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Run missionary meals

Set the nights once. Members pick an open one. You step in for the exceptions.

Where
Signups
Who
The bishopric, the ward mission leader and a bulletin editor let run Signups

Signups is where you publish things members sign up for: missionary meals, and sign-up lists for everything else. Your ward keeps one meal calendar. It rolls from month to month on your usual nights, so you only step in for exceptions like zone conference or transfers.

Members open a link with no sign-in, pick an open night, and give a name and a time. They see only whether a night is open, never who took it. 1stHour asks for no phone number or email. The missionaries find hosts in the ward directory.

Note

Signups shows up only in wards where it has been turned on. The bishopric turns it on in Settings. Only the bishopric, the ward mission leader and a bulletin editor you let run it run missionary meals. The ward clerk doesn't, and gets no Signups tab.

Settings → Signups → Who runs missionary meals shows the two who run it: the Bishopric, always, and the Ward mission leader, with the name of whoever holds that calling now. There is nothing to switch there. People come from callings, so a release takes them off. A bulletin editor is let run it on their sign-in instead (below).

The ward mission leader runs meals while Ward Mission keeps Signups in Organization tools. Taken away there, the row says Off, and the ward mission leader loses missionary meals and Ward Mission's lists. The meals link members use keeps working.

Heads up

Nothing is sent. 1stHour doesn't email or text anyone when a member signs up, when a new month opens, or when you change a night. You share the links yourself.

1. Turn on Signups

1 min · Bishopric only

SettingsSignups

  1. Open Settings and find Signups.
  2. Turn its switch on.

It starts off in every ward. Turning it off later hides the member page and the missionary links, and keeps everything you entered. Turn it on again and it all comes back.

2. Set it up

5 min

  1. Open Signups and tap Set up missionary meals.
  2. Type each missionary's name. Tap Add a missionary for a companion or a trio.
  3. Add their phone, anything they can't eat, and a note to hosts if you have one.
  4. Check who hosts should contact to change or cancel. It starts as your ward mission leader, with the calling and phone from Ward page → Ward contacts when they're listed there.
  5. To choose someone else, type their name under Contact name, or pick them from the list. Anyone who holds a calling brings it along, and anyone in your ward contacts brings their phone too. Fill in a phone if it's blank.
  6. Tap Continue.
  7. Under Every week on, tap any night the missionaries don't need dinner. Monday starts off.
  8. Choose how far ahead members can sign up, then tap See the month.

New months open on their own with your usual nights. You never set up a new month.

3. Share the member link

On the month, tap ⋯ and then Copy member link. Paste it in the ward's group text or an email. The link ends in a long random code, so nobody finds the page by guessing.

To put it where members already look, open ⋯ → Usual nights and turn on Show on the public program. The ward's public home then has a Sign-ups row, with how many sign-ups are open. It opens Sign-ups, where Sign up opens the member page. When dinners are open in the next seven days, the home's This week also shows a Help needed line that opens it. Opened from either one, the member page has the ward's name in the upper left corner, which goes back to the ward's home.

Heads up

The member page is open to anyone with the link, and to anyone who opens the ward's page while it's shown there. Without signing in, they see:

  • the missionaries' names and their allergies, so hosts know who they are feeding;
  • your note to hosts, unless you hide it on the set;
  • the missionaries' phone, only on a set where you turned Phone on under On the member page (⋯ → The missionaries). It starts off;
  • the contact's name, calling and phone, so hosts know who to call to change or cancel.

They never see who took a night or any host's name.

A member taps an open night, types their name, picks a time or leaves it TBD, and signs up. They can add the dinner to their own calendar. The event carries what you chose under ⋯ → Calendar event, and only the member who signed up gets it. It says who to contact to change or cancel, since members can't cancel in 1stHour themselves.

4. Take a night off, or add one

1 min

Zone conference, transfers, a missionary away: change that one night in the month.

  1. Open Signups and tap Missionary meals.
  2. Tap the night.
  3. Turn Dinner this night off. A night that wasn't on turns on as soon as you tap it.

You can't turn off a night that has a host. Remove the host first, and let them know yourself. Past nights can't be changed.

5. Add or change a host

1 min

For someone who asked you in the hall rather than on the link.

  1. Tap the night in the month.
  2. Start typing a name. Ward members show up; anyone else, just type the name.
  3. Pick a time, then tap Save host.

On a night with a host, tap Change or Remove host. You see every host by name. A member who signed up to feed both sets is changed or removed for both at once. Tap the list icon beside the month to see the whole month as a list, with filters for open and filled nights.

6. Send the month to the missionaries

2 min

  1. On the month, tap ⋯ and then Send to missionaries.
  2. Pick the month (and the set, if you have more than one).
  3. Choose one:
Copy as a text
Copies every filled night with its host and time, ready to paste in a message.
Printable calendar
Opens a one-page calendar, with each host's name and time, to print or save as a PDF.
Missionary link
Copies a private link the missionaries can keep. It always shows their dinners as they are, with the hosts' names, and needs no sign-in. Under the calendar it lists this week's dinners, Sunday to Saturday.

Heads up

Treat the missionary link like a key. Anyone who has it sees the hosts' names. If it gets passed around, open ⋯ → The missionaries, pick the set, and tap Reset the link. The old link stops working and you send the new one. Anyone who opens the old one is told the link is no longer valid, with a button to the ward's page.

7. Print the calendar

2 min

Print a sign-up sheet to pass around at church, or a calendar to hand to the missionaries.

  1. On the month, tap ⋯ and then Print.
  2. Pick a version:
Sign-up sheet
Crosses out every night that is taken, already past, or needs no dinner, and names no one. Members write their name, phone and a time on an open night.
For the missionaries
Shows each night's host and time. Open nights are blank and nights with no dinner are crossed out.
  1. If you have more than one set, pick one set or Every set.
  2. Tap each month you want. You can pick any month members can sign up for.
  3. Tap Open the pages, then Print or save as PDF.

Each set and month prints on its own landscape page, in black and white. The screen shows each page as it will print; on a phone, pinch to zoom in. Allergies print at the top. Your note to hosts doesn't print.

Note

A paper sheet doesn't update itself. Add the names written on it to the month yourself (Add or change a host), so the member link stops offering those nights.

8. More than one set of missionaries

Open ⋯ → The missionaries and tap Add another set, then type the missionaries' names. 1stHour calls the set Elders or Sisters from the names, and each set gets its own colour on the month: outlined while it still needs a host, filled once someone signs up.

Then, in ⋯ → Usual nights, choose how the ward feeds them:

Feed every set
One dinner per set each night. A member can feed one set or both at one table.
One set a night
The sets take turns. Choose every other night, or pick each night yourself in the month.

Turns follow your usual nights, so taking a night off (or adding one) never moves any other night to the other set. A night that already has a host keeps that host's set.

9. Pause or end

Tap ⋯ → Pause signups for transfers or a week away. Members see a short note instead of the calendar, and dinners already signed up for stay as they are. Tap Resume to open it again.

End missionary meals takes the member page and the missionary links down. Nothing is deleted. Tap Start missionary meals again on Signups to bring it back with the same missionaries and the dinners still signed up for.

Heads up

Starting again makes new links. The old member link and the old missionary links stay dead, so copy the new ones (Copy member link, Send to missionaries) and share them again.

10. Let a bulletin editor run it

1 min · Bishopric and clerk

SettingsYour wardWho can sign in

A bulletin editor runs missionary meals only once you let them, one person at a time. Signups must be on first.

  1. Press Change role on their row, or tap their position, then Adjust access.
  2. Tick Allowed to run or help with sign-ups, under the Bulletin editor role.
  3. Press Save role, or Done.

Their row then says Also runs Signups. They then run every sign-up list too, not only the meals. They get a Signups tab beside Announcements, Sundays and Contacts, the next time their app refreshes, which can take up to an hour. To take it away, untick it the same way. You can also tick it when you invite them. While Signups is off, their row says only Bulletin editor, and turning Signups back on gives them the tab again. See changing a role.