Using Free Mapping API's for Meetinghouse Locator

[marlattrj-p40]

I think this idea is great and would be really helpful for people like me who like to travel and still attend church. I don't always know my exact address and it would be nice to see where the nearest building is when planning a trip.

Also I remember when I was in a singles branch we loved to attend the various dances in the region and didn't always know where the building was located. Both the Google and Yahoo Maps API are very nice in that you can get good direction to. Some one could click on a building and say give me direction to here.

Using such mapping technology would be also nice when stakes are discussing new ward boundaries, Stake presidents, and others with authority could see where members live to better determine where to split wards.

[Tremmorkeep-p40]

Be patient, there's a lot going on, and may issues (such as privacy) but the Meetinghouse locator as it stands has to change and will in the very near future...keep your eyes on it. I dont know if they'll use GoogleMaps, or VirtualEarth or KML or what, but it'll get here, and any public information should be readily available....

[note4mark-p40]

I have created a file in Google Earth that may be of interest to you. It's an interactive visual map of nearly 13, 000 of the units of the church in the US, Canada, and a few other areas. To download the file, please visit:

http://ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

All the best,
Mark Cross
Eustis, FL

[Mikerowaved]

I have created a file in Google Earth that may be of interest to you. It's an interactive visual map of nearly 13, 000 of the units of the church in the US, Canada, and a few other areas. To download the file, please visit:

http://ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

All the best,
Mark Cross
Eustis, FL

OK, I'm impressed. That's quite a list. Thank you, and welcome to the forum, Mark!

[timheuer-p40]

it isn't necessarily re-intenting, but providing an alternate, more visual way to see a ward. The meeting house locator is fine, but also doesn't help visualize the boundaries...and the prospective member moving to a new place may find it hard to understand the text of a ward (power rd. east to hawes, north to foo street -- means nothing to me if i'm just moving there).

Again, just an alternate, enhanced user experience.

[daddy-o-p40]

note4mark, cool stuff!

[note4mark-p40]

Mikerowaved and daddy-o,

Thank you very much! And Tim, I think your ideas on the boundaries are fantastic.

Mark Cross

[CuriousGIS-p40]

Wow that is awesome Mark, way to go.

As for the boundaries they can be used to find where you need to go to church but they can also be used in a variety of other ways by the members. Our stake recently went through a major reorganization of the wards and by geocoding the members locations and having the boundaries of the wards we could create what if scenarios for new units or splitting units. This saved time and made it possible for the Stake president to "try out" several different versions of the new units before making a decision and taking it to the Lord.

[note4mark-p40]

CuriousGIS,

Thank you (love your handle by the way!)

I have added a few representations of ward boundaries to the KMZ file of most of the US and Canada meetinghouses at:

ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

The Queen Creek Arizona Chandler Heights Stake is very rare, in that each of the boundaries of its units are described pretty well on their official web site. So it was pretty straightforward to create polygons in Google Earth (GE) that represented the territory covered by each unit. Those polygons are stored in the "Ward Boundaries" folder for the aforementioned stake. The boundaries can be independently hidden or displayed.

I also added paths that are outlines of each unit's boundaries; by clicking an individual unit's path once in the Tours folder of that stake, and then clicking the "Play Tour" button at the bottom of the "Places" bar in GE, you can make GE walk you along the perimeter of each unit. See the "Tips" page on my site for how to adjust the tour playback speed.

The Yale 2nd Ward in the Salt Lake Bonneville Stake also has a precise definition of its boundaries posted on its web site, so you can see and tour that unit's boundaries too..

Mark

[opee]

I have added a few representations of ward boundaries to the KMZ file of most of the US and Canada meetinghouses at:

www.ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

The www needs to be taken off of the URL to work...

ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com