CRM for ward membership

[KevinTGeddes]

Anyone know if there are plans to create a CRM system similar to salesforce to help unite the ministering effort across the ward and to keep better records?

[russellhltn]

I've not heard of any plans, and frankly I have my doubts that it would be done given the amount of sensitive personal data that would be recorded.

The handling of personal data, especially in an electronic format, is a serious affair governed by "laws of the land". I think there's some very good reasons why the training stresses interviews as opposed to other forms of communication.

[dotson98]

This is interesting. I created a notebook in OneNote for this purpose. Very manual and somewhat intensive to manage. However, the data is there.

I shared it with the EQ presidency and tried to get the RS presidency on board. The sharing part never really took off (for technical reasons), however, as I thought about it.... probably not a good idea. Can you imagine me documenting a family's severe personal struggle, only to have a member of that family later join a presidency that has access to that information? Ouch!

[andypoulsen]

I know this is a bit of an old thread, but we were just talking today that it would be nice to be able to track contacts at a high level, either for ministering or otherwise. This would enable us to see who hadn't been contacted in a certain period of time. We were thinking we'd limit access to RS and EQ presidencies, along with the bishop.

We were thinking of using one of the CRM tools that has a free version available, and I was going to try a few of them. To save me some time, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks much!

[russellhltn]

We were thinking of using one of the CRM tools that has a free version available, and I was going to try a few of them. To save me some time, does anyone have any suggestions?

My suggestion is to consult a lawyer. The idea of putting other people's personal information, without their consent, into a third party program is well outside of the church's operational manual and could leave you personally exposed to liability should anything go wrong.

There's also the Meetinghouse Technology Policy

4.9.3 The use of MLS data and membership information in third party software is prohibited, whether obtained from within or outside of a meetinghouse.

4.9.4 The use of cloud-based services for storing and/or backing up MLS or any membership related data is prohibited.

[andypoulsen]

Excellent thoughts, and much to consider. I wasn't aware of those lines from the technology policy -- good to know.

Thanks much for responding!

andy