Our Ward fluctuates dramatically depending on what time of the year it is. During the school year we always have close to 100 Elders (which means we are close to being split¹ ). But during the summer time we drop down to around 50 Elders. This creates some interesting situations for callings. During the school year we struggle to find callings for everyone and during the summer time there isn’t enough people to go around to fill all the callings.

About a year and a half ago I was called as the Ward Mission Leader. The size of our ward made a huge impact on the size of the ward mission as well. During the summer we have as little as 5 ward missionaries but during the school year we usually have over 20 ward missionaries and have had up to 24 at once. When we have a ton of ward missionaries correlation becomes a big deal. How do we correlate all that information? Well, soon after I took over I was pondering just this question one day and the Lord inspired me with a solution… Google Docs.

For those not familiar with Google Docs, it is a an online version of Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint. But it has some really nice features for collaboration that the traditional desktop application doesn’t offer: sharing and chat.

Sharing: At the time I had the ward mission divided into specific responsibilities. Each person got their own tab on a Google spreadsheet and was asked to keep it up to date. This enables easy return and reporting.

Chat: There is also a chat built into the spreadsheet application (not the document one though). Many members of the ward mission have children (including me) and found it hard to make it to meetings. We discussed the idea of having a chat meeting online and letting everyone give their updates about what they have been up to. We have yet to do that, but I still think it is a great feature for keeping up with people. (You can also see who else is online and viewing the spreadsheet/document).

Other Potential:

We have since started sharing the document with the bishopric and other members of the ward council that want to keep up with what we are up to. There is a great e-mail function that allows you to e-mail everyone that it is shared with as well.

I could see this also being used by a bishopric to correlate all of their specific responsibilities… or any other presidency for that matter.

Who knows… perhaps one day the church will incorporate this type of functionality into the ward websites… they have sure come a long way already!

So… what do you think? Other ideas for how you would use this? Is anyone else using Google Docs in their ward?

1. D&C 107:89[↩]