NWS/NWP territories help and suggestions

[Tortuga]

Our congregation will be switching from Territory Helper to NWS/NWP territories soon. 

 

Please share any suggestions you have for the Territory Servant, Elders and Publishers.

[foghorn]

20 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Please share any suggestions you have for the Territory Servant, Elders and Publishers.

There are 2 stages for using the territory function.

Start with Stage 1: create boundaries, and assign out territories. This will get everyone accustomed to using the maps instead of a physical territory card. One benefit: If a phone's location function is allowed, it serves as a live marker for their current location inside the territory boundary. If you are using NWS Mobile, now you can assign territories on the spot.

 

Gradually move to Stage 2: Add addresses to each territory. This is where the real power of the system is seen. Now it is easy to assign multiple car groups working the same territory. They will mark each address as Home, Not Home, etc. Later, the system can semi-automatically generate a letter-writing territory from the Not-Homes. All this means you are truly working the territory thoroughly.

 

NOTE: Adding addresses can be a little time-consuming. But the system has a powerful geo-location system that really speeds it up. In a dense residential area, you can probably populate a territory with 200 addresses in about an hour or less (using mouse and keyboard is pretty much required)

[Indapipe]

We are currently using Alba for our territories, which really is helpful for foreign language territory. Is NWS territory attuned or beneficial for foreign language congregations? Anyone have any experience with that?

[Tortuga]

How does your congregation use the three custom fields for marking a home in the territory?

 

We have At Home, Not At Home and DNC. What do you have?

Edited August 2 by Tortuga

[foghorn]

2 hours ago, Tortuga said:

We have At Home, Not At Home and DNC. What do you have?

Our setup looks like this: (see img). We have many properties marked "No Trespassing" as well as many "Vacant" buildings. So we created buttons for those. The "Not In Service" button only shows on Telephone Territory.

[Tortuga]

15 minutes ago, foghorn said:

Our setup looks like this: (see img). We have many properties marked "No Trespassing" as well as many "Vacant" buildings. So we created buttons for those. The "Not In Service" button only shows on Telephone Territory.

Thanks. What happens to that information when the territory is returned? How is that information used?

[foghorn]

16 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

What happens to that information when the territory is returned? How is that information used?

NOT HOME: We are set up to make two attempts at each address. So the not home field shows whether you have tried once or twice. If twice then the color of the The building turns Gray, indicating that no more attempts are required - that house is considered 'worked'. After the territory is returned, a letter writing territory is generated using only Addresses marked "not home" or "no trespassing"

 

NO TRESSPASSING: This indicator remains turned on for that address. This changes the Color of the building on the map to indicate we should not go there. This stays with the territory after it is checked in. In addition, each time we work the territory we verify that it still has a no trespassing sign on the property.

 

VACANT: This remains turned on for that address. This changes the color of the building just to indicate there's no need to work that property. Each time we work the territory we verify that it is still vacant. When we create letter writing territories, vacant houses are omitted so we don't waste time sending letters to them.

[foghorn]

EXAMPLE OF PARTIALLY WORKED TERRITORY

Gray = either AtHome or NotHome x2. Either way, this house is complete

Blue = not yet worked at all

Orange = Not Home x1

Pink = No Tresspassing

Purple = vacant

Red = Do Not Call

[Tortuga]

26 minutes ago, foghorn said:

NOT HOME: We are set up to make two attempts at each address. So the not home field shows whether you have tried once or twice. If twice then the color of the The building turns Gray, indicating that no more attempts are required - that house is considered 'worked'. After the territory is returned, a letter writing territory is generated using only Addresses marked "not home" or "no trespassing"

 

NO TRESSPASSING: This indicator remains turned on for that address. This changes the Color of the building on the map to indicate we should not go there. This stays with the territory after it is checked in. In addition, each time we work the territory we verify that it still has a no trespassing sign on the property.

 

VACANT: This remains turned on for that address. This changes the color of the building just to indicate there's no need to work that property. Each time we work the territory we verify that it is still vacant. When we create letter writing territories, vacant houses are omitted so we don't waste time sending letters to them.

Thanks. I was assuming that all of that information reset back to default when the territory was returned. 

 

So then, when and how does the territory get reset back to normal?

 

Edit: I found the Help file. I see how it works now. Thanks.

Edited August 3 by Tortuga

[Matt S]

On 8/1/2026 at 11:50 PM, Indapipe said:

We are currently using Alba for our territories, which really is helpful for foreign language territory. Is NWS territory attuned or beneficial for foreign language congregations? Anyone have any experience with that?

 

Yes, it's really great for foreign language. Have used Alba in the past, and found NWS much easier for publishers to use. They love it.

 

For example, you might choose to use 3 buttons: At Home, Not Home, Doesn't speak [target language].

 

Similar to what @foghornsaid:

Gray = Either At Home OR Not at Home twice OR doesn't speak the langugage. Either way, this house is complete. If the house does not speak the target language (for example, they moved out), pressing the "Doesn't Speak [target language]" button also turns the address grey. These are removed from the map once the map is completed and turned in, which makes the map more accurate for the next time it is checked out.

Blue = Not yet worked

Orange = Not Home once, still needs a [second] attempt. (You can set how many times each address should be tried before being considered "complete".)

 

There can be notes on an address. For example "Flat at back of main house". Or "[Chinese] Speaking Spouse" telling the publisher if they meet an [English] speaking person, don't assume no one speaks [Chinese] in the household.

 

If a house is called on and the householder says "My neighbour is [Chinese]." The publisher can add the address to the map via NWP including obtaining the location coordinates via NWP. Similarly if while working the area, the publisher identifies a house as having someone speaking [Chinese] which is not on the map, they can add it. The territory servant then checks the address and any notes later and approves it to be added to the map.

 

Whereas the map @foghorn posted shows every house, a map for a foreign language congregation would only show the households that speak the target language. This also helps when covering the territory in idenfying who densely populated the area is for that language, whether the territory can be walked or whether car groups are better suited. The addresses change colour in real time, meaning publishers can visually tell where others are working, which areas are left to be done, etc.

 

[Tortuga]

How does your congregation mark the locations that are "Brothers Only" ?

[JBee]

We only have one territory/complex that would be brothers only, and it is just marked in the territory notes... and I don't assign it to sisters too I guess😅
You could always use one of the custom buttons for that if you have multiple individual addresses that need brothers only I suppose.

We also only use the At Home and Not at Home buttons as we found having too many options led to lots of confusion and mistakes.

For new Do Not Calls, they have to put a note in the address explaining why and our territory brothers convert it, but that's because we were getting lots of new DNCs from multiple people and we were trying to figure out why...
We also have one of the custom buttons called Campaign that we turn on for campaigns so the publishers can track which houses they have done in their territory both in and out of a campaign (we don't start fresh in campaigns, we have everyone just start working their existing assignments as campaign territories).

No Trespassing, Vacant, Gated, those are all up to the publishers to take care of and note when they go into the territories. If they need letters written because you can't get to the front door for example, it is up to the publisher assigned to send a letter or get someone else to; we have so much letter writing territory already it would be too much work to try add those.

 

The transition was easy, the program helps you through it. There were relatively few data issues that we had to fix manually, and this was very early on in the NWS days.

[Tortuga]

4 minutes ago, JBee said:

We only have one territory/complex that would be brothers only, and it is just marked in the territory notes... and I don't assign it to sisters too I guess😅
You could always use one of the custom buttons for that if you have multiple individual addresses that need brothers only I suppose.

We also only use the At Home and Not at Home buttons as we found having too many options led to lots of confusion and mistakes.

For new Do Not Calls, they have to put a note in the address explaining why and our territory brothers convert it, but that's because we were getting lots of new DNCs from multiple people and we were trying to figure out why...
We also have one of the custom buttons called Campaign that we turn on for campaigns so the publishers can track which houses they have done in their territory both in and out of a campaign (we don't start fresh in campaigns, we have everyone just start working their existing assignments as campaign territories).

No Trespassing, Vacant, Gated, those are all up to the publishers to take care of and note when they go into the territories. If they need letters written because you can't get to the front door for example, it is up to the publisher assigned to send a letter or get someone else to; we have so much letter writing territory already it would be too much work to try add those.

 

The transition was easy, the program helps you through it. There were relatively few data issues that we had to fix manually, and this was very early on in the NWS days.

Thanks. We are thinking of having just three buttons available, "Worked" "Not Worked" "Not Able to Work" or something similar. The Not Able to Work button would be for locked gates, dogs, signs, busy, anything that keeps the publisher from working the home in person and will need a letter. 

[Tortuga]

9 minutes ago, JBee said:

For new Do Not Calls, they have to put a note in the address explaining why and our territory brothers convert it, but that's because we were getting lots of new DNCs from multiple people and we were trying to figure out why...

Agreed. That just happened to a territory I gave to a group to work. Someone marked a home as a DNC. I suspect they pushed the wrong button and now I need to figure it out. 

 

Is there a way to mark locations as DNC and Brothers Only that show up on the map and can not be changed by anyone working the territory?

[JBee]

7 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Thanks. We are thinking of having just three buttons available, "Worked" "Not Worked" "Not Able to Work" or something similar. The Not Able to Work button would be for locked gates, dogs, signs, busy, anything that keeps the publisher from working the home in person and will need a letter. 

I like the sound of that, seems simple enough. We found having it as simple as possible helped the technology averse publishers be comfortable with the app.
That "Not Able to Work" one I have to think about and maybe chat with my Service Overseer about🤔😅.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Agreed. That just happened to a territory I gave to a group to work. Someone marked a home as a DNC. I suspect they pushed the wrong button and now I need to figure it out. 

 

Is there a way to mark locations as DNC and Brothers Only that show up on the map and can not be changed by anyone working the territory?

Existing DNCs cannot be changed in the app once they are received/accepted in NWS. Custom buttons... I have to look into that. Let me try to find out and I can report back.

[JBee]

It looks like Custom Buttons are not locked. I tried it both entering it in NWP as a publisher and from NWS as the Territory Servant, they are still able to be changed... it does ask, "are you sure?" but....
You can put in individual Address Notes in NWS and those are only able to be permanently changed by the Servant, but you have to click on an address to see them in NWP...