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A few months ago I was pointed to a new blog [the blog is no longer online, it was located at www.ldscio.org], written by none other than the chief information officer of the whole, entire church. I was incredulous. Would the powers-that-be really allow some techie hot shot air time with an open mic? More to the point, would they actually allow people to comment?
They did. And it's one of the coolest things at least loosely associated with the church in a long time.
Dehlin isn't terribly prolific; he's kept his day job. But he seems to be posting more and more. As you might imagine, he emphasizes technical issues. Some of which utterly blow past my formerly big bangs. Some of the content is business-oriented, which is a fun read to my somewhat entrepreneurial mind. But when Dehlin starts posting about the user-end of church tech, I'm all over it.
It's not just that he's posting it's that he's asking. He doesn't just want to tell us about the latest gizmo, he wants us to tell him what we think of it. He wants to know what we love and what we don't love. The man's into customer service!
Recently, for example, he's asked for input on lds.org and mormon.org. If you've used those sites frequently, you probably have a lot to say, both good and bad. And he wants to hear from you.
As a mom, I have so often used a product for babies that has obviously never, ever been within a hundred yards of anyone who had been covered in spit-up. Why, oh, why didn't companies use actual full-time moms as beta testers instead of, well, some thirty-something woman with a nanny at home?
So now, you've got the head info honcho who is right out there saying, “Hey, normal Mormons who use the internet! Tell me what we can do better!”
Just amazing!
Even though I live in the heart of Happy Valley, Salt Lake City can seem very far away. Brother Dehlin has brought it a little closer to us all and he gets a hearty, “Thank you!” from this corner of the world.
Addendum
This was written in 2007. If only he had stayed in his lane. Ahem…
Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.
Hear, hear! I have to thank mlinford for pointing me to this site. It’s encouraging, to say the least.
I didn’t meant to slight Michelle here. I’ve read Dehlin’s blog a number of times, but it was her link that got me thinking to write about it.
Shall I take a bow?
At the risk of being obnoxious, may I also add that what Joel does on the web is what I think happens out of the public eye by our leaders as well? Just to explain part of why I am so doggedly sure that what they say and do is not done in a vacuum (or a corner, or whatever other place might sound devoid of contact with the outside world). 🙂
FWIW, I’ve used the Hoover defense multiple times myself–most recently, I think, discussing the issue of talking the sacrament with the right hand (or not).
At the risk of being more obnoxious, I’d like to point out that my thoughts in the octogenarian post came as a response to President Hinckley’s own words. If I’m assuming anything, it’s that he was telling the truth.
I’m declaring executive privilege. This was SUPPOSED to be a positive post, thanking Dehlin et. al. for his work. All further rants related (even indirectly) to the octogenarian, priesthood, and/or various “issues” threads, will be banned to those threads. This thread will be left for fawning over Joel Dehlin and his efforts to make church tech serve us all! 🙂
Joel Dehlin is wonderful! Joel Dehlin is wonderful! (He really is. I think he’s doing a fantastic job.)
I’m repenting forthwith, your executiveness. Sorry for the threadjack. Really.
Thank you for providing this information…I had heard about it but was unsure where to find it…
This was interesting….I am surprised that the Church is allowing it.
You guys are a hoot!!
Agreed– This is GREAT! Joel Dehlin is wonderful!
It goes right along with the book I read last month by Andy Sernovitz that I think I have quoted elsewhere. His book is about helping traditional businesses learn to use word of mouth marketing to promote their products since, as he points out, word of mouth is where it is really at!
The five T’s he outlines for businesses to use word of mouth are: Talkers (who are the talkers who will pass the word?), Topics (what will they talk about?), Tools (How can you help the message Travel?), Taking Part (how can you join the conversation?) and Tracking (what are people saying about you?). This is the Church’s way to capitalizle on word of mouth marketing to get the word out, get involved in the conversation, get feedback, and track what is being said. I think this is AWESOME!
As a sidenote, I actually ‘met’ the author Andy Sernovitz on-line. He responded to a book review I posted about his book. That was really cool to hear from the man himself! Anyway– here is the book review: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977025282
Thanks for sharing this link! One more thing to get caught up on.
Eden those were my thoughts, too (as you know). That’s not a slam on anybody at all–as I’m sure it wasn’t with you. Sheesh, if *I* have to worry about spam on my tiny blog, then any officialish church site opens a huge door in doing it. There are lots of blogs that simply don’t allow any commenting. Here’s the info. Take it or leave it. Deciding to manage it is a serious decision. I am so impressed that they are doing it.
I’ve loved the church website and used it extensively for years. Once I gave an enrichment class on all the great stuff online. Hardly anyone in my ward knew about it. True, I don’t have a tech savvy ward (if only more than 4% would use EMAIL!!), but they were amazed at the great stuff. Still, there were things that drove me nutso, like the frames and the search.
I sure love the idea of paying my tithes and offerings online. Seriously, I write out the dumb checks, fill out the forms, and then carry the envelopes back and forth from church for MONTHS in the bottom of my purse. I almost feel as if I owe them back interest! I can’t even send an electronic check to my bishop’s address, because it won’t have the appropriate breakdown.
I’d also like to be able to REPORT my vting online.
Anyone else have a favorite idea?
I can’t even send an electronic check to my bishop’s address, because it won’t have the appropriate breakdown.
Alison, actually, talk to your leaders about this. I send my tithing via bill pay. All they asked me to do was put the breakdown in the “for” (or comments) section. It’s a nice way to do it (although sometimes I wonder if I’m losing something by not doing anything physically — that was something a friend of mine noticed when she lived overseas and did tithing electronically…she missed the physical act of writing the check and giving it to the bishop…sort of made it a more conscious thing). But for me, to be honest, tithing has always sort of been a below-the-radar thing because it IS so automatic for me, and yet sometimes I would forget and get backlogged, so I like the electronic option.
Anyway, check that out. Or write different checks for tithing and FO and whatever else via your bank. I hardly write a check for anything anymore thanks to that feature.
That’s an interesting point, Michelle. I had never thought of it. I have considered paying my tithing via billpay but just haven’t. Maybe I’ll think again. That excellent point aside, I’m all with you, Alison– the more we can do electronically the better! It sill shocks me when people say they rarely check email because I don’t know how I could possibly live with only checking email on occasion. It’s so convenient and I can get so much more done.
Well, I’m home for the day and ready to get caught up on this thread and go checkout Joel’s discussions. I’m excited to see what kinds of topics they are discussing and what kind of feedback they are getting.
The latter is probably the only way I could do it. What I meant was that I couldn’t put:
Tithing $xxx
Fast offering $xxx
Perpetual Education Fund $xxx
Missionary Fund $xxx
etc.
on a single check. So, I guess I could right individual checks. I suppose that’s not much more problematic to the clerks. Or maybe I’ll just start paying in pennies. :devil:
Our FO are paid to the young men who come around the ward, so that simplifies things a little. Maybe you could agree on a code for the clerk. T=tithing PE=PEF, etc. and put the amt or percentage on the line?
Anyway, it’s worth asking about, no?
And now if I can just get the teachers to stop coming around either (a) before I wake up, (b) when I’m in the shower, or (c) 13 seconds before we leave for church…
or maybe that should go in the “Alison’s insane rants about the priesthood” thread…
Yea, I’ll see if we can agree on a code…after the clerk corrects our names (that have been wrong for five years) and our address (that has been wrong for four). 😉
Seriously, I don’t do billpay, I do all my payments directly from Quicken. The comment line (at least the one that is actually printed on the check) isn’t that long. Can’t you see that the ONLY solution is for the church to implement my plan EXACTLY AS I SPECIFIED??? ;D
I’m going to the HP cookoff to be fed by a bunch of men in cowboy boots. I will not be clearing the tables.
At least you HAVE HP activities! 🙂 (Seriously. Lived here for 7 years. I don’t think we have ever had one.)
Must be because all the money for adults in our ward goes to RS….. (hahahahahahaha)
Wow!! I have been dreaming about paying my tithing via bill pay!!! I said something a member of the Bishopric who I know fairly well & who uses bill pay and his response was “I guess we’ll be able to do that some day”. So I’m surprised that you are able to pay it that way. I guess if I just sent a check via bill pay made out to the ward with the breakdown, what could they do? Refuse it? It might make them think….
I asked my husband about this too, since the thought had never crossed my mind (yeah, I’m slow). He said that several people in our ward pay that way, but it’s a “pain” because the clerks then have to manually fill out the forms still. But I guess that’s part of the job. Anyway, FWIW.
It would be nice if the church would put the tithing form online so you could fill it out that way and send it in electronically, then everyone would be happy – (not that he’s unhappy about it, mind you!).
Oh, and I also wanted to say that our last ward did have actual high priests activities, and they were a lot of fun. It’s the only ward I’ve ever been in that had them.
agardner,
Yeah, I forgot about that fact (the tithing slips). Oh well. If they haven’t told me it’s a problem, I am going to assume it isn’t. 🙂
DH has always thought it’d be nice to have online home teaching.
LOLOL — wait a minute. You mean my emails to visiting teaching sisters don’t count!?! 🙂
Just kidding— I don’t have most of their email addresses, but you just gave me an idea!
When I stop to think about it, though, my visiting teachers have emailed me before when they can’t catch me home. I appreciate knowing they are thinking of me.
I don’t think it’s really that big of a deal for them. It’s an extra thing to do but only takes a minute. I’m sure they are fine with it or they would say something.
My dh is just kind of whimpy that way since he is dragging by the time they do tithing on Sunday afternoons. 🙂
OK, now I have to retract. LAST year the dutch oven cook-off was a HP activity. This year it was just a ward party. When I got there and found out the ward party was “orchestrated” by the Enrichment Committee, I about spit out my baked beans. Still, most of the cooking was by very manly men. Well, some of it. Some was made by women and their husbands “took credit.” (I swear, that’s what they said themselves.)
Anyway, our HP quorum has about four activities each year. As I said, first time I’ve been in a ward that did that and it started with a particular president.
FWIW, Michelle, I don’t think your quorum hasn’t had activities because they LACK money. They probably don’t have any money because they LACK any activities. They are allowed to have them. 🙂
They probably don’t have any money because they LACK any activities. They are allowed to have them. 🙂
I’m sure that is the case. 🙂
Joel Dehlin is great.
A couple of other interesting, albethey more techy sites, are LDSWebGuy and ldstech.