Consultant Training Challenge

The following is an email I received from Lance McIntosh, the LDS Church's North America Area Manager for FamilySearch Support. I think his email explains the need beautifully so I am including it in its entirety. My comments below.

Sister Zamora,

We are running into a bit of a challenge as we try to help the local stakes prepare for the release of new FamilySearch. I was wondering if you could post something on your blog encouraging consultants to complete the new FamilySearch course which is available in the Help Center. Let me explain what is, or isn’t, happening.

The steps for preparing for the new FamilySearch are listed on the Prepare tab of the Utah Idaho Website (consultant.familysearch.org). We ask consultants to complete five courses among other exercises and then report their readiness to the High Priests Group Leader. One of the courses is the The New FamilySearch course. This course was recently revised and shortened to just six lessons and a conclusion. The estimated time to complete the course is now only 60 minutes.

We track the percentage of units within each stake as it pertains to them having at least one person who has completed this course. This is where we are facing the challenge. We have a number of stakes that have some units with a “trained” consultant but many stakes do not have any units with someone who has completed this course. We feel that this will hurt the consultant’s ability to support the members within their wards.

Could you possibly post something to your blog encouraging consultants to complete this course in order to be better prepared for the release that is coming quickly to the Wasatch front?

Let me know if you have any questions or other thoughts.

Thanks,

Lance

Thank you Lance, for letting us know the vital need. I am embarrassed to say I can be counted amongst the family history consultants that has not completed the training. I guess I have felt I already know all about this stuff. Well, even this old dog has something to learn. I promise to finish the training this weekend. I will return and report.