse than the normal home teaching program. We all had hoped it'd get us closer to those less involved but it hasn't really done that, save for maybe in a case or two. It surprises me that you are still doing a pilot program 8 or 9 years later. I would think 2 years would be about the length of time for things to be in pilot mose.
stemelbow Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 12 minutes ago, Rain said: It surprises me that you are still doing a pilot program 8 or 9 years later. I would think 2 years would be about the length of time for things to be in pilot mose. Yeah after I typed that I thought about it and it's probably closer to 6 or 7 years. But it's been a long time. And I agree, I would think they would have shut it down or gotten what they wanted out of it and reported on that. But...we're just doing it still.
Rain Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 46 minutes ago, stemelbow said: Yeah after I typed that I thought about it and it's probably closer to 6 or 7 years. But it's been a long time. And I agree, I would think they would have shut it down or gotten what they wanted out of it and reported on that. But...we're just doing it still. They must still be learning from it then. I'm curious about what they are finding.
Bernard Gui Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 10 hours ago, amo said: And are those 50 families part of your Home Teaching assignment or are they some sort of a special program instituted in your unit to care for the less-active members ? Those are our home teaching assignment. We mail them a letter each month. Technically we are supposed to try to visit some, but they are not welcoming to personal visits.
Bernard Gui Posted October 25, 2016 Posted October 25, 2016 8 hours ago, stemelbow said: How'd that get handed to you? I'm intrigued by this though. So many members out there have no contact at all with their local wards. A notice and letter is at least something. When I was serving as ward clerk, I revamped the "Big Board" in the bishop's office. We made a magnetic tag for every member and sorted them by youth, organizations/callings, newly moved in, inactive adults and young adults, and do not contact. On the inactive side, we identified those who would accept visits and those who would not. Around 50 individuals/families said they did not want to be visited by home or visiting teachers, but that it would be OK to contact them by mail with a monthly message. Some of these had been adamant about no contact before, but were fine when asked about a letter. About 10 said absolutely no contact, so they went to the no contact corner. We did not identify the inactive/do not contact folks with any kind of column header. We just knew who they were. When new people moved in, they were approached for activity and visits, and if they wanted visits they were assigned home and visiting teachers. They were added to our list on the active newly moved in column. If not, they were added to the mail list. We write a short seasonal message usually involving the First Presidency messages in the Ensign or General Conference and sign it with our phone numbers and an offer to be of assistance in any way if they need it. It has taken a great load off the EQ and HP leaders....we do the list for both groups. 2
Bernard Gui Posted October 26, 2016 Posted October 26, 2016 Plus, it's been helpful when inactive people move out of the ward, we usually get a forwarding address from the returned home teaching letter. We send the letters in envelopes with the bishop's return address.
amo Posted May 5, 2018 Author Posted May 5, 2018 On 10/2/2016 at 8:47 AM, amo said: After listening to Elder Holland's talk in PM yesterday eve., I get the feeling that a name change is almost mandatory : From "Home Teaching" to "Family Ministering"... What Sayest Thou...? Amo Was I right or what...? 🙄 1
mfbukowski Posted May 5, 2018 Posted May 5, 2018 On 10/21/2016 at 3:27 PM, Scott Lloyd said: The most difficult people to contact are not apt to be the ones you see at church. Believe it or not I have never "home taught" a single person who actually comes to church. They want me to see what I can do with the "no contact" list which is supposed to not exist. Tons of fun!
mfbukowski Posted May 5, 2018 Posted May 5, 2018 On 10/25/2016 at 4:22 PM, Bernard Gui said: When I was serving as ward clerk, I revamped the "Big Board" in the bishop's office. We made a magnetic tag for every member and sorted them by youth, organizations/callings, newly moved in, inactive adults and young adults, and do not contact. On the inactive side, we identified those who would accept visits and those who would not. Around 50 individuals/families said they did not want to be visited by home or visiting teachers, but that it would be OK to contact them by mail with a monthly message. Some of these had been adamant about no contact before, but were fine when asked about a letter. About 10 said absolutely no contact, so they went to the no contact corner. We did not identify the inactive/do not contact folks with any kind of column header. We just knew who they were. When new people moved in, they were approached for activity and visits, and if they wanted visits they were assigned home and visiting teachers. They were added to our list on the active newly moved in column. If not, they were added to the mail list. We write a short seasonal message usually involving the First Presidency messages in the Ensign or General Conference and sign it with our phone numbers and an offer to be of assistance in any way if they need it. It has taken a great load off the EQ and HP leaders....we do the list for both groups. So you had like 400 names on one board and kept them sorted properly? That is the average size ward in our stake yet of course sacrament attendance is far different- 35ish percent
Bernard Gui Posted May 5, 2018 Posted May 5, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, mfbukowski said: So you had like 400 names on one board and kept them sorted properly? That is the average size ward in our stake yet of course sacrament attendance is far different- 35ish percent Yes. All adults and youth. We had around 350. Another wall had photos and names of all the Primary kids. Edited May 5, 2018 by Bernard Gui
Jeanne Posted May 5, 2018 Posted May 5, 2018 8 hours ago, amo said: Was I right or what...? 🙄 I would like to think that part of the reason for change is that the church is recognizing that there are many definitions to family.
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