LDS Tools Add Personal Contact Information I Know

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catmulls
New Member
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:59 pm

LDS Tools Add Personal Contact Information I Know

#1

Post by catmulls »

Here is a user story I would love to have addressed in a future version of LDS Tools.

As a Choir President I want to notify choir members by email and/or by text of upcoming practices and performances. Members provide me contact information on a sign-up sheet of how they would like to be contacted.

Sounds simple to do but it's more complex to pull off with the current state.

My preferred solution would be to use the list functionality of LDS Tools and put members in the list then I use the group text and email to communicate.

The key hurdle is that members do not want to or may not know how to enter contact information in the directory. Additionally some members prefer to share contact information with a smaller audience than the entire ward. The privacy settings of leadership, ward, and stake do not always provide the granularity that people are comfortable with.

Perhaps the ability for me to store personally obtained contact information for members in LDS Tools would be a good way to solve the problem. Key benefits:

1) Privacy would be protected. Only I would be able to see the contact information I obtained.
2) LDS Tools list usage may increase.
3) As a member record moves out, they move off my list, etc.
4) Better use of BCC for emails for unit related communication.
5) Maybe you let the member see who has personal contact information stored about them. That could be controversial but transparent for sure.


Key solution details
This could be controversial but when a member moves out, the contact information would not go to the new unit and would be "lost" from the context of LDS Tools. Of course members who have emailed with gmail or texted would have those on their mobile devices.

An alternative solution would be a solution that tries to get rid of the "sign-up sheet". That would be a little broader than what I am envisioning but certainly a welcome solution.

I am sure others have ideas. Please feel free to add them to this chain.
russellhltn
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Re: LDS Tools Add Personal Contact Information I Know

#2

Post by russellhltn »

Another alternative is to create a calendar for the choir. Anyone in the ward can subscribe to it. They can see it in LDS Tools, or link the church calendar into their personal calendar.
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catmulls
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Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:59 pm

Re: LDS Tools Add Personal Contact Information I Know

#3

Post by catmulls »

True, I did phrase that story in an event based way, so thanks for helping to add another alternative solution.

There are certainly many related user stories that would not fit that event-based mold. An example in my own experience is as Ward Clerk I need to be able to interact with other clerks and secretaries in the ward. One of the assistant clerks told me he puts one email in the directory and then gave me another email address of one he checks more frequently.

Once that new email address is given to me it makes the Lists functionality of LDS Tools much less useful.
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