Phone listings

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wrigjef
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Phone listings

#1

Post by wrigjef »

Can more then one number show up for a family on the website directory?
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

wrigjef wrote:Can more then one number show up for a family on the website directory?
No. A household has only one telephone number and one email address (either of which may be blank, or hidden). In addition, each individual can have one telephone number and one email address (either of which may be blank, or hidden). Since this is the only contact information stored on a membership record, no additional information can be displayed on a directory (either website or printed from MLS).

On the current website, the individual contact information is not displayed; only household information appears. But on the new directory at beta.lds.org, individual contact information is displayed in many places. Depending on the context, household contact information may be displayed alone, in conjunction with the individual contact info, or in place of blank individual contact info.

Before individual contact info was added to membership records, there was a "secondary telephone number" field associated with the household. But that was phased out when individual contact fields were added.
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wrigjef
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#3

Post by wrigjef »

It is unclear if this feature is coming or not. Situation. Couple has no hardline phone number. Each carries a cell and uses that exclusively. Husband regularly get calls on his cell while at work from members who looked up the last name on the online directory trying to contact his wife who is at home. Will this couple have an option to have separate phone numbers listed in the directory? I am sure they will still want to be listed as a household though.
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aebrown
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#4

Post by aebrown »

wrigjef wrote:It is unclear if this feature is coming or not. Situation. Couple has no hardline phone number. Each carries a cell and uses that exclusively. Husband regularly get calls on his cell while at work from members who looked up the last name on the online directory trying to contact his wife who is at home. Will this couple have an option to have separate phone numbers listed in the directory? I am sure they will still want to be listed as a household though.
The main list in the directory is household oriented. It has only household numbers listed. But you can click on a household, and then the details for that household will all be listed, including individual phone numbers.

So they will be listed as a household, but they have to either choose one of their cell numbers to be the household number, or choose to have no household number.

I can try to explain this, but really, you should just go take a look. Login to http://new.lds.org/directory and see for yourself how it works. You asked if this feature is coming -- I'm pretty sure that what is there is what will be released. But I think it accommodates the situation you describe reasonably well.
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wrigjef
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#5

Post by wrigjef »

This is cool and should do what we need. Thanks for sharing. I have not spent a whole bunch of time on it yet but I did see something with the verbiage which is going to perpetuate a problem. I am the website administrator (as well as stake clerk and assistant building librarian) and we have several members who elect to remove as much information as they can from the website as soon as they hear the word “public”. This causes problems when another leader or I are not at the church and use the website directory to contact someone. I have spent years trying to let people know that it is only public to church members because of the sign in procedure, but it just doesn’t click with most people. I did not see anywhere on the beta where there is an explanation which helps members understand that their phone number and email is protected and only those with member number in the same stake can see it.
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

wrigjef wrote:...we have several members who elect to remove as much information as they can from the website as soon as they hear the word “public”. This causes problems when another leader or I are not at the church and use the website directory to contact someone.
There's an additional feature of the new website which requires even more education. The new website allows priesthood leaders (I'm not sure exactly who is on the list, but it certainly includes bishoprics, stake presidencies, and clerks) to see households and all their contact information, even if the members have chosen not to display this information in the ward directory.

The challenge with this is helping people to know that they really should enter their phone number and email address, even if they choose not to display it to the general stake membership. Of course leaders also need to be aware of this and be discreet with this information which the members chose not to make more broadly available.
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russellhltn
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#7

Post by russellhltn »

Alan_Brown wrote:Of course leaders also need to be aware of this and be discreet with this information which the members chose not to make more broadly available.
Here's an issue I see: Under the old system, the only ones that could enter a phone number was someone with Membership rights or better in MLS. Under the new system, there are far more leaders who can enter it. If the leader wasn't aware that the information was to be kept private, (they may have received it 3rd hand) they may enter it when the member has chosen to keep it out of "the system" and only share it with specific individuals.

For example, in our stake the stake Executive Secretary is going though and updating the information on the High Councilors rather then dealing with the sheet he's always had to carry. I just hope the HC don't mind having their cell phone numbers shared like that.

I think the suggestion of making sure the members set the privacy policy and not just rely on not entering the information is a good one. In fact I updated my profile to hide my cell number.

Hopefully leaders will be far more careful about the "show" setting then entering information.
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pierce1of5
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How to have 3 phone numbers.

#8

Post by pierce1of5 »

We have many Families with 2 cell numbers and a land line or just cell phones and no land line. The Website Admin can with permission from the member add the cell number as part of a prefered name. Then the family listing will be like this:
Doe Landline xxx....
John XXX-XXX-XXXX
Jane xxx-xxx-xxxx

You can do this when a land line number has changed and the ward records haven't been updated yet. You hide the phone number until the record is updated. I always forward the changes to the membership clerk.

It does cause an issue when you click on the email box in the membership directory the from info has the extended name/number. Let me know what you think.
pierce1of5
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Need to designate hidden numbers and Emails

#9

Post by pierce1of5 »

Alan_Brown wrote:There's an additional feature of the new website which requires even more education. The new website allows priesthood leaders (I'm not sure exactly who is on the list, but it certainly includes bishoprics, stake presidencies, and clerks) to see households and all their contact information, even if the members have chosen not to display this information in the ward directory.

The challenge with this is helping people to know that they really should enter their phone number and email address, even if they choose not to display it to the general stake membership. Of course leaders also need to be aware of this and be discreet with this information which the members chose not to make more broadly available.

Maybe they could gray out the number to designate that it was a hidden/unpublished numbers and email addresses. That's the way it is for the website admin on the LUWS.
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aebrown
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#10

Post by aebrown »

mojo_jojo wrote:We have many Families with 2 cell numbers and a land line or just cell phones and no land line. The Website Admin can with permission from the member add the cell number as part of a prefered name. Then the family listing will be like this:
Doe Landline xxx....
John XXX-XXX-XXXX
Jane xxx-xxx-xxx
In general, I think it is a poor practice to use data fields for a purpose other than what they are intended for. You get a variety of negative effects -- you mentioned one in regards to email.

But in any case, this workaround won't even be a possibility on the new directory, which in my opinion is a good thing. There is no preferred name exclusive to or editable on the website. There is only the preferred name from MLS. But this workaround should be completely unneeded anyway, since the member (or a clerk) can update the phone number immediately from anywhere with Internet access.
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