Manage the LDS Calling Workflow
A calling is not a single decision, it is a sequence — and the sequence is where callings get lost. This is how CallingHelper models the calling workflow, from the first proposal through to a completed, archived record.
The steps
Not every calling follows exactly this sequence. Approval requirements differ by unit and by calling, a stake proposal takes a different route than a ward one, and a release skips the approval steps altogether. What follows is the common shape.
- Proposed The proposal is created: the calling, the proposed member, the unit and the organization. Proposals can be grouped when several callings depend on each other — a presidency, for instance, where the counsellors wait until the president has accepted.
- Review and approval A ward proposal starts with bishopric approval. A stake proposal goes to the stake presidency, and can be sent to the bishop of the member's ward for consultation first.
- High Council approval * Part of the stake workflow — a ward calling does not normally reach this step. Each council member's vote is recorded individually and the proposal shows how many have responded; unanimous approval from the active members moves it on without anybody having to chase it. A stake that does not use individual votes can switch this step off.
- Meet with the member The interview, where the calling is extended. The answer is recorded, including a decline, so the proposal ends cleanly either way.
- Sustaining Its own step, with a list of everyone ready to be sustained, so the list can be prepared from the system rather than from memory.
- Setting apart The step most likely to be forgotten, which is exactly why it is a step. It has its own working list.
- LCR entry * A checklist of what still needs to be recorded in the Church's system. CallingHelper does not connect to LCR and does not replace it.
- Completed The proposal is archived. It stays available in the calling history and the archive reports.
* Conditional steps. Which ones a proposal passes through depends on the calling and the level: High Council approval sits in the stake workflow, not the everyday ward one — see the ward and stake comparison for how the two paths differ.
Where a proposal waits
A calling can sit "in progress" for weeks without anything being wrong. It may be waiting for a review, for an approval, for a High Council to meet, for a member interview to be scheduled, for the next sacrament meeting to sustain, or for somebody to be available to set the member apart. The point of tracking the workflow is not to hurry any of that — it is so a leader can see, at a glance, which of those a proposal is waiting on and how long it has been there.
Each step also records an authorization: the person assigned, the decision — yes, no or hold — and the time. A proposal put on hold carries a date and comes back on its own.
Reminder emails for pending steps
Steps can generate reminder emails, so a proposal that stalls says so instead of sitting quietly. Reminders can be sent for pending workflow steps, High Council approvals, members waiting to be met with, sustainings, settings apart, and for steps that have been reassigned from one person to another.
Every reminder type is configured separately, and configuration is the point — reminders that arrive too often get ignored, which is worse than none:
- Turn each reminder on or off on its own, without losing its settings.
- Set its schedule — how often it runs, and when.
- Choose which callings' holders receive it, so it reaches the people who act on it and nobody else.
- Send one immediately to test it.
What the workflow does not do
It does not make the decisions, and it is not the record. CallingHelper tracks the process leading up to a calling being recorded; the official record lives in the Church's own systems. The LCR step is a reminder of what still needs entering there, nothing more.