Report Submission Form

[dove]

I don't know if everyone sends in their time in the same way, but I get sent a text message each month sending me a link to ****.io/JJY. That brings up a form to fill in with the same information we always entered on the paper time slips.

I have no problem until I get to the part where you have to scroll to fill in the answers, such as Group, Month, Year, Hours, Placements, etc. When I try to scroll to the right answer, I must always touch something the wrong way and I lose the screen, even the whole link, and have to start all over from the beginning. This happens to me every single month. I fill it in over and over and over, etc, etc.

Finally, I wrote a message in the message box at the bottom of the form explaining my problem and what I could do to correct it, and when I tried to send it, it too disappeared. 😬

This has been going on  for me since we started using this method. I have continued to persevere, but  some months like this morning, I thought there's got to be another way.

So is there is an alternative way to submit our time with email or something other than this touchy screen? 🤔

 

****************

Edited to remove live link to Cong. report

Edited June 2, 2021 by rocket

[jwhess]

We just made an email with the congregation name and the word secretary" at gmail.com.  So it would be something like....fairfieldsecretary@gmail.com

then each person sends in the data. I still use the old report form but most just type in the message.

 

If you use a PDF reader that allows form filling, this PDF is fillable on each line.

 

S-4-JHess 05-2021.pdf

Edited June 1, 2021 by jwhess

[dove]

Thank you brother Hess. Maybe I should ask the secretary about this then? 

There are also other questions on the phone link, like email address, phone number, et that weren't on the old time slips so maybe I could just add them in if they require them, but maybe not if it's not sent electronically..

 

[Myew]

Pretty much every congregation is unique, you might speak to your field service overseer or the Elder who is service coordinator. Most I know of just send their time and count directly to their service overseers in text or email or call, who then forward it to the service coordinator, who forward it to the branch. I would simply recommend opening links on a computer instead of a touch device.

Also, a caution to please not post links for your personal congregation online.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Myew

[dove]

Thank you, that’s what I will do..🙂

[Old]

51 minutes ago, jwhess said:

We just made an email with the congregation name and the word secretary" at gmail.com.  So it would be something like....fairfieldsecretary@gmail.com

then each person sends in the data. I still use the old report form but most just type in the message.

 

If you use a PDF reader that allows form filling, this PDF is fillable on each line.

 

S-4-JHess 05-2021.pdf 545.54 kB · 3 downloads

I just send my SEC a brief email

 

Lytle's Report for March 2021

Jerry     Placements 3     Videos 1      Hours 11       RVs 3       Studies 0

Gertrude     Placements 10     Videos 1      Hours 15      RVs 4       Studies 1

 

Why to my SEC?? I have alway used the approved option, "... or you can put your slip in the service report box."

 

Keeping the same order helps.

 

 

[Qapla]

Yes, we use an app that includes a reporting option ... however, or BOE has also announced that it is acceptable to email/text our report to our Group Overseer or the SEC

 

[jwhess]

3 hours ago, Myew said:

Pretty much every congregation is unique, you might speak to your field service overseer or the Elder who is service coordinator. Most I know of just send their time and count directly to their service overseers in text or email or call, who then forward it to the service coordinator, who forward it to the branch. I would simply recommend opening links on a computer instead of a touch device.

Also, a caution to please not post links for your personal congregation online.

Agreed.  I just made this up to demonstrate the method.  If it is a real link I apologize but it did not work so I thought I had chosen appropriately...🙂

[jwhess]

Our secretary asked for a different method than random phone calls, texts and emails.  His mobile phone was ringing, beeping at all hours day and night at the beginning of every month.  Usually followed up by another call, text or email asking if he got the message.  With a 100 reports and a 100 follow ups and a response asked for it was a lot.

 

The special email address does not cost anything.  A publisher was going to use some kind of address to turn in the report so why not a dedicated number or name?  The secretary sets the account to automatically respond with a "Thank You" to let them know it was received. The reports accumulate in an account that has no other function.  There is no chance that the secretary might accidently erase a message on his personal phone and he doesn't have to grab a pencil in the middle of supper when the phone rings.

 

It is more quiet and orderly. That's all...🙂

[AH173]

I like how my cong uses hourglass for field service reports. 

 

Lately, he's been giving fsg overseers and their assistants a detailed graph that hourglass makes up. 

[Myew]

1 hour ago, jwhess said:

Agreed.  I just made this up to demonstrate the method.  If it is a real link I apologize but it did not work so I thought I had chosen appropriately...🙂

I was referring to -

6 hours ago, Dove said:

but I get sent a text message each month sending me a link to...

 

[Qapla]

33 minutes ago, Myew said:

I was referring to -

 

 

Problem has been solved

[Hinata]

Our congregation still submits those report by phone messaging. Since not everyone has email in here. It seems to be the one that works the best therefore, especially considering there are many who are challenged with using technologies.

 

6 hours ago, jwhess said:

this PDF

 

Is S-4 allowed to be posted on the public internet?

 

[jwhess]

27 minutes ago, Hinata said:

Our congregation still submits those report by phone messaging. Since not everyone has email in here. It seems to be the one that works the best therefore, especially considering there are many who are challenged with using technologies.

 

 

Is S-4 allowed to be posted on the public internet?

 

It was free for pickup at any public counter in any kingdom hall in the area. I is right next to the invitations and the house=to=house records. It was downloadable from our organization.

 

If our moderators feel it is an internal document only they may remove it.

 

I should tell you that I made this one myself (on a computer) years ago.  It is pretty close to the original though....🙂

[Hinata]

12 minutes ago, jwhess said:

I should tell you that I made this one myself (on a computer) years ago.  It is pretty close to the original though.

 

That is amazing. I was curious why it is was not a 4-up file, which is the one the organisation provides. I could hardly notice a difference. By that I mean, I can’t notice any difference. Aside from the lack of fillable forms, that is.

 

[jwhess]

1 hour ago, Hinata said:

 

That is amazing. I was curious why it is was not a 4-up file, which is the one the organisation provides. I could hardly notice a difference. By that I mean, I can’t notice any difference. Aside from the lack of fillable forms, that is.

 

I use Adobe Reader 11 for my PDFs.  This form is "fillable" using that PDF reader.  

[M.J.]

5 hours ago, jwhess said:

Our secretary asked for a different method than random phone calls, texts and emails.  His mobile phone was ringing, beeping at all hours day and night at the beginning of every month.  Usually followed up by another call, text or email asking if he got the message.  With a 100 reports and a 100 follow ups and a response asked for it was a lot.

Why does one secretary do all the collecting? It seems like a very heavy load. Every hall I've ever been, we have to report to our FSG overseer, and then they turn it in for their group. It just seems so much more practical. Isn't that the purpose of the FSG conductor? To divide the load. Besides, he has to check on his group anyway, so once a month when service is due, is killing two birds with one stone. 

[jwhess]

4 hours ago, M.J. said:

Why does one secretary do all the collecting? It seems like a very heavy load. Every hall I've ever been, we have to report to our FSG overseer, and then they turn it in for their group. It just seems so much more practical. Isn't that the purpose of the FSG conductor? To divide the load. Besides, he has to check on his group anyway, so once a month when service is due, is killing two birds with one stone. 

It certainly is permissible to have the FSG overseer do it or help collect the reports.  In the days when we went to the Kingdom Hall regularly, the box for dropping off the filled in time slips was at the Kingdom Hall.  We all took our slips to the hall.  As FSG overseers, we regularly reminded publishers at the meeting (before and after) to turn in their field service report slips.  I used to carry a couple of them in my hand before the meeting and  asked the publishers if they had remembered.

 

It was rare that a publisher would fill out a report, hold it until our Saturday morning field service meeting and then see me the following morning on Sunday and  watch for me to drop his slip in the box for him. Now, once the initial collection was done, we knew who had not reported.  then the FSG overseers who had these missing publishers in their group would go and try to get the report. Often this was a phone call.  The forgetful publisher wanted to send the missing report in right away.  Sometimes they would just tell me on the phone. But often, they would call the secretary, text the secretary, email the secretary and so on.  So to make that late report backup plan work easier on the secretary, we had this email sett up so anyone could send in the missing reports.

 

We had that set up long before there was a Pandemic.  It was only used by a small number of the congregation.  then it became more popular as the years went by and some became more tech savvy.  When the Pandemic forced everyone to send reports electronically, the system was already set up and working. So we all used it instead of just half of us.  The FSG overseers still get notices electronically about who has forgotten to report and we still track them down electronically (usually by phone or text).  The complete report is returned to the FSG overseers each month for review.

 

A side point is our rural location.  When we used to meet in person, I had members of my FSG who lived  25-30 miles and 2 counties away from our group meeting place.  He was at the Kingdom Hall two or three times  as often as he was at my home on Saturday. So a reminder at the Hall was easier.

 

 

[Shawnster]

12 hours ago, M.J. said:

Why does one secretary do all the collecting? It seems like a very heavy load. Every hall I've ever been, we have to report to our FSG overseer, and then they turn it in for their group. It just seems so much more practical. Isn't that the purpose of the FSG conductor? To divide the load. Besides, he has to check on his group anyway, so once a month when service is due, is killing two birds with one stone. 

Every hall I've ever been in we dropped the field service report in the box designated for field service reports.  The secretary then collected all the reports at the end of the month.

[M.J.]

We did a blend of both,  the box first option, but most people forget and text later.

[dove]

update:

 

I explained the trouble I was having and they started sending it through email instead of text, where instead of scrolling there were drop boxes. 

So that solved the problem for me...

[Floyd]

The CO ask me as the secretary if I was giving the group overseers a report of their group each month. I told him the group overseers collected the reports and so they already knew how their group was doing. He said that was perfect. One of the responsibilities of a group overseer is "Helping to collect the monthly field service reports."

[Old]

My way of helping was to notify each SGO that I had no report to date from a publisher.

I might get return saying "I turned it in at such and such a date. My reponse was "I don't have it can you send it again."

As SEC I never took it as my responibility to make individual inquiries into service reports. I know of an SEC that stepped down as an elder because the pressure to get every single service report. It doesn't it fall on the SEC,  that is SGOs job.

 

Now quite, frankly speaking, in reality it falls on the publisher. Only in the rarest of circumstances should it gravitate to the SGO. We ALL know we have to turn in our report at the end of the month, is it fair to pass that responibility to the SGO?

 

Saddenly, my observations are based on this.

When I first became CBS conductor (1955)we recived a report of all that had  report after the first week of the month. At hat time we were to fill out a service report every week, that was the law! Three more requests for report during the remaining weeks and then we started all over again. A few years later we switch to reporting service once a month. No need for a first and 15th notice. A little bit later "no lists" The publisher should not be notified they had not reported time so far this month, it could be considered coercement, not my choice of wording,, this was from the top down. Coercemant aside, a few years further on coercement went out the window and we became enforcers, maybe that is to strong a term, we just became the conscience of the group.

 

A interesting side light, of those publishers that said they had allrerady reported, their second report was usally better than the one the SGO later found in the bottom of his service bag. I am sure glad we no longer coerce our publishers into reporting service time.

Jesus did inquire into results, not hours.

[jwhess]

1 hour ago, Old said:

When I first became CBS conductor (1955)we recived a report of all that had  report after the first week of the month. At hat time we were to fill out a service report every week, that was the law! Three more requests for report during the remaining weeks and then we started all over again. A few years later we switch to reporting service once a month

Br. Jerry, before 1949 we used to report the field Ministry activity DAILY.  I have attached 1933 (daily), 1940 (daily), 1949 (weekly) and then the most common form 1955 (weekly)...where it gave you a blank line for each day of the week.

NOTE: except for the 1933 version they all are marked Form S-4...which is the same number that we use today more than 80 years later.

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by jwhess

[dove]

I wasn't in the Truth yet in 1955, but I do remember the time slip looking exactly like the last one in 1961/2. Is that right?