Ministering - Relief Society

[bondimond]

I'm the RS secretary for a large ward (145 RS/YW ministers). I do not like the assignment cards generated by lds.org's ministering site. My issue is that they pull all of the family info for each sister making the cards nearly a full sheet of paper. Not interested in going through reams of paper when all that is needed on the card is name phone # address and birthday, not all that info for everyone in the family. I really do not want to type hundreds of cards by hand to make it look like what I need. So I'm hoping someone can help me with formulas so we can customize our own ministering cards off of our spreadsheet or can tell me how to customize cards off of lds.org. Most members do not have the correct phone # in household phone field and usually have nothing in individual phone field. Right now the pre-set assignment cards pull data from the individual phone field on their record. That means I'll be writing in a lot of phone #'s by hand as that field is usually blank for our membership. Is there a way to change the field from individual phone to the household phone field. Is there a way to not print all the info on every member of the household, just the RS sister's info in the household? I'm afraid we would be using reams of paper to print cards as large as being automatically generated by lds.org.

Any way to customize those automatically generated assignment cards in lds.org?

Does anyone have an easier way with formulas on an excel spreadsheet for this that I can look at so we can customize our own cards off of our spreadsheet info that we keep with current phone #'s etc for RS and not include all the data for every family member in the house etc that is generated with the lds.org version? What formulas would I use if I were to create custom cards off our own database?

Figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here

[scgallafent]

To answer your question: No, there isn't a way for you to customize the formatting.

our spreadsheet info that we keep with current phone #'s

Why don't you have members update their information in LDS Tools or Directory so that the information is reflected in the ward records instead of maintaining a separate spreadsheet? If you're maintaining information on a separate spreadsheet, that information is not going to be displayed on reports coming from Leader and Clerk Resources.

[bondimond]

Have you ever tried to get 145 people to log into their lds.org account and then find individual phone field instead of household phone, etc. ? That is not going to happen. We also minister to non-LDS neighbors that live within our neighborhood/ward boundaries. Contact info for non LDS neighbors can also not be included on the lds.org database. Just easier to keep a separate database from the data that is on lds.org. The Elders quorum has devoted several lessons to updating info on LDS.org with very few measurable results. Right now, the Bishop has decided to get updated information during tithing settlement. People are more likely to update a list of phone numbers on a directory passed around in a binder during Relief Society/YW/Primary than log into lds.org and update their information.

Since the format for RS Ministering is currently to individuals not to households (as it is with the EQ format), I would suggest updating the assignment print out feature to include information on the individuals only, not the entire household for each individual.

[russellhltn]

The clerk can update the contract information as long as it's clear that's what the individual members want.

[bondimond]

Yes, we plan to get permission to do updates during the next wave or EQ/RS ministering interviews. That project is being addressed.
But right now, I would like to be able to print ministering assignment cards with phone numbers and only the individuals information on it not he entire household. Thought I would ask here to see if there as a way to do that. Evidently there is not. I also thought I would ask here as many are proficient in databases etc on this tech site. Thought someone might be able to help me create what I want out of our database if lds.org did not have the feature I needed. It looks like that is what I will have to do - create my own ministering assignment cards out of our separate database. Or i could use reams of paper and print assignment cards as included on lds.org and attach a print out of our RS phone directory.

[nmecantwin73]

Since the format for RS Ministering is currently to individuals not to households (as it is with the EQ format), I would suggest updating the assignment print out feature to include information on the individuals only, not the entire household for each individual.

I think this is a great suggestion. If you haven't already, it would be best to submit that feedback on the page in LCR where assignments are printed detailing your suggestion (bottom of the page). That way the right people can see it and can (hopefully) do something with it.

[russellhltn]

I also thought I would ask here as many are proficient in databases etc on this tech site.

Yes, they are, but extracting data from the church systems to put into local databases is frowned upon. I doubt if there's anything to stop manual cut and paste, but automated tools are likely to get shut down.