NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[carlos]

5 hours ago, Brother Pete said:

No. According to the directions we have been instructed not to record Not At Homes at a congregation level. Such record keeping must be personal and done at a publisher level. Unless this direction has changed I thought this was global due to data privacy. 

 

Hey Pete, welcome to JWTalk!

 

Instructions vary from country to country. In Europe we cannot record anything at all, not even the contact data if we meet an interested person. We give them our contact information and pray that they call us, or try to memorize the address. In the US, on the other hand, privacy laws are a lot more permissive.

 

In any case, I think the NW Schedule territory system could still be adapted to most situations. Instead or recording not at  homes, we could use two states: done or pending. Houses that are already worked can be marked as done until the territory is finished. 

 

In case laws do not even allow that, maps can be used without marking individual houses.

 

[WestBro]

Our territory is large, and we haven't been able to register all the addresses yet. Although NWS doesn't have a built-in feature for what we do, we mark each block in the territory as a single address. In other words, instead of houses, we just have one address for each block of houses. An average territory has around 15 blocks.

The conductor is responsible for marking the block as completed once all the homes have been visited. The status of each house is kept by the publisher who went there. For now, that's what we're doing.

[More4me2do]

10 hours ago, Brother Pete said:

No. According to the directions we have been instructed not to record Not At Homes at a congregation level. Such record keeping must be personal and done at a publisher level. Unless this direction has changed I thought this was global due to data privacy. 

There are 6 buttons on the app that can be enabled or disabled for the status. Since you are in a country that has data protection, I would investigate with the developers how they handle these situations. NWS started in Australia also the servers where separated in regions and I imagine that also had to do with data protection.

 

How do you at present handle Do Not Calls, Not at homes and RVs?

[Brother Pete]

13 hours ago, More4me2do said:

There are 6 buttons on the app that can be enabled or disabled for the status. Since you are in a country that has data protection, I would investigate with the developers how they handle these situations. NWS started in Australia also the servers where separated in regions and I imagine that also had to do with data protection.

 

How do you at present handle Do Not Calls, Not at homes and RVs?

At present we handle Do Not Calls via NW Scheduler as this is the only permitted list maintained by the congregation. As for Not at homes and RVs the publisher makes a personal record and are responsible to follow up. 12 years ago we were instructed not to use S-8 slip aka "house to house" record, as well as the S-43 "please follow up" slip (usually used for foreign language people). The congregation cannot officially record and maintain personal details.

[Brother Pete]

14 hours ago, WestBro said:

Our territory is large, and we haven't been able to register all the addresses yet. Although NWS doesn't have a built-in feature for what we do, we mark each block in the territory as a single address. In other words, instead of houses, we just have one address for each block of houses. An average territory has around 15 blocks.

The conductor is responsible for marking the block as completed once all the homes have been visited. The status of each house is kept by the publisher who went there. For now, that's what we're doing.

For us its more about the need for visualising the block boundaries. It helps the overseer work out how many publishers are needed and for the publisher to know where they are going. Having just one polygon map is difficult especially when you can't  mark off individual homesites due to legal constraints in Australia. We just use territory notes to record what blocks are completed.

[drd217]

Is there a way to create a custom schedule for the Service Overseer to visit each group? Our SO schedules a group to visit by the month and not by the date. Suggestions? Thanks

[Tortuga]

3 hours ago, drd217 said:

Is there a way to create a custom schedule for the Service Overseer to visit each group? Our SO schedules a group to visit by the month and not by the date. Suggestions? Thanks

I think you can create a Congregation Event for the entire month and sent it to just the group he is visiting. I'm not sure why you want to do it this way but it would show up as an Event for the FSG for the month.

[Floyd]

11 hours ago, drd217 said:

Is there a way to create a custom schedule for the Service Overseer to visit each group? Our SO schedules a group to visit by the month and not by the date. Suggestions? Thanks

The last column is the group name that is being visited and it only shows on their NWP.

[Brother Pete]

On 8/27/2026 at 6:18 PM, carlos said:

 

Hey Pete, welcome to JWTalk!

 

Instructions vary from country to country. In Europe we cannot record anything at all, not even the contact data if we meet an interested person. We give them our contact information and pray that they call us, or try to memorize the address. In the US, on the other hand, privacy laws are a lot more permissive.

 

In any case, I think the NW Schedule territory system could still be adapted to most situations. Instead or recording not at  homes, we could use two states: done or pending. Houses that are already worked can be marked as done until the territory is finished. 

 

In case laws do not even allow that, maps can be used without marking individual houses.

 

This is why for us having the map divided into blocks also addresses the issue of knowing what has been completed. Each block size is enough to complete first round. Any block that is started on we make sure its completed. Then we just put in the notes the block numbers that were done.

[Brother Pete]

On 8/25/2026 at 6:01 PM, Brother Pete said:

Our committee would like to use the new Auxiliary Pioneer feature in NW Publisher except it doesn't appear to make it easy for the committee to process straightforward application i.e. the publisher has met the criteria for the privilege. Currently we use the official pdf forms and these are uploaded to a central folder and each committee member has access to initial the application if there are no objections. Any unsigned applications are discussed before any further action is taken. If all three have signed off the pdf application then secretary then marks the publisher in NW Scheduler as an Auxiliary Pioneer.
A suggestion to improve of what has been implemented so far in NW Scheduler would be to create a new task for the secretary to mark the Publisher as an Auxiliary Pioneer when all 3 members have ticked the their task. 

Further to this I just discovered in the NWP App Settings menu the Notification Emails icons are buttons that allows you to edit the email template. For Aux App the default reads:

Dear Brothers,
A publisher in your congregation has just submitted the following request:
[DETAILS]
Please open NWS to view and process this request.
Kind Regards,
NW Publisher app Notifications

It would be great if the process included a way for the comittee to view each other's approvals.

[BigMAC]

Hello,

I'm having a problem with Public Speaker Sharing.

On August 18, I received a request for public speakers. Unfortunately, none of our speakers were available on the requested dates, so I declined the request. To do that, I replied to the request without selecting any speaker or date. NWS then displayed the message:

"You have not approved any of their Public Speaker requests. Are you sure?"

I selected Yes, since none of our speakers were available.

The request then disappeared, but after a few days it showed up again with the exact same requested dates (August 16). Today, September 14, it appeared again for the sixth time.

I can't find any way to permanently dismiss or close the request.

I have also contacted the requesting congregation by email and explained that none of our speakers are available on those dates. I asked them to send new dates later, or we can arrange something further ahead.

However, the same request keeps reappearing. Is there a way to permanently decline, delete, or reset a Public Speaker request? At this point, I think I've declined the same request about six times.

Thank you for any advice.

[BigMAC]

I have a question regarding the territory limit in NW.

It appears that NW Gold supports a maximum of 1,000 territories. However, I'm helping a congregation that has around 1,400 territories. That seems like a very large number, but I haven't questioned whether the count is correct.

They are already using NW for scheduling talks and other congregation activities, but they are not currently using it for territory management.

Is there any way to increase the territory limit beyond 1,000, or is there another recommended solution for congregations with more than 1,000 territories?
I could ask NW directly, but I'd rather avoid doing that, as my previous experiences with their responses haven't been particularly positive.

[Tortuga]

1 hour ago, BigMAC said:

However, I'm helping a congregation that has around 1,400 territories. That seems like a very large number, but I haven't questioned whether the count is correct.

That seems to be the first thing to look at. Our territories average 40-80 homes per territory. If they have just 60 homes per territory, they have over 84,000 homes in their territory. That ain't right....

Edited 10 hours ago by Tortuga

[jwhess]

4 hours ago, Tortuga said:

However, I'm helping a congregation that has around 1,400 territories. That seems like a very large number, but I haven't questioned whether the count is correct.

If the congregation had 140 publishers, then every publisher (man, woman and child) would have to work 10 territories each every 4 months.  Seems unlikely...♥️

[Dankens]

We are currently introducting NWS and NW Publisher in our congregation. Now we have time to test some options and I want to clarify 2 topics: 

1. Territories on NW Publisher - I couldn't find an options that shows assigned territory only to brother or sister who have certain territory assigned. Now when we enable assigments visibility every publisher can see every assignment. 

2. Can I somehow switch off visibility of public withnessing schedule for publishers that are not approved for this form of ministry? 

[Brother Pete]

37 minutes ago, jwhess said:

If the congregation had 140 publishers, then every publisher (man, woman and child) would have to work 10 territories each every 4 months.  Seems unlikely...♥️

It is quite large however as I pointed out in another post NW Scheduler doesn't support multipolygons to divide maps into manageable blocks. When recording addresses is not allowed the suggestion to treat blocks as separate maps may explain such a high map count.

[foghorn]

51 minutes ago, Dankens said:

1. Territories on NW Publisher - I couldn't find an options that shows assigned territory only to brother or sister who have certain territory assigned. Now when we enable assigments visibility every publisher can see every assignment. 

2. Can I somehow switch off visibility of public withnessing schedule for publishers that are not approved for this form of ministry?

1. There are 2 ways to accomplish this: (1) When territory is assigned, one selection is "NWP App Show To" Persons. (See image). This will cause the territory to show at the top of that person's territory list. It will be hidden from the other publishers. (2) This can later be changed in the NWP app itself, after the territory is assigned. Open the territory; scroll toward bottom till you see a heading called "Territory Management". The dropdown box can be used to change visibility of the territory. 

 

2. No, you cannot totally hide the public witnessing schedule - it is visible to all. However, those who are not assigned that privilege cannot make any reservations.

[jwhess]

42 minutes ago, Brother Pete said:

It is quite large however as I pointed out in another post NW Scheduler doesn't support multipolygons to divide maps into manageable blocks. When recording addresses is not allowed the suggestion to treat blocks as separate maps may explain such a high map count.

Even if the count was adjusted for "blocks" or "Streets" or "Neighborhoods" or whatever...it does not change the total per publisher.  Every publisher will have to do a lot of pieces of territory.

 

We have a little less than 100 publishers.  We have about 150 territories (rural and village). That covers parts of 3 counties. We cover our territory about twice a year and the CO feels it is about right.  That comes to about 1 to 1 1/2 territories every 6 months each.

Edited 4 hours ago by jwhess

[foghorn]

59 minutes ago, Brother Pete said:

NW Scheduler doesn't support multipolygons to divide maps into manageable blocks. When recording addresses is not allowed the suggestion to treat blocks as separate maps may explain such a high map count.

Here is another way they could think about it. I created a sample territory to demonstrate what it would look like. (See image) From the previous comments, I am guessing their streets are more or less laid out in blocks.

1. Create a territory with boundaries around say, 10 blocks

2. Add a block number. Right-click in the center of one block. The program will open a form with an address. Override the address by typing a block number for the house number (example: "Blk-1"), and delete the street name. Save this entry. This will place a marker in the center of the block, and add one entry to the territory address list.

3. Repeat for each enclosed block. Address list will now contain 1 line for each block

4. Now, when a block is worked - simply open the address list and tap the appropriate button. (ie, worked 1 time, 2 times, done)

5. The map markers will change color based on status of each entry.

 

I would estimate it would make sense to include 6-10 blocks in one territory (if these are residential blocks)

Edited 3 hours ago by foghorn
clarification

[Brother Pete]

14 minutes ago, jwhess said:

Even if the count was adjusted for "blocks" or "Streets" or "Neighborhoods" or whatever...it does not change the total per publisher.  Every publisher will have to do a lot of pieces of territory.

 

We have a little less than 100 publishers.  We have about 150 territories (rural and village). That covers parts of 3 counties. We cover our territory about twice a year and the CO feels it is about right.  That comes to about 1 to 1 1/2 territories every 6 months each.

We have 77 publishers and 65 maps with an average of 10 blocks and cover 3 times a year. Based on your calculations that works out around 8 blocks every 4 months.

[Brother Pete]

22 minutes ago, foghorn said:

Here is another way they could think about it. I created a sample territory to demonstrate what it would look like. (See image) From the previous comments, I am guessing their streets are more or less laid out in blocks.

1. Create a territory with boundaries around say, 10 blocks

2. Add a block number. Right-click in the center of one block. The program will open a form with an address. Override the address by typing a block number for the house number (example: "Blk-1"), and delete the street name. Save this entry. This will place a marker in the center of the block, and add one entry to the territory address list.

3. Repeat for each enclosed block. Address list will now contain 1 line for each block

4. Now, when a block is worked - simply open the address list and tap the appropriate button. (ie, worked 1 time, 2 times, done)

5. The map markers will change color based on status of each entry.

 

I would estimate it would make sense to include 6-10 blocks in one territory (if these are residential blocks)

Unfortunately most of our "blocks" are not rectangular. They are more like "blobs" that you see under a microscope. The only benefit for this block number workaround is knowing when it has completed. It doesn't tell the publisher where the block starts, ends and boundaries in between. Here's a sample sanitised map for the purpose of illustration.

[DLJBSP]

Please remember, though there is the GOAL to complete the territory within a year. You can only accomplish what can be accomplished, and that is why the CO will ask pioneers to work with 'this' congregation for a few weeks.

Or even groups have been arraigned.