www.familysearch.org
Perhaps others out there already knew this, but I've been unable to get an answer until tonight as to what title a person now uses when they were formerly called a "Family History Center Director." Apparently that title was silently taken away (I saw no announcement nor has anyone provided a link to one) when we had our calling designations changed to "Stake Temple and Family History Consultant - Family History Center."
Tonight, quite by accident when looking for something totally different, I ran across the following article with the answer. I'm still chuckling over the fact that this article headlined with the new title still has the old title ("director") in the URL linking to the article itself. We are now referred to as a "family history center leader." Maybe I'm the last one to get the message, but in case not, here it is:
My identity crisis was resolved tonight. 😎
I don't know how new the above article is, but it certainly is exceptionally detailed and helpful. Now that telephone training from Salt Lake has been discontinued for new FHC leaders, this is an excellent starting point that would have been exceptionally helpful to me nearly two years ago when I first started. Great article!
-- Chris
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This was done last year. And yes, it was not communicated very well. Family History has a large reach across many different areas and callings. Communicating changes is challenging.
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Thanks for sharing this link. Maybe it will help someone. I had to find out all this information piecemeal on my own. FS support really does a terrible job communicating our (secondary) responsibilities to us. "Call us!" Well, that message only works if it's received. My previous director didn't know to do that, the area support missionaries were just called on a mission so they were gone, my high councilor was brand new - worst of all, I got conflicting advice from FS support missionaries. It has been 6+ months and there are things on this list I still haven't done, and I feel totally isolated and discouraged. I hope your sharing this article helps others just starting out to not end up in this negative headspace.
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Well Chris, you aren't the only one who didn't know about this change and I've been a Family History Center Director/Leader for 8 years and I sure missed this one. I kept looking for something about a change in title but could never find anything. Sometimes these changes get buried so deep in the communication channels that one cannot find them. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you sooo much for sharing this. I was recently called in my ward as a FHC director and it has been quite confusing as to what to do. This article is very helpful! Thank you
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@mthompsonjardine1 mthompsonjardine1, if in fact you were recently called in your ward as a FHC director, besides a key to the door, there is another essential key that you must have in order to properly function. Read that article thoroughly, and you'll see references to making sure your calling title is exactly correct. If in fact you are in charge of the FHC, then your calling should be "Stake Temple and Family History Center Consultant - Family History Center." If you aren't put in (as a stake calling, not by your ward) properly, you won't be "registered" with Salt Lake as the director leader, and therefore won't be listed as the contact person for the FHC in which you serve (including the listing in the CDOL - covered in that article). So if your calling was from your bishopric and you were entered into the system by your ward clerk, they should do some coordinating with your stake and get that corrected, with the proper calling extended. There can be multiple FHCs in one stake (ours has two), but the person in charge is still a stake calling, not a ward calling.
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In our stake we have two FHC. One in Soldotna Alaska and then one in Kodiak which is an island off the coast of Alaska. Is it possible to have more then one “stake and family history consultant-family history center” people who are called to that position in the same stake with two centers? Or would there be just one who would be in charge of both?
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Our stake has four centers and each has it's own director/leader.
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Wow. There is a lot of good information here. Thanks for sharing. I live in an area where I am the local support, LOL. Fortunately I did get the phone training about a year ago. But this is a great reminder and help for me to go over and try to get things working the right way in our area.
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Same as @cheryllynnhuff1 cheryllynnhuff1 in our stake - two FHCs and two called, set apart Stake Temple and Family History Consultants - Family History Center." My understanding is that each FHC should have its own director leader. In your situation @mthompsonjardine1 mthompsonjardine1, that would be exceptionally difficult to manage for one person. Staff needs to be trained, monitored, and managed, and monthly reports need to be sent in on a per-center basis in order to justify computer replacement numbers in each of the separate facilities.
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We have 4 in our stake and at least in the system, I am over 3 of the 4. Not complaining as I really worked hard to get myself put into the system last spring after I got the phone training that opened my eyes to the fact that there were reports and such. That's also when I found out that all 4 buildings in our stake were designated as FHCs. Too bad they aren't staffed. Lots of work to do.
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@Christie Jeppson Blair, I'm wondering if all four of those have computers in them that are supplied by Salt Lake (not locally purchased), and when they were first installed. My reason for asking is so you don't run into what I inherited. The people that preceded me in my calling had only submitted four total monthly reports in 4½ years. In the article I posted the link to, you'll see the direction that says you must submit a year's worth of monthly reports in order to get new computers. They're currently replaced every five years. What I did NOT know, was that we were due for replacement shortly after I was called, and we were able to defer our replacement for a year in order to submit 12 monthly reports (with greatly increased attendance due to some major efforts in our stake). At one point I was officially informed that we were only going to get two computers to replace the six that we had (and no, we did not have an option of at least keeping four of the old ones and accepting the two new ones to replace two of the old ones - which were in serious need of replacement). That 1-year reprieve allowed us to show that we really could justify keeping what we had, and just last fall we got all six computers replaced. It's a "use 'em or lose 'em" system, quite fairly, given the 10s of thousands of computers the Church has world wide - they have to be able to justify that huge expenditure of money to give us new ones, so we have to show that we're actually using them.
Also be aware that they partially track usage by actual sign-on every day you're open. I've learned that the computers need to be turned OFF every day, and then turned back on the next time the FHC is open (do NOT turn off the Lexmark printer, however - it must stay on continually, and will automatically signal Salt Lake when toner needs to be reordered, and the toner will be electronically ordered and shipped to the listed address in the CDOL for your particular FHC - so update the CDOL!!!). Once you log on, open each computer to the Portal page (the one beginning with the list of Premium Websites at the top). Turning the computers off each night and back on next time the FHC opens allows Microsoft updates, and opening to the Portal page allows updates to FamilySearch itself through the Church system, as it's been explained to my by a senior tech support person. We've eliminated many of the problems we were having. We also use a "sign-in" list and ask all visitors to sign in just so we can show FHC usage and justify new computers (visitors are quite happy to help you get better computers for them to use!).
I learned most of the above often by accident and by sheer luck (or intervention by "higher sources" when I didn't know enough myself). All of the above is very important. And if some of your FHCs are equipped but not staffed, do whatever it takes to get them staffed, and get people inside them and send in those monthly reports! Guidelines for the report are in the somewhat dated "Family History Center Operations Guide" (2015), but still quite useful. We were within days of having those two computers shipped and we would have had to pack up the six we had and return those - had we not found out what all we needed, and negotiated with Salt Lake just in the nick of time so we could demonstrate that we really did have the need for the computers. Nobody else needs to go through those hair pulling exercises!
Also, as noted above, make sure you update the CDOL for your FHC. Our printer was running on "toner fumes," and I was having difficulty learning how to order new toner. In the process, I learned that a new cartridge had been sent automatically when the printer "notified" Salt Lake that it was getting low on toner. Unfortunately, the toner went to a previous FHC director who lived about 50 miles away. For "convenience," that former director gave it to someone in her area that had a stake calling and asked them to deliver it to the FHC in the stake center on his next trip over to a stake meeting. Unfortunately, he merely gave it to the stake clerk, who had no idea which printer it went to, and it was stored in an out-of-the-way corner of the clerk's closet without anyone in our FHC even knowing it existed. I was given an address but no name as to where it had been shipped, and we finally figured out where it went, spoke to the previous director, learned who'd gotten it next, etc., etc., and eventually found it in the stake clerk's office when the toner level showed empty (shaking a toner cartridge does still work, hah hah!).
Best of luck on getting those FHCs all staffed and used so you can retain any computers your have, or possibly even get an increase if you've got the usage. They will not tell you how much usage you need - you just have to send in the reports honestly, and hope you have justified enough computers for your use.
--Chris
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Thank you so much for that incredibly useful information. Our printer is, indeed, running on toner fumes, and it has mostly stayed turned off, so that certainly isn't helping. This is exactly the kind of information I need, with no one local who knows it. I do know that we have a lot more computers than Salt Lake knows about. There have been a lot of local efforts outside of official channels, with no one really understanding what the official channels are. I did finally get the portal up and running on a couple of the computers last year. The previous director had no idea it existed and it took a lot of time with support to get it done because he is a professional IT guy and just set everything up himself and nothing was done the way they expected it to be, Anyway, it's all an uphill slog in the dark and I greatly appreciate the insight
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@Christie Jeppson Blair - Significant problems there. None of the unofficial computers would be connected through the Portal, since there is proprietary software that comes pre-installed on the Church-supplied computers. The easy way you can check to see if they're properly connected through the Portal is to go to the list of Premium Websites and click a few of them (such as Puzzilla, Fold3, Ancestry, etc.), and make sure that what comes up says "Library Edition" or "LDS Version" or "Premium" (in the case of Puzzilla), or words like that. If the Premium sites all open, you're connected through the Portal. The other way is to test whether you can get to any of the exclusive images that are only available in the FHC (most can also be seen in a FamilySearch Affiliate Library if you have any in your are, but there are still some images associated with sources that can only be viewed in a FHC). A test URL to check that is:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007458800?cat=693839
If you see a screen full of little "images" that merely say "PHOTO" across them, you are not connected to the Portal. But if you see actual microfilm images, you're connected to the Portal. That is one of the many pages that can only be viewed in a FHC (anybody trying it from home from this message will only see a bunch of little "Photo" images in place of microfilm images).
As for your printer, assuming it's the same model we've got (a Lexmark, but I can't remember the model number from here at home), it's monitored by Salt Lake if you leave it on 24/7 (so have it on a good surge protector!). But you may need to call FS Support and have them escalate the issue unless you happen to get a very knowledgeable support person who also happened to have been a FHC Director in the fairly recent past.
Does your "Scan to FamilySearch" feature work on your printer? If not, get them to connect you to a tech support person to get that worked out. We didn't even know what that feature was when I took over, and nobody knew that patrons could come in with their documents and photos and scan them directly into their own FamilySearch account without even needing to be logged into one of the computers. They simply put their FamilySearch log in credentials (user name and password) into the printer at the prompts after pressing the "Scan to FamilySearch" button on the little input screen, and once logged in they will be sending their photos or documents directly into their own "Gallery." From there they can go to any computer (FHC or home) and move them into the appropriate "Person Page" Memories section. Just go to "Memories" on a person's page in FS, and click the "upload" button if they're uploading an image from their own computer, or the "Select from Gallery" button if the images are already loaded into the Gallery from the FHC printer (or whatever other way they got into the Gallery). Some people don't have scanners at home, so the FHC becomes a marvelous way of adding the really special photos, certificates, other documents, etc., to their ancestors' individual "Memories" pages - a feature many people still don't really know about, or know just how easy it is to preserve all those aging photos and paper documents.
I really feel for you. I had to learn all of this a little bit at a time, often by accident (divine intervention at times, I'm convinced), or a little piece of information here or there that I picked up in a conversation with a really excellent tech support person at FamilySearch Support from time to time. It was well over six months before we had most of the above working well, but still on our old computers. As of last August, we were finally fully up to speed when we also got our six replacement computers. They come pre-loaded with Windows 10 and all of the special FamilySearch software that automatically hooks you into the Portal properly. I hope this helps finally jump start you so you can avoid any more of what I understand all too well. Once you're fully connected to the Portal and the Church-supplied computers are working properly, you need to start "marketing" the heck out of your capabilities. We held a Family History Center Grand Re-Opening once we were up to speed (and had finally won the battle of ditching our AT&T 3 Mbps internet connection and replacing it with 1 Gig speed through one of the local cable companies - and yes, that did take some higher leadership intervention to get past the FM Group bureaucracy!!!). It's a beautiful world waiting for you! Just remember though that the non-Salt Lake-supplied computers do not and cannot have all the FHC-only features on them. You've got to get good usage numbers in your FHCs for an extended period of time and "lobby" for new computers when replacement time comes around (5 years). So you'll need good leadership support in advertising your capabilities and the need to USE it (or lose it) to the members and public.
Hint: if you've got a decent sized public library in your area and they aren't a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, research that topic and then go to their director and propose that they apply. It's free, and it puts them on the Portal for at least limited amounts of what the FHC has, including monthly newsletters on features and updates to their staff. We've developed a good working relationship with our library, and they're regularly referring some of their library visitors to us, and vice versa. Plus, we've been invited to teach some of their "genealogy" classes, which helps publicity as well (I'm teaching a class this Saturday on the FS Wiki and using "Memories" in FS, for example). It takes time, but the benefits in a year or so are well worth it. If they're interested, they should email Cherie Bush directly - she's over the FS Affiliate Library approvals and has put her name and email address "out there" publicly for that purpose: BushCD@familysearch.org (please everybody, do NOT deluge her with other questions not directly pertaining to the FS Affiliate Library program - she's "full up!").
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@Chris Schmink WOW! Thank you for sharing! I'll see if this link can be provided to our T&FH group pages here in the Community. Great information, for sure!
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