NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[Adam!]

Hello,

 

A brother nearby has become the secretary in his congregation. They use NW Scheduler and Publisher. However, he can only see the reports for his field service group and not that of the other groups on NW Scheduler

 

Granted, reporting will change for everyone at the end of this month. But how can he see the see this data in order to compile the field service report for September? Will he need to convert it to an Excel file and then manually update each Publisher record card?

 

Many thanks in advance 🙏

[Floyd]

An administrator in his congregation will have to give him permission.

[WestBro]

I'm already looking forward to how the changes in the organization will reflect on the NW.

 

With the announcement that the October reports will already have the new adjustments, this should tighten the deadline for developers.

 

I understand that in NW Publisher, in the Field Service Activity option, Videos, Revisits and Publications should be removed from the layout.

 

Regarding the Hours item, I already have doubts about how it will be used.

 

I believe that for personal use, it would be interesting for each publisher to have an idea of how their activity is going to analyze areas for improvement.

 

But as activity time will continue for those who meet hours requirements, the application must have some option indicating that the Hours item will need to be completed.

 

Has anyone thought about the possibilities yet? I like technology, so for me it's a hobby to think about how applications work.  👨‍💻📱⚙️

[jwhess]

1 hour ago, WestBro said:

I'm already looking forward to how the changes in the organization will reflect on the NW.

 

With the announcement that the October reports will already have the new adjustments, this should tighten the deadline for developers.

 

I understand that in NW Publisher, in the Field Service Activity option, Videos, Revisits and Publications should be removed from the layout.

 

Regarding the Hours item, I already have doubts about how it will be used.

 

I believe that for personal use, it would be interesting for each publisher to have an idea of how their activity is going to analyze areas for improvement.

 

But as activity time will continue for those who meet hours requirements, the application must have some option indicating that the Hours item will need to be completed.

 

Has anyone thought about the possibilities yet? I like technology, so for me it's a hobby to think about how applications work.  👨‍💻📱⚙️

We pioneers have to report the hours so we need to be able to hold onto that ability.  They can'r just switch publishers and pioneers at will.  For Aux Pioneers, they are publishers some months (no hour reporting) and then the next month they are Pioneers and need to report hours.

 

If it was me, I would leave the box for hours as is.  Just make a mark available to check the box if a publisher.  The box will take the hours reported already, so the pioneers will be OK.  Leave the BS box alone and just disable the other boxes.  I do not know how to handle the Credits box (for LDC, HLC, etc)

[More4me2do]

The changes in reporting will be difficult for the coders. The hours field should ONLY allow for whole number entries as per instructions in the letter to BofE, then there needs to be a checkbox "shared in any form of the ministry during the month", plus in addition you have a numbers field for different Bible Studies, those two fields could remain the same while removing placements, videos and RVs. As far as the comments field it is a plain text entry field and let the secretary transfer it for those who need it.

 

Next when submitting the report from the NWP app there has to be an error check on the hours field and the checkbox "shared in any form of the ministry during the month". How that transfers into the congregation database and now determines irregularity or being inactive is a lot of work for the programmers.

 

Looks like for a while it will be old school for reporting before any transfer and electronic automation is working.

Edited October 15, 2023 by More4me2do

[Ysaias]

The mobile app has a "Less than 1 hour" button. They may consider rename it as a "Yes" button for the publishers. That would leave the Hours field intact for the pioneers.

Considering that a publisher may serve as an auxiliary pioneer in one or more months in the year, it would be wise to leave the Hours box to fill along with the "Yes" button.

That's my opinion.

[howudodat]

On NWP side  (in a simple pseudo code)

• switch hours to integer text box
• add checkbox "Participated"
• add checkbox "Aux Pio"
• add UI constraint:  If (Me is Pioneer) or (Aux Pio is checked) Enable Hours text box, otherwise Enable Participated
• add new field to JSON that is submitted with the send button: Participated: true / false

So far other than i18n of the Participated and Aux Pio labels, this is trivial to do.  Depending on the framework used to build NWP not more than a couple of hours for even the most junior of programmers

 

On to the sharing server.  Depending on how it works, the additional field may need to be processed.  If it was written like I would have written it, then the additional field is just passed through and no programming needs to be done.

 

On NWS side.  This one is more complicated and has some design elements in it.  Will the S-21 have a new column?  Participated or not?   This way for aux pio you might have all the months Participated Checked, but for March lets say hours enabled with 30 in it?  In any case it would need in addition to the above a new field in the database. 

 

There is nothing here that couldn't be programmed in a day (I've been doing this for 40 years). 

• 2 Hours to make the changes
• 3 Hours testing
• 30 minute mountain dew break
• 2 more hours of testing
• 3 days of debugging the missing or extra ;

 All that being said, I think the programmers want to do a good job and dont want any kind of data corruption with the reports.  So they will take their time and do their best to get it right.  It will take the time it takes, but it certainly is doable.  And if not....we can use the time to reflect on this year's regional assembly....what was that theme again? 🤔

[Luk_KK]

Currently as someone had below, it rapoerted in the application 0.10. For my CO it was unacceptable and I had to, manually edit the PDF later to make it 0 and in the REMARKS column added that active. It would be nice if it was better solved here though

I just wonder if from October there will be new templates and, for example, for an appointment you will have to give both the old and the new S-21 for a while? 

[Mike047]

We will continue to need full flexibility to allow for any status changes within the congregation, covering every aspect of the field ministry, from missionary, special pioneer, regular pioneer, aux. pioneers publishers and unbaptised publishers.  The elders will need to know positively the appearance of their flock, which has in past times included field ministry record cards. If the ministry will become a tick in a box, good guidance will be needed. Over here in the UK, tics can be irritating little creatures!

With uncertain times ahead, it is still useful to maintain a personal diary of Christian service. When the lights go out we may only have the important light of truth...and a well kept hard copy record! 

[foghorn]

As a mid-level programmer myself, I don't see this as a HUGE change. Here's some general thoughts on just one possible approach:

    One way to handle it in the programming is to utilize the existing status check boxes to determine which report page a publisher receives. Assuming the Sec puts checks in advance for each Aux Pio in the congregation, the program now knows all publishers who are regular  and aux pioneers, as well as anyone who reports directly to the Branch. All the pioneers would be served the existing "full report" page to fill out. The regular publishers would be served the new "simplified" page. 

    The same logic could give pioneers access the the existing "Field Service Activity" page. Regular publishers would not need this.

    It might even be possible to use the existing database fields without modification. The "Number of Bible Studies" field already exists for everyone. The publisher checkmark from the report could be stored in the existing "hours" field as simply a "1" or a "0".

[Adam!]

On 10/15/2023 at 2:00 PM, Adam! said:

Hello,

 

A brother nearby has become the secretary in his congregation. They use NW Scheduler and Publisher. However, he can only see the reports for his field service group and not that of the other groups on NW Scheduler

 

Granted, reporting will change for everyone at the end of this month. But how can he see the see this data in order to compile the field service report for September? Will he need to convert it to an Excel file and then manually update each Publisher record card?

 

Many thanks in advance 🙏

For this will the feature "Congregation Sharing" need to be enabled and not just the "Secretary" program?

[howudodat]

under congregation sharing select All Groups for view Publisher Records

 

or in the NWP app features settings:

Edited October 17, 2023 by howudodat
extra image

[carlos]

I finally managed, after a lot of trial and error, to import territories with all their information as well as territory assignments from TerritoryHelper to NW Scheduler.

 

Now that territories are imported and working, all congregation members using NW Publisher can see, not only their own territories, but all territories anyone has assigned. Like this:

 

You can click on any of those territories and see the map and the dates where it was assigned and when it's due. Is that on purpose? Not a huge deal, but what is the purpose of showing everyone who has every territory and since when? Is there a way to disable that view?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Cruzer]

13 minutes ago, carlos said:

You can click on any of those territories and see the map and the dates where it was assigned and when it's due. Is that on purpose? Not a huge deal, but what is the purpose of showing everyone who has every territory and since when? Is there a way to disable that view?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

In each assigned territory, select "Personal Territory" instead of "Congregation" 👍🏽.

 

[carlos]

11 minutes ago, JoshD said:

In each assigned territory, select "Personal Territory" instead of "Congregation" 👍🏽.

 

Thanks, Josh! I just did that and it worked.

 

I don't understand well what that setting Personal/Congregation means. I guess we work territories in a different way than our brothers in other countries. Here all territories are personal. We don't have group or congregation territories. When we meet with the group, the conductor asks who has a territory and maybe one or two couples go there, but the territory remains the responsibility of its assigned publisher until it is returned.

 

Thanks!

[Cruzer]

8 minutes ago, carlos said:

 

Thanks, Josh! I just did that and it worked.

 

I don't understand well what that setting Personal/Congregation means. I guess we work territories in a different way than our brothers in other countries. Here all territories are personal. We don't have group or congregation territories. When we meet with the group, the conductor asks who has a territory and maybe one or two couples go there, but the territory remains the responsibility of its assigned publisher until it is returned.

 

Thanks!

 

You're welcome my brother. I did exactly as you did & wondered the same. Here's what I found from the site:

https://nwscheduler.com/territory-assignments/#Territory_Assignments

 

[foghorn]

Carlos - we use the 'Congregation' assignment a lot. That's because we utilize the additional feature of identifying each house in the territory, so there is a list of addresses along with the map. The brothers who lead mid-week service request their territory that way.

    They  typically take a group of 6-12 publishers into the territory. Each publisher can now see the territory addresses on his phone. As they leave each house, they use the app to mark the house as Home, NH, Do Not Call, or Vacant. We can actually see where each pair is working, since the houses change color as they are worked.

    The field service Group overseers utilize the "Field Service Group" assignment. This works the same as above. The only difference is the scope... the 'Congregation' assignment can be viewed by all publishers in the congregation; the "Field Service Group" assignment can be viewed only by those assigned to that group.

    it is working very well for us. After a territory is completed, we are using the feature that converts all the Not-Homes to Letter-Writing territory.

[carlos]

Thanks, Josh and John! I understand now.

[jwhess]

Chapter 9 paragraph 31 in the OD book explains,,,

 

31 This arrangement comes under the direction of the service overseer. A ministerial servant may do the actual assigning of territory. There are two types of territories, group territories and personal territories. Where territory is limited, group overseers will have group territories in which publishers in the group can preach. On the other hand, where territory is plentiful, individual publishers may obtain personal territories.

[WestBro]

In our congregation, the territory is very extensive. The division is as follows:
 
• 6 territories, each for a day of the week. This is an arrangement for the entire congregation. Each territory was delivered to a manager via the app. For example, the Monday territory is only worked on Mondays, the Tuesday territory is only worked on Tuesdays, and so on. In the NW, we name these territories S-1, S-2, even S-6. 

 

• 3 territories on Sunday. These are designated territories for the 3 field service groups we have. In the NW, we name them G-1 through G-3.

 

Due to the size of the project, we still don't dare to map every residence in the NW.

 

However, as we work by block, we are planning to map each block of the territory as if it were a residence, marking the middle of the block and adding a single address, using letters of the alphabet (block A, block B...). In practice, when At the end of the day's work, the manager will mark each block worked as completed.

 

 

[foghorn]

Arlem - that sounds like a great way to handle territories! Your territory assignment must really be immense. I haven't used it yet, but I wonder if you have tried activating the setting that allows the publishers to add addresses as they work along? Would that speed up your process?

[WestBro]

1 hour ago, foghorn said:

but I wonder if you have tried activating the setting that allows the publishers to add addresses as they work along? Would that speed up your process?

 

John,

I imagine so, but I haven't tested this functionality yet. If the BoE finds it applicable here, it would also need to train publishers to make use of this function.

[DarinS]

anybody want to share some of those territories---we dont have any "personal' territories

 

we had 22 - split them in have 33 now

no business - no gated communities - 1 small dog park

we assign territories to FSG overseers and those who take the lead during the week

 

we get the territory done every 6-8 weeks

and that includes 3 visits and then letters to the NotHome

 

we are just now working on using the territory feature in NWP - so we can be thorough and we like the idea of marking the homes NH etc

we have quite a few DNC - Do Not Call, No Trespassing ...and some SxxxOffenders

 

so this will make it easier to keep our friends safe

 

[Tortuga]

12 minutes ago, DarinS said:

anybody want to share some of those territories---we dont have any "personal' territories

 

we had 22 - split them in have 33 now

no business - no gated communities - 1 small dog park

we assign territories to FSG overseers and those who take the lead during the week

 

we get the territory done every 6-8 weeks

and that includes 3 visits and then letters to the NotHome

 

we are just now working on using the territory feature in NWP - so we can be thorough and we like the idea of marking the homes NH etc

we have quite a few DNC - Do Not Call, No Trespassing ...and some SxxxOffenders

 

so this will make it easier to keep our friends safe

 

Wow, it would be nice if there was a way for you to get some letter/phone territory from congregations that need help.

 

Does the Branch have letter territory for Seldom Worked Territories?

[foghorn]

Sharing Letter-writing territory with another congregation should be pretty easy. The function that converts Not-Homes to Letter-Writing format outputs a standard spreadsheet .csv file that can easily be opened outside of NW Publisher. I wrote a small C# program that reads the Territory export file and generates small letter-writing files from it (15-20 addresses each). These can the be imported back into NW Publisher, or worked directly.