Certified Trainer's Guide The Family History Guide Association Version 1.0 10/15/2018 Association 2018 The Family History Guide Association 1
Contents INTRODUCTION 3 Mission Statement of The Family History Guide Association 3 Training Strategy 3 WHAT IS A CERTIFIED TRAINER? 3 WHAT ARE THE EXPECTATIONS? 4 SETTING TRAINING GOALS 5 Increase and Improve 5 TRAINING TYPES AND APPROACHES 5 High-Level Presentations 5 Presentations and Classes 5 Training Individuals 6 TRAINING GUIDELINES 6 WORKING WITH MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS 6 Our Approval from FamilySearch and the Church 6 Getting Leadership Support 7 Church Group Opportunities 7 If You Are a Temple & Family History Consultant (T&FHC) 7 If You Are Not a T&FHC, or If You are Not LDS 8 OUTREACH PROGRAMS 8 TRACKING PROGRESS, SHARING RESULTS 8 Engagement Summary 8 Online Tracker 9 Monthly Summary 9 ASSOCIATION SUPPORT 9 LENGTH OF SERVICE 9 2018 The Family History Guide Association 2
INTRODUCTION Mission Statement of The Family History Guide Association "Our mission is to greatly increase the number of people actively involved in family history worldwide, and to make everyone's family history journey easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable." Training Strategy The Family History Guide is uniquely positioned as a premier training platform for family history. Here are some of the key elements that drive its success: It is a free website, with no subscriptions or fees. This makes it widely appealing to those interested in learning and doing family history. The Training section of The Family History Guide website facilitates local training. Tools and resources are available there to enable trainers to successfully carry out classes and coaching. The Projects, Goals, and Steps in The Family History Guide empower learners to continue teaching themselves. In order to carry out the Mission Statement, the Association needs effective Certified Trainers who can increase and improve training efforts in their local areas. This will bring the benefits of The Family History Guide to many more people worldwide. WHAT IS A CERTIFIED TRAINER? A Certified Trainer delivers training in his or her local area, which can be a family history center, public library, genealogy society, ward or stake, etc. This includes giving presentations or classes on The Family History Guide as well as individual mentoring, depending on your available time and resources. The Certified Trainer role is currently a volunteer position. Certified Trainers should be passionate about The Family History Guide and its benefits, use it effectively to create training strategies, and help carry out the Mission Statement. 2018 The Family History Guide Association 3
WHAT ARE THE EXPECTATIONS? At a minimum, each Certified Trainer is expected to do the things in the following list. Additional information for most of these items is provided later in this Guide. 1. Take and pass the Overview Certification test. You may do this as an open-book test, and you may retake the test if needed. Email a screenshot of your test results to us: https://form.jotform.com/81444529105151 2. Present at least one overview class on The Family History Guide to a group of 10 or more, or mentor at least two other people on The Family History Guide, for a combined time total of at least two hours. 3. Have a solid understanding of The Family History Guide website. Low-level knowledge of all the steps and links is not expected. 4. Be an accomplished and skilled family history presenter and trainer, with large and small groups. 5. Set goals for increasing and improving training with The Family History Guide in your local area. Also, Do not charge fees to those you train, or organizations you help, either for materials or presentation time. There is no minimum hourly requirement for time spent volunteering as a Certified Trainer. The important thing is your success. If you find that you re not able to put in the time necessary to serve effectively, please let us know so we can make other arrangements. Note: Certified Trainers are not required to be members of the LDS Church. If you are a Certified Trainer and you have a calling as a Temple and Family History Consultant, remember that being a Certified Trainer is not a Church calling. However, some great partnerships and progress can be made with Certified Trainers and the LDS community in using The Family History Guide see Working with the LDS Community below for details. 2018 The Family History Guide Association 4
SETTING TRAINING GOALS Increase and Improve The two keywords to keep in mind as you set goals for your Certified Training are "increase" and "improve" you can measure your success by growth of training efforts or improvement in the training that is carried out. Increase: In setting your goals, decide how to best increase training efforts in your Geo, whether delivered by yourself or by local trainers. Improve: Identify ways to improve the training or training materials used. Gathering feedback from the trainers and those who are trained will be essential. Note: On-demand reports will be available in the Online Tracker early in 2019. These reports will help you see the progress that is being made by learners in your Geo, respective to Goals and Choices in The Family History Guide. TRAINING TYPES AND APPROACHES Below is a summary of the different types of training you may provide, and some tips for what to focus on for each type. See the Media page and the Training section in The Family History Guide for materials to use. High-Level Presentations These are focused more on the "why" than the "how, with the objective being to show others the value of The Family History Guide and what it can do for them. The audience may be decision makers, leaders, etc., varying from one to ten individuals or so. Presentations and Classes When appropriate, present "Introduction to The Family History Guide" usually 45 minutes to an hour to interested groups. If you have local trainers, this is a good entry point for them. As they assume some of these training opportunities, you can focus on additional high-level presentations. Another resource is the Course Catalog in The Family History Guide (Training section). You can customize Goals and Choices to come up with quick and effective training on almost any important family history topic, either for a presentation or a hands-on class. 2018 The Family History Guide Association 5
Training Individuals One-on-one training may be less intimidating than group presentations and may allow more local trainers to become proficient with teaching The Family History Guide. If requested, or if there are not yet local trainers, you can provide this individual coaching on how to use The Family History Guide. As a Certified Trainer, show those you mentor how they can solve their own challenges by using The Family History Guide effectively. TRAINING GUIDELINES Here are some guidelines to keep in mind as you train: The Family History guide is an enabler, not a competitor. Emphasize its strengths rather than dwelling on weakness of other sites or products. Remember: You are the face of The Family History Guide to all you contact. Always keep at the right depth level for content. The Family History Guide is large enough that you could get lost in it for quite a while, so focus on the priorities and avoid distractions or dwelling on too much detail. It s usually best to hold Q&A to the end, so allow some time for that. If you do Q&A in the middle, keep answers brief and move the presentation along. Keep presentations on The Family History Guide non-denominational, unless the audience has requested training for a particular denomination. In that case, you can walk through your preferred items in the Faiths page on the website. WORKING WITH MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be great partners in sharing the benefits of The Family History Guide. The key is knowing how to work with different groups to build awareness and confidence in the website and its training. Our Approval from FamilySearch and the Church All groups and members should know this fact right up front: The Family History Guide has been vetted by LDS Church Correlation and FamilySearch as an approved training resource for family history. This will help those new to The Family History Guide who may not be sure of Church approval. 2018 The Family History Guide Association 6
Important: Clarify that The Family History Guide is not produced by the Church; it s produced by The Family History Guide Association, which maintains the website content in accordance with Church publication guidelines. Getting Leadership Support Even though the Family History Guide is approved by FamilySearch and the Church, it is important to remember that The Family History Guide and its parent organization are distinct and separate from those two church organizations. In some areas, many of your local trainers may also be LDS Temple and Family History Consultants, but it is important to always present ourselves as representatives of The Family History Guide. This is not a Church calling. If there is an LDS family history center in your area, work with the Director. Although The Family History Guide is included in the FHC Portal (a group of approved Family History Center websites and resources) at all family history centers, the Center Director may be unfamiliar with this resource. Getting support and understanding of The Family History Guide will be key in your training efforts. If a local Family History Center decides not to participate in training with The Family History Guide, you should respect their decision. However, we have seen opinions change toward The Family History Guide as people become familiar with it and use it. Make sure Family History Center leaders know how to contact you in the future if they have questions. Church Group Opportunities Because all Church members share the responsibility for family history work, there can be many opportunities to share or present The Family History Guide to Church groups. Here are a few places to present The Family History Guide: Adults: Relief Society meeting, Priesthood meeting, fifth Sunday combined meetings, Sunday School classes on family history. Also consider the Family section of the website for ideas on family activities. Singles: In YSA or Singles wards or branches. Also consider the Individuals section of the website for ideas on activities. Youth: Young Men s and Young Women s meetings or activities. Also consider the Youth section of the website for ideas on activities. Children: Work with Primary leaders to find a way to introduce activities from the Kids Corner page on the website. If You Are a Temple & Family History Consultant (T&FHC) Many wards, stakes, and family history centers are using The Family History Guide as a vital part of their family training efforts. You can design and schedule classes based on The Family History Guide in your calling, or use it to train individuals or other consultants. Important resources are found in the Training section of the website. These include tips for consultants as well as the 2018 The Family History Guide Association 7
Course Catalog. The Family History Guide can be a very useful addition to the Consultant Planner on LDS.org, to help fill in the details for the training plans implemented there. If You Are Not a T&FHC, or If You are Not LDS You should work closely with Consultants, training them as needed and coaching them on the benefits of The Family History Guide. However, remember that implementing the training is up to the Consultants or Directors. You can consider Consultants who are training with The Family History Guide as part of your local training group. Because Consultants serve for a limited time, usually a year or two, you ll need to follow up to see when they are coming or going. If you re not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, welcome! You can decide whether or not to mention any topics on the Latter-day Saints page of the website. If the audience has requested Church topics in the presentation or class, you may want to work with a T&FHC to cover the material. OUTREACH PROGRAMS There are many great opportunities to share The Family History Guide through outreach programs. Here are a few examples: Local libraries Genealogical and historical societies Family history fairs Senior centers Public seminars and town activities You may present at these locations, or you may find that there are people already there who would be happy to be trained to present The Family History Guide. TRACKING PROGRESS, SHARING RESULTS We have some tools that can help you manage your training activities. Also, feel free to develop your own. As you find or develop tools that are helpful, we are anxious to hear about them. Please share them with us, and we may share them with your fellow Certified Trainers. Engagement Summary As you conduct training presentations, train local trainers and gather feedback, please send that information to The Family History Guide. The Engagement 2018 The Family History Guide Association 8
Summary is an easy way to do that. That way, we can share instructor tips with the other Certified Trainers so all can benefit. Online Tracker When available, you can also run the Online Tracker reports to measure the learning progress happening in your geo. This tool is under development; we ll let you know when it s available. Monthly Summary Once a month, please send a summary report of your training and mentoring activity to The Family History Guide Association. This will help us understand your needs and how things are going for you in your Certified Training efforts. You can use the Engagement Summary to share this information, or you can include your activities in an email to us. ASSOCIATION SUPPORT The Family History Guide Association is committed to helping you succeed as a Certified Trainer. Here are some of the ways we can support your efforts: Website recognition Your name, photo and bio may be placed on the website for The Family History Guide Association. Facebook group You can join a closed Facebook group to share tips and best practices with other Certified Trainers. LENGTH OF SERVICE We are grateful for your service as a Certified Trainer and we recognize that life brings changes to our circumstances and responsibilities. We ask that, wherever possible, you act as a Certified Trainer for the period of one year. At the end of that year, we will touch base with you and determine if you d like to extend and continue volunteering. We recognize that situations can often change unexpectedly. We are usually flexible in helping you meet those changes. Please communicate quickly with us if you are unable to continue volunteering, for any reason. We want this to fit in well and enrich your life. 2018 The Family History Guide Association 9