Multiple Email Address / Cell Phone Fields in MLS

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
Bfolker-p40
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Multiple Email Address / Cell Phone Fields in MLS

#1

Post by Bfolker-p40 »

I am wondering why MLS only has one field for email address per household? I discovered this the hard way when I started entering the email addresses the new Relief Society Presidency collected for the sisters. When I pulled up the sister's profile and typed in their personal email address it change the husband's email address at the same time. Most husbands and wives each have their own email address. The same for cell phones. Personally I think that any church member over the age of 12 years old should have their own email address and cell phone field these days.

Case in point. After the hurricane in Houston this past weekend (IKE) our High Priest Group Leader told us about an interesting experience he had on a golf course here in Utah. One of the golfers in his party was the Elder's Quorum President of a student ward in Houston. This brother had emailed or texted all of the members of his quorum from his Blackberry to ask them if they were OK, and if they had checked in with all of their Home Teaching assignments (including single sisters) to make sure they were all accounted for and OK as well. He was receiving texts and emails back every couple of minutes on his Blackberry, and even took a few calls on his blackberry/cell phone. He was obviously well connected, but it would not have been possible had he not collected all of the email addresses and cell phone numbers of the members of his quorum.

With a non-singles ward, we have a different challenge if we ever hope to be able to contact individuals (who might not be together) to make sure they are all accounted for in the case of an emergency. We really need to have individual contact information for anyone old enough to have an email address or cell phone in the MLS system.
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mkmurray
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#2

Post by mkmurray »

This is one of the more popular MLS improvements that gets proposed (a search of the Forum will find you many threads).

I can't say anything for certain, but I am positive the Church knows about the shortcoming and is most likely working on a long-term solution, one that would involve adding multiple numbers and/or emails per person and signifying what type of number/email it is (i.e., work, home, cell, etc.).
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kh_design
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Phone numbers and e-mail addresses

#3

Post by kh_design »

Follow link to this forum thread
http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1025
jeffclark1070-p40
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Email Addresses

#4

Post by jeffclark1070-p40 »

I have developed an Access database to address this problem but it would be nice if the MLS had something built in. The database allows me to keep and update this information while allowing me also to send email notes to all people that are in a particular meeting. The only issue I have with doing this and maybe the church has some thing about email addresses. When information is sent via email it should be to a secure email address that only the intended person will read. There are some families that have shared email accounts which is a problem in sending confidentual info through email. The second issue is security issues as the church addresses on all of their reports in MLS. The information is for church use. Keep in mind that data must always be secure even if it is an email address. I have 3 passwords on my computer just to access this data.
lrundquist
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Multiple Email Address / Cell Phone Fields in MLS

#5

Post by lrundquist »

There appears to be a host of messages about this topic... how do we go about making this change a reality?
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

lrundquist wrote:There appears to be a host of messages about this topic... how do we go about making this change a reality?
I believe we've done what we can do, and I am certain that the MLS product managers are aware of the issue. They, of course, are the ones with the responsibility to make any changes in MLS.

But it's a much bigger issue than most people realize. It's just not an MLS issue; it could affect the main Church membership database as well as the local unit web sites. Any issue that involves multiple departments takes time, and of course it has to be fit in with a host of other priorities.
russellhltn
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#7

Post by russellhltn »

lrundquist wrote:how do we go about making this change a reality?
All we can do is be patient. It's outside of anything the community can do.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
h60plt-p40
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Multiple email addresses in MLS

#8

Post by h60plt-p40 »

Can someone please tell me how I can put multiple email addresses in MLS for the Ward directory. For some members this works, for others, I am having problems replicating this. Is this because of the version of MLS I have now.

In my 2009 print out of the Ward Directory from LDS.ORG, 5-10 familes had multiple entries for email addresses. One for the husband and one for the wife.

How can I repeat this for the rest of the members. Obviously the issue here is that the wife can be emailed for RS presidency work and the husband for priesthood duties in calendar invites and distributed email.

Can someone tell me how to fix this so that I can make more multiple entries.
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aebrown
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#9

Post by aebrown »

h60plt wrote:Can someone please tell me how I can put multiple email addresses in MLS for the Ward directory. For some members this works, for others, I am having problems replicating this. Is this because of the version of MLS I have now.

In my 2009 print out of the Ward Directory from LDS.ORG, 5-10 familes had multiple entries for email addresses. One for the husband and one for the wife.

How can I repeat this for the rest of the members. Obviously the issue here is that the wife can be emailed for RS presidency work and the husband for priesthood duties in calendar invites and distributed email.

Can someone tell me how to fix this so that I can make more multiple entries.
There is no way to do this in MLS. Presently, there is only one e-mail address per household in MLS. I can't imagine that it works for any members in MLS.

I believe you are confusing MLS with the ward web site on lds.org (Local Unit Web Site or LUWS). You said you printed a directory from lds.org, by which you certainly mean LUWS. For LUWS, each user can enter a distinct e-mail address. This is part of their LUWS user profile, and has absolutely no connection to any e-mail address in MLS.

So as long as your ward members register in LUWS and specify their personal e-mail address, you can use the LUWS broadcast and other e-mail features to send them e-mail that will be sent to individuals. I'm guessing that the 5-10 families you referred to just happened to have multiple family members who registered with LUWS and supplied their individual e-mail addresses. But there is no way at present to do this with the MLS data.

By the way, I removed your attachment, since it seemed to contain actual names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses for people in your ward. We need to respect their privacy.
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mkmurray
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#10

Post by mkmurray »

h60plt wrote:Can someone please tell me how I can put multiple email addresses in MLS for the Ward directory. For some members this works, for others, I am having problems replicating this. Is this because of the version of MLS I have now.

In my 2009 print out of the Ward Directory from LDS.ORG, 5-10 familes had multiple entries for email addresses. One for the husband and one for the wife.

How can I repeat this for the rest of the members. Obviously the issue here is that the wife can be emailed for RS presidency work and the husband for priesthood duties in calendar invites and distributed email.

Can someone tell me how to fix this so that I can make more multiple entries.
Yes, to echo and summarize what Alan_Brown stated, there is no connection in the Church's central databases between email addresses in MLS and email addresses in the Local Unit Web Sites (LUWS).
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