Tech Forum

How can members physical residence be certified other than by the member or ward clerk? Most of my ward members have not complied with the request to go to LDS.ORG/MAPS and certify their residence location. The clerk says that he can only certify those that he has visited their home? The ward ECS does not have computer access to certify members physical address.

How are other wards setting up sectors and zones for families to be checked on during an emergency and reporting back to the Bishop? Any instructions, advice, or solution would be greatly appreciated...

Jack Carter
jack@jackcarter.biz
Royal Oaks Ward, Salem, OR

jcarter33 wrote:How can members physical residence be certified other than by the member or ward clerk?

Assistant ward clerk.

jcarter33 wrote:The clerk says that he can only certify those that he has visited their home?

He is imposing an additional restriction. I won't say it's unreasonable, but I don't know of any standard for "verification". I'd say that anything that allows a person to be reasonable sure it's correct is fine. If you can read street numbers in Google street view, or if the county has a detailed map that goes down to the lot, that's all fine.

It is not reasonable to expect the ward clerk to visit every home even in smaller wards. I have been using a 2 source rule. 2 members who agree on the location or cross checking google house numbers with a member or a drive by checked against a member. I just keep cross checking as best I can. Have also been getting a little help from the missionaries. So far the only mistake I am aware of from a single source that was sure came from my bishop who was one house off. Cross checking caught it and 2 other sources verified the mistake to correct it. As an intermediate step mark it as approximate while waiting for a second source to verify. That way you know you have already taken the first step and when you get a second source mark as verified.

jirp wrote:As an intermediate step mark it as approximate while waiting for a second source to verify. That way you know you have already taken the first step and when you get a second source mark as verified.

How do you do that? As far as I know, it's either verified or not. There's no in-between step that could be used for that.

russellhltn wrote:

jirp wrote:As an intermediate step mark it as approximate while waiting for a second source to verify. That way you know you have already taken the first step and when you get a second source mark as verified.

How do you do that? As far as I know, it's either verified or not. There's no in-between step that could be used for that.

This can be done in the Maps tool on LDS.org. In the popup for a particular household, click the Edit button. Then a dropdown will appear with four options: unknown, unverified, approximate, and exact.

What we have done is 2 thing. 1st we pull each member out of one of there meeting and take 2 min and look up there house and the check it off. Next step we dobble check at tithing settlement.
Last we drive the ward

Checking during church or tithing settlement is fine for those who attend. But in our ward that would get roughly 1/3 of the membership of the ward. The other 2/3 are inactive. So other steps need to be taken.

When I started on it there were about 30 homes I could place easily just off the top of my head. There were another 10 or so that a quick drive by verified them enough to place on the map. From there I worked through the bishopric and presidencies in small groups getting more placed or verified either during church or just after church. Then everything that could be checked during tithing settlement was checked. Through all of that we got just over 50% of the ward placed. Since then the assistant ward clerk has been checking the rest we have addresses for and doing a drive my to get them placed on the map.(still not fully verified but at least on the map.) Our map is actually starting to look fairly decent but it has taken nearly a year and half to get there.