[Teachldsseminary] IDEA: DC Prophet Posters

[Debra Woods Hamilton]

Dear Kent,
Of course you will not be removed (unless you choose to be) - lots of 
people choose not to subscribe to the paid subscription areas at LDV - 
for a variety of reasons.  I am sure many others have had the same 
thoughts you expressed.  That is why I am replying to the whole list.

I would just like to say  - that I was surprised to learn, when Tim and 
I started talking about merging our two lds websites, that there were 
over 4000 articles and about 2500 attached files in the seminary filing 
cabinet (and a lot more added since then).  Also, I was very surprised 
to learn that there were far more teachers who opted to pay for a 
subscription to the filing cabinet than who chose to belong to this free 
email list.  I found that almost shocking.  But seminary teachers are in 
a very unique position of teaching a 40-50 minute lesson five days a 
week, nine months a year - and time is a great premium to them - and the 
filing cabinet saves people time.  You will never find a better resource 
for seminary teachers anywhere. 

And if you wonder why there is a fee - though you cannot begin to 
understand because Tim won't talk about it - he truly works full-time at 
this.  More than full-time.  He doesn't have time for another 
career/job.  For example, many of the submissions require a good deal of 
editing to make them web-ready.  There is a lot of labor intensive work 
involved in organizing this huge collection.  And he invests a great 
deal into purchasing and mastering many difficult/complex software 
programs to make it possible to have such a time saving collection 
available to you.  And he spends a huge amount of time supporting the 
members - technical support that is.  If you haven't noticed - it is the 
same company who maintains this email list that offers the paid 
subscription - it is the same person who provides this free resource to 
you - and it is by no means a labor-free offering - this list requires 
constant technical care. 

There are tons of resources in the world that I'd really love to have 
access to, but it is outside my budget.  Should they not be available 
just because I can't afford them?  Should the people who make a living 
at creating and maintaining and marketing and delivering them quit doing 
it because not everyone can afford them? 

Should the church devote the manpower, hardware, office space and all 
the other overhead involved in making sure every lds product is 
available for every member worldwide at no charge - and pay for that 
with what money?  Consecrated funds?  The widow's mite?  Most of the 
people who maintain lds.org and the ces website and the curriculum 
department are paid employees of the church - someone has to pay them, 
it isn't free either.  The church isn't in the business of providing our 
every desire.

You do not need the filing cabinet - you can teach just fine without 
it.  We can all do whatever the Lord requires of us, whatever we are 
called to do - what ever we accept an assignment for - he promised us 
all that.  I testify that he blesses us to be able to do what is 
needful, regardless of our circumstances.  When I was just divorced, 
raising two little boys, starting a full-time job all at the same time, 
I simply did not have the time to prepare for my calling as I always had 
in the past.  Somedays, I was lucky to just show up at church and walk 
in and do my calling with no prep at all.  And by George - if those 
weren't some of the most spirit filled experiences I ever had - the Lord 
just picked up the slack for me.  He did that for me the whole time I 
was raising my two sons alone.  But when I had more time, I equally felt 
inspired to devote a lot of time to preparation for my callings.  And I 
was blessed for that as well.

We do have some ways to earn a free subscription - we need lots of help 
at LDV - especially right now - we need seminary teachers who will 
monitor this list for great material to add to the filing cabinet - 
those helpers get free subscriptions.  If you contribute one article a 
week - that earns a free subscription too - maybe there are other ways 
we can work something out to trade something you have to offer for a 
subscription.

Sometimes we just need a little perspective.  I do not mean to be 
defensive, though I know I have a tendancy to be - because I feel it 
from both sides of the aisle - I'd rather you feel good about your own 
situation and about us at latter-day village - we need to feel good 
about ourselves and others to do what we need to the best that we can.  
There is a life lesson here.  If there is something you want in life, 
you can determine that you choose it or not - and if you do, you can 
pray for help in achieving it and then go about doing so.  If you choose 
not to do that, you can also pray to be content without it.

God bless,
Debra Woods Hamilton
Director of Marketing & Creativity
Latter-day Village



Kent Bowden wrote:

>I meant to can't afford not can afford.
>
>  
>
>>
>>--
>>Kent, Chris and the rest of the Bowden Family
>>BowdenFamily at gmail.com
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>
>  
>