Membership Address Issue (Suggestion)

[daryl1]

In the Membership record there is the following.
Residential Address
Street 1
Street 2
Mailing Address
Street 1
Street 2

Please consider adding to the Abbreviated Directory under Customize the following.
Remove show second street address this is confusing.
Add the following to the Abbreviated Directory Customize section to match the membership record.
Show Residential Street 2
Show Mailing Street 1
Show Mailing Street 2

This will be a major improvement for units like ours that have many members with a residential address where they live physically along with a PO BOX address where they get the mail.

This would bless the lives of the leaders.

[russellhltn]

Please consider adding to the Abbreviated Directory under Customize the following.
Remove show second street address this is confusing.
Add the following to the Abbreviated Directory Customize section to match the membership record.
Show Residential Street 2
Show Mailing Street 1
Show Mailing Street 2

Maybe I'm having a slow night, but I don't understand what your are suggesting. It appears you want both Residential and Mailing address in the directory, right?

[jdlessley]

Maybe I'm having a slow night, but I don't understand what your are suggesting. It appears you want both Residential and Mailing address in the directory, right?

That is what I am getting from the post. The abbreviated membership directory only has the option to include the "street 2" line of the residential address in the directory. There is no option to include any part of the mailing address in the abbreviated directory.

[russellhltn]

OK, looking at MLS, I think I understand. He's not objecting to the function of "Remove show second street address" but is objecting to the way it's labeled. Yes, it does seem like it could be confusing.

He's also asking for the options to include the Mailing address, either one or both lines. (I'm not sure why one would have Line 2 but NOT Line 1.)

[aebrown]

This will be a major improvement for units like ours that have many members with a residential address where they live physically along with a PO BOX address where they get the mail.

If you want to get the mailing addresses for all of your members with MLS the way it works right now, you can follow the instructions on the wiki at Exporting mailing labels.

[greenwoodkl]

A related tangent, our YSA ward uses Street 2 to record a complex name and apartment number when applicable. The complex name is more recognizable to the membership than the street address. It would be nice to have more flexibility in MLS and online tools to show Street 1 by default, but Street 2 if populated.

[daryl1]

Exactly correct everyone. We need to be able to not only show the residential address but the mailing also. Most of our member have both. I have had many leaders ask for this. To answer aebrown I am not just after the mailing labels which by the way needs some work also.

Could someone please consider passing this along to be added to the MLS features list for a future roll out in a new MLS addition?

Very simple fix.
Add the following under the customize option of the Abbrivated Directory
Show Residential Street 2
Show Mailing Street 1
Show Mailing Street 2

This will end all confusion and will bless lives.

[aebrown]

To answer aebrown I am not just after the mailing labels which by the way needs some work also.

I didn't have any expectation that you were just after the mailing labels. But my suggestion will give you access to the mailing address in an electronic format, which some people find helpful -- it's not immediately obvious how to access the mailing address fields for use in a spreadsheet or mail merge. But if you don't find it helpful, ignore the suggestion.

Could someone please consider passing this along to be added to the MLS features list for a future roll out in a new MLS addition?

Most of us are simply community members like yourself -- we don't work on the MLS development team or have any special access to the development team. It's good to have a discussion here, but there's no guarantee anyone on the development team will see this discussion.

So my advice to you is to pass along the suggestion yourself. You can do so via an MLS Message, or by sending an email to msrmail@ldsmail.net.

[RossEvans]

Those needing customized functionality beyond that offered by MLS custom reports might look at the MLS export files available to local leaders. All these address elements are present in the Membership.csv export file, and the clerk can build his own logic into a spreadsheet or other external application.

[davesudweeks]

Exporting Custom reports is what we do. There are 2 reports (a 1-page telephone directory with Leadership list and a Speaker history for the Bishopric) that I have to manage with Excel/Open Office. The Speaker History has to be exported to allow me to populate the last date an individual spoke. I use formulas to copy the previous data to the new fields when I update it (about monthly). By the way, our youth are amazed that the Bishopric can remember the last time they spoke... we just keep the "how" our little secret. :-)

However, I would love to be able to generate a 1-Page (front and back) Telephone Directory the way the Bishopric want it. It takes me several hours each time to massage the exported data (Columns, column widths, font sizes) so everything fits. Thus I only update it a couple of times each year.

If your structure doesn't change, you could build programming into excel to import the data and format it automatically. I have wanted to do that but have not had the available time.