The bishopric meeting

Open Meetings from the menu or from Today. In order, the agenda shows:

• From and the date of the meeting before, such as From Sep 27 · 4 of 9 done: every action that meeting's minutes made, crossed off as each gets done. Your first meeting says No meeting before this one.

• Decide today: only what's stuck and needs the room. For example:

  • a calling with no names, or names but none settled, or stuck at one step for three weeks;
  • open speaker slots, or no topic, for a Sunday in the next two weeks;
  • an assignment nobody owns, or an overdue one holding something up;
  • a ward event with no date or no lead;
  • an organization's activity request still waiting for an answer, where your ward has Activities. Answer opens it;
  • a baptism with an interview that has no time yet, where your ward has Appointments. It names who is being baptized and who each interview is for, and says "Reminded" if someone reminded the bishopric. Schedule opens To schedule in Appointments.

  The three weeks are fixed. They don't follow Settings → Callings → When a calling is stuck, which sets only the warning mark on the Callings Table, so the two can disagree.

  When nothing's stuck, it says Nothing is blocked on the room this week.

• Opening prayer & thought.

• This Sunday: open speaker slots and the topic, with Open the Sunday.

• Callings & vacancies: what's in motion, each with its next button (Add names, Settle or Schedule), and Open Callings for the rest.

• Business queued: first what's already on the program for the Sunday under This Sunday, under Today when the meeting is on that Sunday or its date otherwise. Then, under Queued, releases and sustainings already decided and waiting for a Sunday. Tap a date to put one on it.

• Coming up · next 90 days: ward events ahead, and approved activities where your ward has Activities. An event announced in the bulletin says from which Sunday, such as in the bulletin from Nov 1. Open beside an event opens its details.

• Overdue & unowned: assignments that are late or have no one on them.

• Discussion: the topics people added during the week.

Handbook study is there too, switched off until you turn it on (see make it yours).

Last on the page is Anything else, for a thought that belongs to no part. Every part, every item in it and every topic is a place to write. See take minutes.

1. Under Discussion, tap Add a topic.
2. Type what you want to talk about, and press Add.

On a phone, Add a topic is also on the bar at the bottom, beside Mark held. It takes you to the same field under Discussion, ready to type.

Anyone in the bishopric or the clerk can add one, during the week or in the room. The arrow beside a topic has Rename, Move up, Move down and Remove. Removing a topic takes it off every meeting it was carried to, and a line that made it becomes a plain note again. On a meeting already marked held, a topic that was never ticked as discussed still has Remove (it asks first), for one added by mistake.

Callings can send a topic too: Add to the agenda on a calling's row, or Bring to the next meeting on its page. Those always go to the bishopric meeting.

The agenda is where you take minutes. Write as the meeting goes, right where you are on the page.

1. Tap what you're talking about: a part's name (Callings & vacancies), an item in it (+ Note beside an event or a calling), a row in Decide today, or a topic.
2. Type. Press Enter for another line in the same place.
3. Press Done, or tap the next thing. Each line saves when you leave it.

Nothing has a box until you write there, so a part nobody wrote under is just its name. A line left empty disappears.

Two people can write the minutes at once, on different devices. When you leave a line, what you wrote is added to what they saved, and nobody's lines are lost. If you both changed the same line, theirs stays and yours comes right after it as its own line, and the page says Someone else changed this at the same moment. Try again. Keep the one you want and delete the other.

• Type @ and the first letters of a name to tag someone from the ward, then tap them (or press Tab or Enter). They show as a shaded name, and Backspace at the end removes the whole name. Before you type a letter, @ offers the bishopric first, the bishop then his counselors; as you type, it searches the whole ward, with the bishopric still at the top. If nobody matches what you typed, @ offers + Add "Jane Doe" to People: tap it (or press Tab or Enter) to save them to People and tag them in one step.
• Tap a tagged name to see that person's card: how many open assignments they have and Open in People. While you're writing, the card also has + Assignment for them, which opens the assignment row with them as the owner (the row shows under What what the assignment will say: the line's words, without the owner's own tag), and Take the name out. On Read, and in Came out of this meeting, the card has Open in People.
• Tick a topic's box once you've talked about it.

On a phone, the bar at the bottom says what you're writing under, with @, + action and Done.

Every part with something under it, Decide today and Discussion has an arrow beside its name. Tap it to fold the part down to its heading, which then says how many lines are written there; tap it again to open it. A part with nothing to show and nothing written yet, such as Opening prayer & thought, has no arrow: tap its name to write there. Tapping a folded part's name opens it so you can write. Each device remembers what you fold. On a phone, the long reads (callings, overdue assignments) start folded unless you've already written in them.

A note written under something that later leaves the agenda (a Decide today row you settled, a calling that was filled, a topic you removed) moves to No longer on the agenda at the bottom, under the name it had, so you can still read and change it.

At a computer

Wider screens start with every part open, a list of the parts on the left with how many actions came out of each (click one to jump there, and open it if it's folded), and on the right Came out of this meeting and the keys. The arrow at the top of either side column collapses it to a narrow strip for more room to write; click it again to bring it back. Each device remembers. The keys:

Enter

Next line.

Tab

Make the line an action (see below).

@

Tag someone from the ward.

↑ ↓

Move between lines in the same place.

Shift Enter

Break within a line.

Esc

Done writing.

Read it back {#read}

Read, at the top, shows the record: only the parts someone wrote under, each item's notes under its name, every topic marked discussed or not, and what came out of the meeting. Export prints it, saves it as a PDF or downloads a Markdown file. On a phone, Export is in the menu beside the day.

Type / at the start of a word, anywhere you're writing, then the kind's letter: /a assignment, /i appointment, /b business, /t topic, /c calling action. Or tap it in the list. On a line with no words yet, / offers an appointment, business or a calling action, and the line then says what it made. On a phone you can also tap + action in the bar at the bottom. At a computer, Tab on the line (or Action) opens the same list: press A assignment, I appointment, B business, T topic or C calling action. Pick what the line becomes:

An assignment

Its row opens with the first person the line tags as the owner and a due date a week out. Change either, then Add. With nobody on it, it has no date and waits in Decide today. To hand it to an organization, such as the Relief Society, pick it under Organization (optional), with or without a person. Its leaders see the assignment on their own page (what, who, when), never the minutes it came from.

An appointment

Who, the type and the interviewer, Needs to happen by, and Who follows through. If you name who follows through, they also get an assignment to schedule it, due on that date.

Sacrament business

Straight onto the ward business queue.

A calling action

Pick An open calling or A new calling, then Propose a name, Settle on one or Start a release, without leaving the meeting. Type in Find a calling to narrow the open callings, then tap the one you mean. If nothing matches what you type, the row switches to A new calling and carries your words into Position. A new calling can also be given Who owns it: the bishop or a counselor. The calling's page then lists these minutes under From the minutes, with a link back.

A topic for next meeting

Made on the spot, and carried to the next agenda.

For example, the line "@Bro. Lee to reserve the building for the youth activity" becomes an assignment for a fictional Brother Lee, due in a week. It lands on the Assignments list like any other, and the caret moves to a new line so you can keep writing.

The line keeps its words and gains a tag (Assignment, Appointment, Business, Calling or Topic) linking to what it made. An @tag fills in the person for you, on an appointment, business or calling action too.

• Changed your mind before adding it? Press Cancel (or Esc at a computer).
• Changed your mind after? On a phone, tap + action on the line and Just a note. Or delete the line's words and press Backspace on the empty line: 1stHour asks before it deletes what the line made.
• A calling action can't be undone from the minutes, because it already moved the calling on. Walk it back in Callings.

Appointment and calling actions only show when Appointments and Callings are switched on. The bishopric and the clerk can both make a calling action, on an open calling or a new one.

When the meeting is over, press Mark held. Held means the meeting is finished: the page turns to Read, and the next meeting becomes the current one. You can still switch to Write to fix something.

What happens to the topics:

• Topics you checked off close.
• Topics you didn't reach (nothing typed under them) carry to the next meeting on their own.
• Topics talked about but not checked off (notes under them, box empty): 1stHour asks about each one. Choose Carries to the next meeting or Closes here.

If you mark it held before the meeting's day, 1stHour asks first.

Pressed it too soon? Undo held is on the most recently held meeting (on a phone, in the menu beside the day).

At the next meeting, everything that came out of this one is at the top, under From and this meeting's date. That's the loop closing.

The bishopric meeting is one meeting type. You can add others, such as ward council or youth council.

• The same: the agenda starts with the same blocks, minutes and actions work the same way. The one difference: a new type starts with Decide today off, since it lists the bishopric's own callings, assignments and plans. Switch it on under the type's agenda settings if that meeting should see it. An assignment made there shows the meeting's name, so you can tell where it came from.
• Its own: each type has its own agenda settings, day and time, meetings and minutes. From shows the last meeting of the same type.

The meeting's name above the day is a menu: pick another type to open its current meeting, or All meetings.

Manage them here:

Settings›Meetings›Meeting types

Tap a type to open its agenda.

• Add a meeting type, name it, and press Add the type.
• Rename one at any time.
• Remove a type that has never been used, or Retire one that has. A retired type stops making new meetings, and its minutes stay readable. Unretire brings it back.

The settings people change most:

• Customize the agenda opens Settings → Meetings → Agenda for the type you're looking at. Switch blocks on or off, reorder them, or Add a block of your own ("Welfare needs"). Only Discussion can't be turned off. With Decide today off, it leaves that meeting's agenda, its minutes and its printout; notes already written under it stay in the minutes. Back brings you to the meeting.
• A block of your own can carry more than its name. On its row, tap Details:
  • Read each week holds words the block shows every meeting, such as the purpose of the meeting or a Handbook passage.
  • Link and Link words put a link under it, such as a report in LCR. It opens in a new tab.
  • On the meeting itself, Keep on the agenda adds a name or a need the block keeps week after week, such as a family you are looking after. Each one is a place to write, so the notes about it belong to that week. Take off removes it from every meeting ahead; what was written stays.
• Settings → Meetings → When you meet: the day and time. A new ward's bishopric meeting starts on Sunday at 8:00 am; change it here.

Agenda and When you meet are set per type. The type's name at the top of the page is a menu to pick another.

For one meeting at a time:

• The day at the top is a menu of this type's meetings: the one coming up and the last eight held, newest first, with a tick on the one you're looking at. Tap a day to open that meeting. New date starts a meeting of this type on a day you pick and opens it.
• Move moves this one meeting to a new day (on a phone, in the menu beside the day).
• Delete meeting removes a meeting you don't need, such as one made to try things out (on a phone, in the menu beside the day). 1stHour asks first. Its topics and minutes go with it; a topic carried from the last meeting, or sent to it by another meeting's minutes, carries on to the next meeting instead. A held meeting stays; press Undo held first if it really has to go. A meeting whose minutes made something (an assignment, an appointment, a topic for next time) stays until each of those lines lets go.
• All meetings lists every meeting, one section per type, newest first, with a filter per type. New meeting adds one on another day.
• Export prints the minutes, saves them as a PDF, or downloads a Markdown file. Notes and actions are listed under the part or topic they were written under.