Are You Following Up With Members in Your Ward?

I am sure all of you are working with members in your ward to work on their own family history. But are you following up on them? It is easy to work with them once and call it good and mark it off your list of members. But it is also important to follow-up with them from time to time to see if there still working with FamilySearch and to see if they have any questions.

Today, I did some follow-up with a member in our ward. She was learning how to scan photos and upload them to FamilySearch. This afternoon, we just fine tuned what she learned and uploaded 3 more photos. It is hard to learn everything in one meeting, so follow-up is a great way to see how they are progressing. Keep notes on each meeting so you will know what to ask and know where they are at in their learning. You can use the Consultant Planner to keep those notes there. But if for some reason they don't want you to add them to your consultant planner, keep paper notes. This is very handy. I do this with my clients at work and there is just no way to remember everything that was said or shared and we all need notes for follow-up. Don't limit yourself either, phone calls are just as effective in some circumstances.

Family History Flyers.... if you went to stake conference, you would have seen the family history flyers that I had available for members in the Sunday morning session. I edited these from our ward flyers. Don't forget to print them and use them as a sacrament meeting flyer and to have a small pile of them on the table outside of the chapel. Hand them out during Relief Society and Priesthood and don't forget the youth. There are different opportunities to make sure you get these out to members. If you have a new consultant called and one that was released, let me know and I can update your flyer.

Find-A-Record. How many of you used this resource?? If you haven't heard already, this program/app is no longer available. It used to help you find data problems, research opportunities, and possible duplicates across your family tree. The reason is they are no longer compatible with FamilySearch.

With all the new changes in The Church, the emphasis on family history has taken a backseat in our stake. Many new calling assignments, family history hasn't been in the priority for most of the leadership. I understand this and we may not make the 'numbers' that we desire for our stake. I will reevaluate and we can do better next year. We are still doing better than last year, but these changes has changed our focus for a bit of time during this transition.

One more thought. There will be members that just don't want to touch the computer, let alone upload and pictures etc to FamilySearch. Have you thought of having one of the youth just help with those members and taking care of that for them?? Upload their photos, record a memory or add names to complete their 4 generations on FamilySearch. Sometimes our older members would love to talk with someone about their family and the youth can help preserve their legacy.

Quarterly Meetings. For now, we will not be having these meetings. Again, part of this is because of the new changes need to take priority and I don't see anything wrong with our communication happening through this blog and email. The Sunday School Family History Class is discontinued and there is no need to discuss the class material for that. We are to teach our members/friends, one by one in their homes or other arrangements can be made at the church or local library. Don't forget that we have a family history center in the Highland/Central Building.

That is about it for now. If your ward needs extra attention or a meeting with your consultants, let me know. I would love to come and help with what you need. I think it would be a better way to serve you since the needs for each ward can and will be a bit different.

As always, contact me via email or text.

Sis. Jill Holmes