MLS 3.1 Phone/Email changes

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
RossEvans
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#11

Post by RossEvans »

Alan_Brown wrote:Reports
For reports that list households (such as the Directory of Members), only household phone numbers (and household e-mail addresses, where applicable) will be shown. Individual phone numbers and e-mail addresses are never shown on such reports (which seems entirely appropriate to me).

I'm not so sure that is satisfactory. I think there ought to be a directory report that incudess the new individual email addresses and phone numbers. Providing contacts by member is an essential purpose of a "Directory of Members."
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aebrown
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#12

Post by aebrown »

boomerbubba wrote:I'm not so sure that is satisfactory. I think there ought to be a directory report that includes the new individual email addresses and phone numbers. Providing contacts by member is an essential purpose of a "Directory of Members."
From the MLS 3.1 Release Notes, it is clear that this will be coming. It seems that although the need is acknowledged, the developers ran out of time to include it in this release. So I just think we need to be patient:
In future releases of MLS, and as resources permit, individual telephone and e-mail address information will be added to other MLS-produced reports and lists (such as forms, temple recommends, the Directory of Members, and other household lists).
In the meantime, custom reports can be produced for this data. The layout is not as nice, but it does work.
pzells
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Easy way to add individual phone # & emails?

#13

Post by pzells »

Is there an easier way to add all the individual phone # and emails for the entire ward other than opening up each member record at a time and adding individual contact info?

That will take forever with 800 members in the ward.
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mkmurray
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#14

Post by mkmurray »

pze wrote:That will take forever with 800 members in the ward.
Wow, it sounds like you've got a stake for a ward!

Well, there's really no way to bulk update anything in MLS via the UI. Similarly, there is no function for importing data into MLS in any shape or form either.
coloradotechie-p40
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#15

Post by coloradotechie-p40 »

mkmurray wrote: I think it's also too bad more than one number can't be listed per individual, but this is a good start at least.
Google voice is what I use for this... I know it is invite only but I've seen a friend get an invite 10 days after signing up... I think it depends on the amount of availability in the area code you are looking for.
RossEvans
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#16

Post by RossEvans »

pze wrote:Is there an easier way to add all the individual phone # and emails for the entire ward other than opening up each member record at a time and adding individual contact info?

That will take forever with 800 members in the ward.

Cry me a river. We have closer to 900 members.

I think you'll find that the data entry will be the easy part, especially if you use the horizontal arrow buttons at the top of the contacts screen to navigate from one member to the next.

The hard part will be canvassing all the members to collect this new information. I recommend taking advantage of tithing settlement to do so.

I also think that as far as possible, it will be better if families enter both individual and household contact information, even if that means entering the same phone and email data more than once. Several reports will look funny if this is not done. (For example, a husband's email address may have historically been the email address for the household. Now it might appear on visiting teaching reports as the email for his wife's role as visiting teacher or supervisor if she has no individual email address. Or, if only individual contact information is entered for other members, their households will have no phone or email listed in the home-teaching roster.)

The new structure provides much greater flexibility, but it needs to be used wisely.
RossEvans
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#17

Post by RossEvans »

One additional source of data to populate the new Individual E-mail address field is LUWS. At least in our ward, active members who leave their email visible in LUWS may not have given that email to clerks for MLS. The LUWS email addresses have the merit of being mapped to particular members, not just to households.

So after our canvassing during tithing settlement is complete, I will probably do a CSV export from LUWS and another from MLS. Then it will be easy to pull both tables into a database and select LUWS records with email addresses not present in the MLS table. Those exceptions then can be examined and manually keyed into MLS.

It also will be worthwhile to identify legacy MLS records in the Household E-mail and Household Phone records that contain multiple entries so that can be rectified. The new instructions more expressly limit us to only a single data element per field.
kisaac
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Closer, but phones not fixed yet!

#18

Post by kisaac »

Alan_Brown wrote: For reports that list households (such as the Directory of Members), only household phone numbers (and household e-mail addresses, where applicable) will be shown. Individual phone numbers and e-mail addresses are never shown on such reports (which seems entirely appropriate to me).
boomerbubba wrote:I'm not so sure that is satisfactory. I think there ought to be a directory report that incudess the new individual email addresses and phone numbers. Providing contacts by member is an essential purpose of a "Directory of Members."
Boomerbubba is correct! We now need new directory listing options or create the custom list...they way it is leaves us with problems.

But lets celebrate first with HT and VT calling supervisors churchwide, who now can call the number next to the name on their list and not have to say "sister jones, I called your cell phone again didn't I? It's this list, they promised to fix it soon...Well...while I've got you, did brother jones make it out last month?"

Thank you for this "individual contact number" fix!

However, it's a new but essentially the same problem for the "Household contact." The activities committee member who is using their directory for assigning pot-luck dishes for the ward party is an example. Who will answer the "household contact number" listed on the new directory? Let's hope not Brother Jones, he can't cook, and he will forget to tell Sister Jones he volunteered her for a pot-luck dish.

So, dial the new "family contact number," because that is all you have listed, and spin the wheel of chance..."brother jones, I see it's your cell phone listed as your families contact number? I kind of need your wife...Oh, she can be reached on her cell phone...can I get that number? I know we said this would be fixed...well...while I've got you, we do need some chairs set up!"

Yes, we are closer and we will be patient, and celebrate the small victories.
kisaac
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work-around for unknown "houshold contact" answering individual

#19

Post by kisaac »

kisaac wrote: So, dial the new "family contact number," because that is all you have listed, and spin the wheel of chance...
Maybe we will continue to append the cell phone holder's name (800-333-9922-Jim) onto the new "household contact number" for the "His and Hers" cell phone families - at least that will give an indication of who's pocket (purse) will "sing" when we dial it. We've done that for years when we needed the "primary phone - secondary phone" slots for two cell phone families with no "hard-wired" phone.

Besides, the basic premise for "household contact number" is a bit dated. The traditional "household contact number" made a clunky thing bolted to the wall make noise until you answered it, spoke briefly, and then shouted for a teenage son or daughter to speak into it.
MrRogers-p40
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#20

Post by MrRogers-p40 »

Alan_Brown wrote: That possibility of adding individual contact info is confirmed by the MLS 3.1 Release Notes, which say:
Boy, I sure hope that happens soon because the ward directory is now missing most of its phone numbers. Are all the secondary phone numbers still out there somewhere or have they simply been erased?
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