Read the latest from Emily's “Today in the Bloggernacle” feature.

Did you know you that you can make "Donations in Kind" of your tithing or other donation category directly to church headquarters? I found this little informational tidbit while surfing the blogs one day and filed it away because (1) I had never heard this, and (2) it came from an LDS Clerks wiki site that is a wonderful example of combining technology with knowledge and collaboration to teach clerks (and other members) more about the record-keeping and administrative functions in wards and stakes.

And those tech gurus at LDS.org thought so, too.

Just released last month is the new Clerk wiki, made possible in large part by blogger Kent S. Larson's 120 pages of the aforementioned LDS Clerks wiki site: "The administrators of the LDSTech wiki wish to thank this pioneer of clerk training and the other long-time contributors to his site for generously donating all of the contents of their wiki to the new LDSTech wiki. This contribution is a great blessing to clerks around the world, allowing the new site to 'go live' overnight."



The thought that one man's online project can now be expanded through bigger publicity and collaboration at lds.org and help clerks around the world just delights me.
In fact, as explained in this "Introduction to the Clerk Wiki," this will help meet the challenge of training "50,000 clerks in 40 languages." And because it's patterned after Wikipedia, "The Clerk wiki is updated frequently and is growing quickly (doubling in size in its first few months) as contributors from around the world add and refine pages. Registered users can edit existing pages and even add new ones. Users can opt to receive automatic e-mail notifications when content changes on the wiki."

The LDS Clerk wiki is already experimenting in translation.

 "In a recent pilot test, volunteers from around the world translated some wiki pages into Spanish and Portuguese. We hope to leverage this community translation effort to allow the wiki to be translated quickly into many more languages, at little (or no) cost to the Church."

And they hope to continue to expand.

"In October 2009, the wiki had more than 1000 subscribers, but we know that there are more than 50,000 clerks in the Church, so we have only seen the tip of the iceberg and hope to see many more subscribers in the future. Come share what you know with other clerks around the world."

I echo that. Share your knowledge, help others, and even if you're not a clerk, come learn a bit more about the nuts and bolts of the management side of the church. For instance, check out the "Letters and Policies Archive" to learn some of the guidelines.

And lest any clerks wonder if their record-keeping endeavors will someday be appreciated, let's take a look back in church history to an important moment in the clerical record. The Book of Abraham Project just put online the "Relief Society Organization Minutes." With a click to March 17, 1842, you can read via Eliza R. Snow's minute book about who was there, who was elected leader and how the name Relief Society was chosen.

Now let's keep track of other posts from this last week in the Bloggernacle:

Power pick: "We would like to take a moment to recognize the passing of an era. On 29 October 2009, Brigham Young University announced that it was eliminating the Women's Research Institute after 31 years of service to the university." So begins "A Farewell Salute to the Women's Research Institute of Brigham Young University" from SquareTwo. Click to read an outline of the history, research projects, contributions and reasons for elimination. Farewell, Women's Research Institute!

Christmas carols: Last year, Keepapitchinin featured a December advent calendar of marvelous magazine cover art. For Advent 2009, Ardis E. Parshall has planned a November full of Christmas sheet music from years gone by. Why November? "To give time for musicians to learn and actually use these pieces." Check out the carols already posted including this "Christmas Carol" by the same composer of "I Am A Child of God."

Techie tip: Since I'm on the subjects of collaboration and using cool new technology today, I thought I'd conclude with these musings on "Using Google Wave In the LDS Church." Perhaps Google Wave could be used to help organize events, facilitate brainstorming, share photos from church activities and keep minutes in meetings. The possibilities are exciting.