ryan jones wrote:You can change it in MLS and it will get up to the new directory overnight.
Ah... tricky tricky
I guess I can't change it via my web browser.
The reason why I asked is because of the following: it is hard to update everyone's preferred name at the church building... it is much easier to spread the work (updates to directory info) around during the week on evenings and lunches from a work or home computer.
I know the "it is hard" statement is relative... I guess it is just hard to keep everything up-to-date
on the computer at the church... being able to update these sort of things from ANY computer has opened up ALL sorts of time for me (I have time here and there and at home to dedicate to keeping membership info up-to-date... at church my time is limited because so many people are asking for so many different things, reports, forms, updates, information, toner, paper, etc etc...)
Anyhow, do you (or anyone else) know if members (or clerks) will be able to update preferred name on the new directory like they could on the old directory? Maybe within the next year?
Thanks so much~!
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PS Here is why I'm asking:
MANY people in our ward print out a ward directory. Up until this week, this paper copy of the ward directory was maintained by hand (updates done in a MS word document).
What changed this week is I started producing the ward directory using the "Export Members" feature from the new.lds.org/directory site.
I use excel formulas to make our ward (250+ families, 600+ people) fit on three sheets of paper in the following 2-column, landscape format:
Household phone | LastName, HeadOfHousehold (HoH_Individual_Phone [if there is one]) & Spouse [if there is one] (Spouse_Individual_Phone [if there is one] and then their address
e.g.:
801-555-1212 | Smith, Joseph (801-346-8811) & Emma, 123 Nowhere St.
801-444-1234 | Johnson, Jake & Jill (801-449-8794), 1883 Lombard Ct.
801-333-1234 | Jacobson, Alex & Mary, 53587 Wrigley
801-222-1234 | Sonders, Tracie (801-111-1234)
801-111-4321 | Abellard, Spencer, 4539 Western Way
801-123-4321 | Alton, Milo (801-234-5678) & Ginnie (801-456-1234), 3929 Parkway Circle
Essentially, people print this directory out and put it in their cars, in their binders, on their fridge, etc., and they use it all the time.
What makes it useful is that it has the household phone AND individual phones AND the address (the printout from the new.lds.org/directory doesn't have individual phones right now) AND it is a paper copy (many people LOVE the directory online, but they also LOVE having a paper copy in their car with individual phone numbers on it).
The SUPER DUPER BONUS of all of this is members can update their own phone number via the web. We put a URL at the top of the directory and encourage members to update the info themselves.
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So, you can see that we are
almost there with this method... the one snaggle we've run into is preferred name. The handmade directory had this solved but we paid the price in time. Using the CSV download from the new directory we get all the information but no way for anyone to
easily update it (again, "easy" is relative... with a large ward and trying to keep everything else running we've kind of put updating preferred name lower on the priority list).
Any suggestions would be most appreciative!