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Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:45 pm
by BrianTAllen
As bishopric members we frequently want to know who someone's home or visiting teachers are, so we can involve them when their families need help. Right now the only way we know of to find out who a families HT / VT are is to go through the list of HT / VT assignments until we find the family listed.

It would be very useful to have this listed in the ward directory in LDS Tools. There could be an HT / VT section under the address / phone number section. Same for the online directory.

There are already parts that only bishopric members can see (and certain things only the Bishop can see), so if this is considered restricted information it could be restricted to them, and maybe HP, EQ, and RS presidencies.

Thanks! We love, love, love all the recent additions to LDS Tools and use it all the time. It is definitely a heavily used tool in the "hastening of the work" in our ward.

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:20 pm
by kisaac
I don't know for sure, but it may be that HT and VT data resides only in your local copy of MLS (in your clerks office) right now, and thus could not be displayed online yet.

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:25 pm
by aebrown
At this point, it is certainly the case that home and visiting tracking info is only in MLS. But efforts are underway, as described in the July 18 MLS message, to move HT/VT administration to leader and clerk resources on LDS.org by "late fall."

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 9:28 am
by hayfam5
aebrown -can you provide a link to the July 18th MLS message? I would love to read it.

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:14 pm
by kisaac
hayfam5 wrote:aebrown -can you provide a link to the July 18th MLS message? I would love to read it.
While I won't speak for aebrown, MLS messages are not in the "Official Communications Library" on LDS.org LCR, but are found in the "messages" section of your units MLS computer. You would need access to your MLS computer to obtain it (or a local leader.) Your local leaders will decide if this should be distributed to your ward council members.

(Note to forum users: Why didn't I just print it to a PDF from my MLS and post it here? To my knowledge, the church has not yet decided to make this document public through their usual channels of Press Release or Official Communication letter, so I choose not to do so. Those with the proper callings have that access.)

Added later: I actually made an announcement sheet for our stake to use on the ward level announcing LCR access to their ward councils, and mentioned that HT VT is not available yet, as we had some questions from the MLS message. I think far to many of these enhancements go unnoticed by those who could really use them because they roll out so fast and without any fanfare...

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:52 pm
by hayfam5
Thanks kisaac, I agree about these items going unnoticed, I certainly missed the MLS announcement you are referencing. I only stumbled upon this forum and the new leader and clerk resources info on LDS.org by accident. I am pleased with the new leader and clerk resources web features on LDS.org, and am very hopeful for the web based HT/VT administration in "late fall" (fingers crossed). Thanks for the feedback.

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:57 pm
by russellhltn
And in "early 2015" units will no longer be able to update HT/VT via MLS. (Email to STS dated Sept 4.)

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 12:44 pm
by gator96man
Anybody know when and if this functionality will be added to LDS Tools? I really appreciate all the work done on LDS Tools. It is a great app. I believe adding HT & VT to records would be the single biggest improvement that could be done at this point.

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 12:54 pm
by aebrown
gator96man wrote:Anybody know when and if this functionality will be added to LDS Tools? I really appreciate all the work done on LDS Tools. It is a great app. I believe adding HT & VT to records would be the single biggest improvement that could be done at this point.
I don't know, and we rarely hear of future plans until features are in beta.

But for anyone who happens across this thread, please note that the home teachers (and visiting teachers where applicable) are shown on the member profile page on LCR 3.0. And it's clear from the interface that a separate API call is fetching the HT/VT data, so the framework is in place for LDS Tools to implement it. Nonetheless, we have no idea of what the priorities or timeline for future enhancements to LDS Tools are at this point.

Re: Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:06 pm
by BrianTAllen
I agree this would probably be one of the most beneficial additions to LDS Tools, from a bishopric standpoint, and probably for HP, EQ, and RS, too.

I echo the appreciation for the great work the Church is doing on LDS Tools, LDS.org, etc. I wish the BSA was doing the same (or would let the Church do it for our units / districts).