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Serving Missionary Addresses

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:49 pm
by AileneRHerrick
This was mentioned on a tangent in this post. I wanted to bring it up in a separate thread in case it got overlooked. :)

I would like to see a mailing address for missionaries serving from our ward. That way people can send mail or packages to them. This was an option on the old website, and I currently include this information in the ward bulletin, so it would be nice to see it in the new directory as well! :)

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:30 am
by greggo
I could see this as a potential security issue if the address for the missionary's residence is provided.
Maybe the mission office address would be better.

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:09 am
by jdcr256
We are currently displaying all the information about missionaries that the Missionary Department has authorized us to display.

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:57 am
by russellhltn
greggo wrote:I could see this as a potential security issue if the address for the missionary's residence is provided.
Maybe the mission office address would be better.

I'd think in many cases the residence changes too often to be a good mailing address. I'm not sure as the mission office is the best for all missions, but it's a starting point.

jdcr256 wrote:We are currently displaying all the information about missionaries that the Missionary Department has authorized us to display.

Interesting. The information requested is usually printed in the Sunday bulletin or posted on the bulletin board as well as the current LUWS. Would it be possible to go back to the missionary department with this specific request?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:41 pm
by AileneRHerrick
jdcr256 wrote:We are currently displaying all the information about missionaries that the Missionary Department has authorized us to display.
Perhaps another option would be for missionaries (or immediate family of the missionary) to "authorize" release of the information for that purpose on a case-by-case basis. Or, perhaps the missionary section could be modified to where an address may be entered by an administrator or a family member.

Thanks for keeping us posted on this!

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:38 am
by jdcr256
AileneRHerrick wrote:Perhaps another option would be for missionaries (or immediate family of the missionary) to "authorize" release of the information for that purpose on a case-by-case basis. Or, perhaps the missionary section could be modified to where an address may be entered by an administrator or a family member.

It's not the family that needs to give permission for mission addresses to be displayed. It is the church's Missionary Department.

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:52 am
by aebrown
jdcr256 wrote:
AileneRHerrick wrote:Perhaps another option would be for missionaries (or immediate family of the missionary) to "authorize" release of the information for that purpose on a case-by-case basis. Or, perhaps the missionary section could be modified to where an address may be entered by an administrator or a family member.
It's not the family that needs to give permission for mission addresses to be displayed. It is the church's Missionary Department.

That response addresses the first suggestion, and is perfectly understandable. Besides, I doubt that the Missionary Department has any information about where each missionary currently resides.

The second suggestion is to give administrators the option to manually enter missionary addresses. That's the feature that was available on the Classic Ward Web Sites. That seems quite reasonable -- it's the same information that is printed in many ward bulletins right now.

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:20 pm
by AileneRHerrick
jdcr256 wrote:It's not the family that needs to give permission for mission addresses to be displayed. It is the church's Missionary Department.
Oh, I meant that each family could authorize the Church's missionary department to release that information.

I guess the ability to manually enter it would seem to be the best option right now.

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:33 pm
by failproof
Just want to add another "vote" or request for something in the way of missionary addresses.

As ward website administrator, my bishop has asked me to keep the missionary addresses updated on the classic ward website. With the introduction of the new directory, it would be good to see some way to have this displayed in the Serving Missionaries section of the new directory.

I agree that current missionary residence address is too much to keep up with due to transfers and since mail/postal services in some countries are unreliable. But it would be nice to see at least the mission office/home address or have a way to enter the address as an administrator. Additionally, it would be good to know if that mission is on the Church's pouch system so that members know that they can either mail to the church headquarters pouch address or use a website like dearelder.com

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:18 pm
by jonesrk
failproof wrote:Just want to add another "vote" or request for something in the way of missionary addresses.

As ward website administrator, my bishop has asked me to keep the missionary addresses updated on the classic ward website. With the introduction of the new directory, it would be good to see some way to have this displayed in the Serving Missionaries section of the new directory.

I agree that current missionary residence address is too much to keep up with due to transfers and since mail/postal services in some countries are unreliable. But it would be nice to see at least the mission office/home address or have a way to enter the address as an administrator. Additionally, it would be good to know if that mission is on the Church's pouch system so that members know that they can either mail to the church headquarters pouch address or use a website like dearelder.com
It's not as nice, but you could put the addresses in the new newsletter application (currently in beta). Members of the bishopric (including clerks/exec sec) can get the mission addresses, including pouch codes, from CDOL.