NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[carlos]

3 hours ago, DarinS said:

we had 22 - split them in have 33 now

 

Wow! Our situation is so different. We have 188 territories, plus six industrial areas, plus fifteen to twenty small towns. But yesterday I was helping a friend from a nearby congregation to import their over 600 territories into NW Scheduler!

 

Maybe you could send us a few publishers.

[foghorn]

600 territories! That must be a world record. Have you heard of anyone with more?

[coolbrz731]

4 hours ago, carlos said:

I was helping a friend from a nearby congregation to import their over 600 territories into NW Scheduler!

That's insane!  Our territory is 60 x 20 miles, and we only have about 110 territories.  I imported ours from Territory Helper and was surprised cause it happened instantly.  How long did it take to import 600 territories and where did they import them from?

[carlos]

19 hours ago, coolbrz731 said:

That's insane!  Our territory is 60 x 20 miles, and we only have about 110 territories.  I imported ours from Territory Helper and was surprised cause it happened instantly.  How long did it take to import 600 territories and where did they import them from?

 

These are foreign language congregations, so our territories are huge.

 

In this case the brothers were using a web app named Territory Contacts. It allows exporting the territories to JSON, but the format was quite different from the one generated by TerritoryHelper, so I had to tweak it a bit. I succeeded to import the territories with their boundaries, but found no way to import the "Area" field with that method. So I then exported them from NW Scheduler to CSV, made some more changes, and imported them again. This way I could include the Area info.

 

It took a few minutes to import the 600 territories, and then sync them.

[carlos]

I have another question.

 

On the NW Publisher Help site it shows this image regarding territories:

 

 

 

Yet this is what the app looks like to me:

 

The Request button is missing. On NW Scheduler > NW Publisher App Features I have Show Territories and Allow Territory Requests enabled. In fact, on NW Publisher you can go to Me and request a territory from there. What do I need to do to show the Request button?

 

[TheKid23]

37 minutes ago, carlos said:

I have another question.

 

On the NW Publisher Help site it shows this image regarding territories:

 

 

 

Yet this is what the app looks like to me:

 

The Request button is missing. On NW Scheduler > NW Publisher App Features I have Show Territories and Allow Territory Requests enabled. In fact, on NW Publisher you can go to Me and request a territory from there. What do I need to do to show the Request button?

 

[foghorn]

Carlos - your top image is from a previous version - that is how it used to look. Your 2nd image is current.

In the current version (3.2.4), territories are requested from Me/Territory Requests. (See pic) Assigned territories are listed on the Territory tab. 

It was a good idea to separate them - I saw a few occasions PREVIOUSLY when publishers just wanted to open their territory, but accidently hit the REQUEST button.

Edited October 23, 2023 by foghorn
Add a final thought...

[carlos]

4 hours ago, foghorn said:

It was a good idea to separate them - I saw a few occasions PREVIOUSLY when publishers just wanted to open their territory, but accidently hit the REQUEST button.

 

Thanks, John. That clarifies it. 

 

[DarinS]

On 10/20/2023 at 7:31 PM, carlos said:

 

Wow! Our situation is so different. We have 188 territories, plus six industrial areas, plus fifteen to twenty small towns. But yesterday I was helping a friend from a nearby congregation to import their over 600 territories into NW Scheduler!

 

Maybe you could send us a few publishers.

Don’t offer if your not willing…..😁🙏🤪

 

we made arrangements to visit a rural area last month - approx 50 miles away

As before…we asked how many he wanted —- the new S.O. said send as many as you want….silly man

 

we started with 20..then 30…then 40-50-60

 

ended up ….62 went over there - to meet with their 40…

we then drove to a MORE rural area and completed 5-6 Giant Rural territories….in 1 day

they barely get it done 1x per year we were told

 

MADRID - wow - im sure I can manage 10-15 folks……like a mini Need Greater

 

we are also currently working a long term plan 4weeks+ for Sierra Leone for about 6-12…in 2024

(if Jehovah is willing)

[Mike047]

In the light of the changes that are taking place, many of us will be concerned about keeping our own accurate records as a gauge of where we are at. Could it be that using a 'Yes' or tick in a box changes our appreciation for the privilege of sharing in the ministry? If we are keeping our own accurate records we will see if there is a need to adjust in our ministry share so as to maintain our own spirituality.

Over here in the UK, we had some issues over compliance with the Data Protection Act some years back and the records that we had kept - including 'Not Homes' and 'Return Visits' - were scrapped by many brothers and sisters. Later it was realised that a more careful approach might have enabled us to keep details without loosing our compliance.

To keep making progress in our spiritual life, our personal study and meeting attendance and participation are crucial but, just as we can go back over our preparations made for past meetings, so it is useful to keep our own records of our ministry. 

[BLEmom]

On 10/20/2023 at 7:31 PM, carlos said:

 

Wow! Our situation is so different. We have 188 territories, plus six industrial areas, plus fifteen to twenty small towns. But yesterday I was helping a friend from a nearby congregation to import their over 600 territories into NW Scheduler!

 

Maybe you could send us a few publishers.

What are the language needs for your area?

[Mike047]

It is possible to update one person's NW publisher app by adding another person. E.g. a brother/sister with disabilities. This way one brother or sister can care for the reporting needs of others. Does anyone know how many publishers one brothers app could accommodate? 

[foghorn]

Mike - Yes, the NW Publisher App definitely allows that scenario. It might be someone with disabilities, an elderly one, or someone who is limited technically. The administrator can designate a person as their delegate, allowing them to handle certain tasks, including submitting their field service report. Once assigned, the person's name will show up in this tab (see pic)

[SUNRAY]

1 hour ago, foghorn said:

Mike - Yes, the NW Publisher App definitely allows that scenario. It might be someone with disabilities, an elderly one, or someone who is limited technically. The administrator can designate a person as their delegate, allowing them to handle certain tasks, including submitting their field service report. Once assigned, the person's name will show up in this tab (see pic)

I used to turn in my husband's time because we only had one phone..so we used the delegate designation..also he doesn't see well and is not too techy..Now he has his own phone and is learning more about the app. ..

[Mike047]

When using the NWP app, does anyone know whether a member of the congregation should still have access to the app when they haven't reported ministry for 6 months?  It does also provide congregation meeting information and a range of other details that publishers are entitled to. It seems right that all baptised members of the congregation should have access, and not necessarily just those in good standing. Someone recently disfellowshipped, may still have access to NWP too.

[coolbrz731]

1 hour ago, Mike047 said:

When using the NWP app, does anyone know whether a member of the congregation should still have access to the app when they haven't reported ministry for 6 months?  It does also provide congregation meeting information and a range of other details that publishers are entitled to. It seems right that all baptised members of the congregation should have access, and not necessarily just those in good standing. Someone recently disfellowshipped, may still have access to NWP too.

I believe it's up to the administrator of NWS who has access to the app.  I'm not aware of any coding that would cut off access if a publisher doesn't report time.  I don't know what happens when a user is marked as disfellowshipped, though.

[foghorn]

We have persons in our congregation who are not yet publishers. I once tried to give one of these access to the app, but could not. The app would not generate a Personal ID for a non-publisher. Therefore they cannot connect to the system. Once a person is disfellowshipped, I'm assuming they would lose their status as a publisher and this would probably invalidate their Personal ID.

[Sooner Guy 89]

Apologies if I missed this question perhaps being asked earlier. Do we have an idea of when the app may be updated to reflect our changes in FS reports? I have checked their website thinking there may be a note there. 
 

our publishers are very diligent and a few have already asked what to do.

[coolbrz731]

1 hour ago, Benjamin said:

Apologies if I missed this question perhaps being asked earlier. Do we have an idea of when the app may be updated to reflect our changes in FS reports? I have checked their website thinking there may be a note there. 
 

our publishers are very diligent and a few have already asked what to do.

We received instructions during our MWM.  We were told to simply put YES in the hours part of the report if you are not pioneering.

[Aja]

3 minutes ago, coolbrz731 said:

We received instructions during our MWM.  We were told to simply put YES in the hours part of the report if you are not pioneering.

Does the NW Publisher app currently allow alphabetical answers in the hours column? If it doesn't, I would suggest the friends put their answer in the comments section. This is all assuming they have not released an update by then that addresses this issue. I could see the developers of this program taking a wait an see approach though, wanting to see what the Branch has on the new s-4 forms (or whatever the equivalent document they may release) before making changes to the program. I guess we all get a chance to work on our patience until we know more😅

[Aja]

3 hours ago, Mike047 said:

When using the NWP app, does anyone know whether a member of the congregation should still have access to the app when they haven't reported ministry for 6 months?  It does also provide congregation meeting information and a range of other details that publishers are entitled to. It seems right that all baptised members of the congregation should have access, and not necessarily just those in good standing. Someone recently disfellowshipped, may still have access to NWP too.

The Branch allows use of programs like these but don't specifically outline every detail of how they are to be used. As a body of elders we recently discussed how to handle inactive ones. We determined that we would handle it on a case-by-case basis. If they are still in association with the congregation, we agreed we would continue to allow them access to the app. But it becomes more questionable (for us) when they've not associated with Jehovah's people in quite some time (even virtually). In some cases we deemed they no longer warranted having easy access to all the info on the app. There were discussions about the information board being public, but usually individuals still had to come to a Kingdom Hall to see that info. All this being said, your BoEs will need to make a determination on how they are going to handle the matter. Hope the way we considered the matter at least gives some food for thought.

[Sooner Guy 89]

We received instructions during our MWM.  We were told to simply put YES in the hours part of the report if you are not pioneering.

Thank you. I was referring to the fact that the app doesn't reflect the new change to 'Participation'. I totally understand that change will take time. We asked the publishers to use a 1 in hours for participation and a 0 for non participation. Just curious if anyone had heard the plans and/or time frame for updates to the app.

Sent from my SM-G996U1 using Tapatalk

[carlos]

On 10/26/2023 at 5:03 PM, foghorn said:

We have persons in our congregation who are not yet publishers. I once tried to give one of these access to the app, but could not. The app would not generate a Personal ID for a non-publisher. Therefore they cannot connect to the system. Once a person is disfellowshipped, I'm assuming they would lose their status as a publisher and this would probably invalidate their Personal ID.

 

John, was that a long time ago? We started using NW Scheduler and NW Publisher a couple months ago. We added several students who attend meetings with regularity although they are not publishers yet, and they can use the app.

[orodriguez]

Access to the app is restricted to the following: Elder, Ministerial, Publisher, Unbaptized publisher,  CLM student

 

[Mike047]

We operate a number of litcart services, both for one congregation and a Metropolitan style version for a number of congregations. Does anyone know whether it is possible to include details within NWP? There would seem to be two parts of interest. Firstly, a way for individuals to hold their own scheduled assignments, and secondly a way for the congregation to monitor the congregation litcart schedule - on NW Scheduler?