From Deckhand

This importer allows you to bring speaker information exported from Deckhand into Meeting Schedule Assistant. It is available from the Import menu.

Use this importer when you have an Deckhand CSV export containing speaker details and want to add new speakers to your congregation records in Meeting Schedule Assistant. If a congregation does not already exist, a placeholder congregation will be created. Existing speakers are skipped.

What This Importer Does

The Deckhand Speaker importer reads a CSV file exported from Deckhand and imports:

• Speaker names
• Their privilege
• The list of public talks they can give
• The Talk Coordinator flag
• Optional memo fields (if mapped)

If a speaker already exists, they are skipped.
If the congregation named in the CSV does not exist, a placeholder congregation is created.

It does not modify existing speakers, congregations, assignment history, or meeting schedules.

Required Format

The CSV file must contain the following fields:

• Congregation
• PTC
• Speaker
• Standing
• Talks

These must match exactly as written in the CSV header.

Note: Deckhand exports speakers as an Excel workbook with two tabs (Speakers and Public Talks). You must save the Speakers tab as a UTF‑8 encoded CSV file, ensuring that the first row contains the column headings.

Opening the Importer

From the Import Menu

Import → Speakers → From Deckhand

Figure 1: Selecting the Deckhand speaker importer from the Import menu.

Import Steps

1. Select the Deckhand CSV file

Choose the CSV file exported from Deckhand.

The importer immediately reads the header row and validates the required columns.

2. Map optional memo fields (Speaker)

If your CSV contains additional columns, you may map them to memo fields.

Figure 2: Optional memo field mapping for speakers. Map any additional CSV columns to speaker memo fields.

Use these to map CSV columns to the appropriate memo fields.

Mapping is optional — if you do not select anything, memo fields remain empty.
The importer also uses the PTC value to identify the talk coordinator only when a placeholder congregation is created.

3. Complete the import

A summary is displayed showing how many congregations were added or skipped.

Field Mappings

Field	How it’s used in Meeting Schedule Assistant
Congregation	The congregation the speaker belongs to. A placeholder is created if it does not exist.
PTC	Marks the speaker as the congregation’s talk coordinator. Only applied when a placeholder congregation is created.
Speaker	The speaker’s name.
Standing	The speaker’s role (Elder or Ministerial Servant).
Talks	A comma‑separated list of talk numbers the speaker can give.
Mapped memo fields	Any additional fields you map manually. Stored in the speaker’s memo record.

Troubleshooting

Memo fields did not import

This can happen if:

• The CSV column was not mapped
• The column contains no data

Invalid or unknown talk numbers

If a speaker’s Talks list contains a talk number that does not exist in the Public Talks database, that number is ignored.
Ensure all talk numbers in the CSV match the talk numbers defined in Meeting Schedule Assistant.

Summary

The Deckhand Speaker importer provides a simple way to bring speaker information into Meeting Schedule Assistant. It supports:

• Setting the Talk Coordinator when a placeholder congregation is created.
• Importing speaker names
• Their privilege
• The list of public talks they can give
• Optional memo field mapping for speaker notes

Speakers are added only. Existing speakers are skipped.
If a congregation does not already exist, a placeholder congregation is created automatically.

After processing the file, a summary report shows how many speakers were added or skipped.

Back to Speaker Importers

Related Importers

• From Hourglass
• From NWS Desktop