MLS 3.1 Phone/Email changes

[greggo]

It's natural that if you're looking for a phone number, you're going to scroll to "p" in the alphabetical list.

... or "t" for telephone.

[pete_arnett-p40]

MLS 3.1.5 Custom Reports Issues that have been reported to headquarters staff

Telephone Numbers:
Contact Phone Number and Individual Phone Number fields contain the same information and Contact Phone Number should not be used
* Household Phone Number
* Individual Phone Number
* Contact Phone Number

E-Mail Address:
Contact E-mail contains the same information as Household E-Mail and Contact E-mail should not be used
* Household E-Mail
* Individual E-Mail
* Contact E-Mail

Note: the Membership.csv file export appears to be correct and does not containContact Phone Number orContact E-mail fields:
* Household Phone*Individual Phone*Household E-mail*Individual E-mail

[aebrown]

MLS 3.1.5 Custom Reports Issues that have been reported to headquarters staff
...
Contact Phone Number and Individual Phone Number fields contain the same information and Contact Phone Number should not be used.

The Contact Phone Number and E-mail are very useful features in Custom Reports, not problems as you seem to indicate. I explained this in the first post of this thread. The Contact Phone Number may or may not be the same as the Individual Phone Number.

Since every individual is part of a household, every individual will have the potential for two phone numbers: the household phone number and the individual phone number. Either or both of these may be blank, of course.

The Contact Phone Number will produce the Individual Phone Number if it has a value. If there is no Individual Phone Number, then the Contact Phone Number will produce the Household Phone Number.

Thus the Contact Phone Number will very helpfully give you a way to include in a custom report the number where you can reach an individual.

Given the way this works, it is then clear that the export would not need to include the Contact Phone Number, since it is simply a value logically deduced from the Individual and Household phone numbers.

The Contact E-mail Address works similarly.

[phatav8r-p40]

Can I PLEASE make a request to the MLS developers, hopefully before this gets put in stone? Anytime I've had to produce a custom report that included a Phone Number, I find myself searching the alphabetical lists (both Criteria and Format) for something that started with "Ph" for "Phone", but I could never find it. I then have to look at each line item until I would finally stumble on "Primary Phone Number". Now that I can almost remember where that is in the list, they are going to move it to the "H's". Now that's just not fair!

Since they already have the following...

1. Address - City
2. Address - County
3. Address - Postal Code
4. Address - State
5. ...and so on

Why not...?

1. E-mail - Contact
2. E-mail - Household
3. E-mail - Individual
4. Phone Number - Contact
5. Phone Number - Household
6. Phone Number - Individual
7. Phone Number - Secondary

And if you're so inclined...

1. Name - Maiden
2. Name - Maiden2
3. Name - Preferred
4. Name - Spouse

...And so on.

This probably wasn't an issue when MLS was first released, as there were far fewer things to select from, however now the list is getting quite long and difficult to navigate, especially for first-time users, and I see this upcoming release making it even more difficult to use instead of easier.

Really need to consider that not all users of MLS have the same cultural requirements and that data will be used differently.

Cell phones in China are CRITICAL. Sometimes members do not have HOME numbers and ONLY have individual cell phones.

Same thing for email. I know one family that has personal emails for all their household members above the age of 12 and a household for general information of schools to use for the younger children.

Leaders of youth need to have YOUTH email addresses and cell phones.

So listing the categories as above is much more realistic

[aebrown]

Really need to consider that not all users of MLS have the same cultural requirements and that data will be used differently.

Cell phones in China are CRITICAL. Sometimes members do not have HOME numbers and ONLY have individual cell phones.

Same thing for email....

MLS already supports all the fields you have mentioned (since version 3.1). The post you are quoting is simply suggesting different names for those fields in custom reports. So unless I'm missing something, you should be quite happy that MLS can already do everything you suggest. In this case, the MLS developers have nicely addressed the need in a way that fits the culture you describe.

[kanjitakahashi]

Please allow me to request that as soon as possible, MLS be modified to include individual contact information in the ward directory. People these days are using cell phones as their primary phones. When we had two places for phone numbers in the directory, we could include both the husband's and the wife's phone numbers (with 2-3 letter annotations to identify which belonged to whom). Now, only one number shows up. People keep calling the wrong spouse, and the annoyance level is rising among both callers and callees. Often, the household number is a landline that the family usually ignores. Also, please include individual contact information in the online directory. In our ward, which has a very transitory membership, we don't even print directories out for our members; they rely on the online directory. Thank you very much!

[kanjitakahashi]

MLS already supports all the fields you have mentioned (since version 3.1). The post you are quoting is simply suggesting different names for those fields in custom reports. So unless I'm missing something, you should be quite happy that MLS can already do everything you suggest. In this case, the MLS developers have nicely addressed the need in a way that fits the culture you describe.

It is much more convenient for the members if all the information can be placed in the ward directory. Then, there is only one place to look when you want to find someone's contact information.

Say you want to send email to a young man because you found his scriptures in the chapel. You would need his email address from a custom list, but this is a list that you would not have if you were a typical member. You might object, "Just call or email the parent." Well, out here in the world, you can't always count on the parent to pass the message on to the kid. You might suggest, "Just ask the clerk to give you the information." Not all wards have a clerk that can turn around this kind of information quickly. Anyway, why make things more difficult? It would be much easier for everyone if individual contact information were present in the ward directory, including online. If that can't be done, I would prefer to go back to the old system where we could at least have two phone numbers show up in directory.

[aebrown]

Please allow me to request that as soon as possible, MLS be modified to include individual contact information in the ward directory. People these days are using cell phones as their primary phones. When we had two places for phone numbers in the directory, we could include both the husband's and the wife's phone numbers (with 2-3 letter annotations to identify which belonged to whom). Now, only one number shows up. People keep calling the wrong spouse, and the annoyance level is rising among both callers and callees. Often, the household number is a landline that the family usually ignores.

Fixing the Ward Directory in MLS to include individual contact information is already on the MLS product roadmap. In this post, you will see a quotation from the MLS 3.1 release notes which explains that.

Also, please include individual contact information in the online directory. In our ward, which has a very transitory membership, we don't even print directories out for our members; they rely on the online directory. Thank you very much!

This is already underway, and in fact is available in the beta directory. Individual contact information is indeed included there (synchronized from the contact information entered in MLS), as you can see by visiting that site. This new directory should go live sometime this summer.

[kanjitakahashi]

This is already underway, and in fact is available in the beta directory. Individual contact information is indeed included there (synchronized from the contact information entered in MLS), as you can see by visiting that site. This new directory should go live sometime this summer.

And yet, even in the beta directory, if you try to print a ward directory, the individual information is not included. May I request that this be made an option? Some people are going to want to print out their own hard copy of a ward directory complete with all individual information. Others will want it as a pdf for quick and portable reference (laptop, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, etc.) without having to log into lds.org and incur data charges.

[aebrown]

And yet, even in the beta directory, if you try to print a ward directory, the individual information is not included. May I request that this be made an option? Some people are going to want to print out their own hard copy of a ward directory complete with all individual information. Others will want it as a pdf for quick and portable reference (laptop, Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, etc.) without having to log into lds.org and incur data charges.

You certainly may request it. Use the Feedback link on the beta directory site to submit your request (don't assume that a post here will be seen by the right people to consider the request).