Tech Forum

I'm the new Duty to God teacher for the Deacon's quorum and wondered if there were any Duty to God apps I could use for tracking the boy's progress?

I'm looking either for an official or un-official Church app, any ideas?

There are no apps progress is kept track in the Young Mens personal DTG handbook.

Right I know it is tracked there but I wanted to track each boy's progress in a nice app or document (I know there are a couple excel templates out there) for better organization.

Officially, Young Men are encouraged to connect to the church's Duty to God website at https://dutytogod.lds.org and enter their personal plans online. The complete booklet is there, including all of the learning activities and links to scriptures and other resources.

On the website, YM can:

• Enter, view, and update their plans online.
• Prepare outlines they can use to teach about the doctrines they study.
• Get ideas to help them make their Duty to God plans.
• See videos related to Duty to God.
• Record their thoughts and impressions as they carry out their plans.
• Link to scriptures and other resources to help them complete learning activities.

Unfortunately, there are no options for parents and YM leaders to sign off requirements or track the progress of individuals on this site. That functionality does exist on the Personal Progress site for Young Women, so IMO, I believe it's just a matter of time before that capability will also be available on the YM side as well.

I have found that the plans and journal entries made by a YM on the DtG website don't sync to the respective places in the Gospel Library-Android app (maybe it works in the iOS app?). If that worked correctly (especially if it synced both ways), that would be very valuable for the YM to be able to refer to their online journal entries and plans in quorum meetings. As it is, the online DtG tool, while nice-looking, isn't very portable or useful.

Mikerowaved I sure hope they come up with something. I guess I will keep using my excel document to keep track. Thanks everyone for the help!

I dont know how updated it is, but here is an excel spreadsheet that keeps track of the progress
http://www.et.byu.edu/~njones/share/d2g/

There is a great program called Scoutbook that not only keeps track of scouting advancements but Duty to God and Faith in God as well. Its designed so that leaders, parents, and YM can view or update requirements with leaders approving them upon completion.

Brethren,

As a Branch President in Wisconsin, I am finding it very difficult to track the progress of our Young Men in the Duty to God program. The YW Personal Progress site is impressive - with parent and leadership resources available, it's easy to track the progress of our Young Women. The YM Duty to God site is far less impressive - basically a copy of the YW site without the "Additional Resources" section that make the YW PP site so remarkable and useful. Surely the YW Personal Progress tracking application "Leader Summary" and "Parent Summary" could easily be copied and used for tracking Duty to God as well? It's quite similar, so copying and repurposing it should be pretty straightforward.

It's my understanding that the YM DTG program is intended to serve as an equivalent to the YW PP program and as a replacement for scouting in other parts of the world, so we should at least be putting equivalent effort into DTG (Matt 6:19-21), if not more effort (since integrating the two programs is, in my experience, is difficult and confusing). After all, half of the church uses DTG instead of Scouting, and that will only increase as the church expands throughout the world. With recent BSA developments, we should probably be putting more emphasis on DTG and/or provide better tools to enable local leaders, like myself, to implement it. Thus far, I'm personally finding the program to be somewhat disorganized and difficult to understand and implement. The tools aren't there, the clear direction and instruction are lacking, and our local loyalties are divided between Scouting and DTG (James 1:8).

If I had sufficient time to work on this as a tech project, I'd gladly do it - but with 11 children (soon to be 12) I'm not able to do so at this time. But just implementing the change above (copying the "Leader Summary" and "Parent Summary" from PP and implementing it for DTG) would be VERY helpful in our efforts to track DTG. So brethren, I am sincerely asking for your help, if you are able to provide it (3 Nephi 12:42 & Matt 5:42).

Thank you and may God bless you as you move the DTG program forward in your own units.

rhusted wrote:With recent BSA developments, we should probably be putting more emphasis on DTG and/or provide better tools to enable local leaders, like myself, to implement it.

I don't think you should be putting any more emphasis on DTG or Scouting than you do the other. And while I don't speak for the Brethren everything I have read, studied and heard from them over the years is that we need to work on both programs together. Recent BSA developments have had do impact on which program we are to do. The Brethren have made it clear that Scouting is the activity program for YM if its available and approved in their area.

rhusted wrote:Thus far, I'm personally finding the program to be somewhat disorganized and difficult to understand and implement.

Take a look at ScoutBook it is a great place to keep track of both BSA and Duty to God progress in one place.

rhusted wrote:The tools aren't there, the clear direction and instruction are lacking,

Clear direction and instruction on what you should be doing in your YMs program and how the DTG and Scouting programs work together can be found in the Church Handbooks of instruction, Official church web site, and BSA program materials.

rhusted wrote:and our local loyalties are divided between Scouting and DTG (James 1:8).

Then i suggest that many in your local area have need to repent as the Brethren have made it really clear on which way we should go. Our loyalties need to be with the Brethren.