Riverton Utah Summerhill Stake:
"I was called as an Extraction
Director in January 2005
because the
Churh had invited our Stake Presidency to be one of the
original 20
testing Stakes. They were interested in our Stake because we didn't
have any extracting going on. The Church's Family History Dept.
wanted
to see if FamilySearch Indexing could catch fire in a Stake
where there
had been no previous extraction work done. They were
happy to see that it did.
The Holy Ghost has truly moved
the
hearts of our members. I have received many beautiful testimonials of
how indexing has changed lives, sustained heartaches, strengthened
testimonies, have given members more purpose in life, have helped to
unify families, and have brought blessings into homes and lives.
Between
August 2005 and December 2006, our Stake members indexed 255,161 names,
and arbitrated 114,211 names. Actually they did more than this, because
we did quite a few Pennsylvania 1900 Census records that had 100 names
per batch rather than 50 names. I don't have the record for those.
I
don't know if I have much to add from what you've already mentioned in
your newsletters of what we do. I do pretty much the same thing, such
as help the indexers get started and provide continual support.
Weekly
e-mails keep the indexers informed, trained and feeling part of
the
"team." I also incorporate my testimony and inspiring quotes as
much
as possible to try to help with motiviation. Continual expressions of
one-on-one gratitude helps keep them motivated.
With
each new indexer, I also send them an attachment "Stake Getting Started
Guidelines," which helps them know where to go for training on the
program, and very basic information.
To initially get the
word out, I asked the Stake person in charge of Sacrament Meeting talks
(with the approval of the Stake Presidency) to assign me as a companion
speaker with a High Councilor in each ward. This is what got the
ball
rolling--slowly at first, but it gained momentum from there. One ward
invited me back a year later to give a follow up talk, which reaped
more indexers. I continue to spread the word through ward
bulletins in
the Stake, and flyers on the bulletin boards.
Every
other month, the Bishops in each ward receive an indexing report of
their ward members. I now have 3 Bishops who are indexers, and have
invited me to speak to their youth. One Bishop challenged his Youth to
a "Beat the Bishop" Indexing Contest. It was close, but the youth
won--and were rewarded with a pizza party to die for! We have 2 wards
presently
involved in Indexing Summer Service projects for the youth. The youth
are coming along--very slowly, but surely!
Every year, the Stake Presidency has
invited me to
come to Bishopric Training Meeting and discuss indexing with the
Bishops.
My
next goal is to figure out a way to have ongoing training in the Stake
Center by having an accessible computer in a decent-sized room. I
believe this will encourage more indexing. The August
Ensign will be partially dedicated to inviting the members to Family
Search Indexing! That will be exciting. We'll see a real boom of
indexers after that."
Nancy Hendrickson (Riverton Utah
Summerhill
Stake)