Many ?? about Maps

Discussions about the Ward Directory and Map tool on churchofjesuschrist.org.
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sherrypterry1
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Many ?? about Maps

#1

Post by sherrypterry1 »

Sorry to post such simple questions, but here you go...

I'm the Ward Welfare Specialist & am doubling as the Emergency Prep Repr. We are getting ready for hurricane season; the Bishop has asked for some assistance to identify the location of ward members. I have accessed the ward map with my personal lds.org log in and most addresses have not been "verified." I have attempted over several weeks to verify my own address with no success.

Question 1: How are addresses verified?

Question 2: The Bishop would like me to divide up the ward membership into small areas so in a disaster, a Priesthood holder could "walk" to the members home if transportation is not available. What "access" do I need in MLS to get to the maps to work on this project. The Bishop is able to see ward boundaries & other items, which I, as a member, cannot see with my personal access.

I have been a RS president in the past & have had limited access code to MLS, so I understand how the whole access thing works....I don't need access to records, etc, just addresses & the map.

Thank you in advance...

Sherry
russellhltn
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#2

Post by russellhltn »

First off, please note that a new version of the maps was released just yesterday, so some of your prior problems may have been fixed.
sherrypterry1 wrote:Question 1: How are addresses verified?
By the member, or by a member of the bishopric including the clerks. As for how, see LDS Maps release notes. Note that as a practical matter, verification is only needed if you notice that someone's marker doesn't reflect their location.

Unfortunately, that could be a move within the ward which really limits the usefulness of maps.
sherrypterry1 wrote:Question 2: The Bishop would like me to divide up the ward membership into small areas so in a disaster, a Priesthood holder could "walk" to the members home if transportation is not available. What "access" do I need in MLS to get to the maps to work on this project. The Bishop is able to see ward boundaries & other items, which I, as a member, cannot see with my personal access.
First off, other then exporting the addresses, MLS access isn't going to help you at all. Access to church web functions is based on callings. Off hand, I'm not aware of any callings the bishop could extend to you to get you additional rights on the Maps page. But he should be able to get the boundary files (KMZ) for you to use on your own program like Google Earth (just be careful you don't share anything about members with Google and that it stays on your own computer.)
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

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aebrown
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#3

Post by aebrown »

sherrypterry1 wrote:Question 2: The Bishop would like me to divide up the ward membership into small areas so in a disaster, a Priesthood holder could "walk" to the members home if transportation is not available. What "access" do I need in MLS to get to the maps to work on this project. The Bishop is able to see ward boundaries & other items, which I, as a member, cannot see with my personal access.

Any member can see boundaries -- that ability is not restricted to just the bishop or other ward leaders. With the older maps site (at lds.org/maps) you might have to use the legend to select that you want the boundaries to be visible. It appears that with the newer maps site (currently at lds.org/rcmaps), the boundaries are visible by default.

But the "other items" such as emergency preparedness information is indeed restricted to bishopric members and clerks, as far as I know.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
sherrypterry1
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#4

Post by sherrypterry1 »

RussellHltn wrote:First off, please note that a new version of the maps was released just yesterday, so some of your prior problems may have been fixed.

Thank you...will give it a look tonight.

By the member, or by a member of the bishopric including the clerks. As for how, see LDS Maps release notes. Note that as a practical matter, verification is only needed if you notice that someone's marker doesn't reflect their location.

Thank you, will let the Bishop know, we do have some "outliers" which need corrected. Again, will let the Bishop know.[/I]


Not sure what you mean, "move within the ward" All I need to do to grid the addresses on a map. Simple.



First off, other then exporting the addresses, MLS access isn't going to help you at all. Access to church web functions is based on callings. Off hand, I'm not aware of any callings the bishop could extend to you to get you additional rights on the Maps page. But he should be able to get the boundary files (KMZ) for you to use on your own program like Google Earth (just be careful you don't share anything about members with Google and that it stays on your own computer.)

I will attempt to export the addresses...can I export them to a map or just the text? I was not asking to be extended another calling. I know the RS president (I used to be one) has access to make changes in VT, etc. Disregard the question.

Thank you for your help.
russellhltn
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

sherrypterry1 wrote:Not sure what you mean, "move within the ward" All I need to do to grid the addresses on a map.
If a member moves from one address to another, but remains in the ward, their marker stays in the old location. The only time the marker moves on its own is when the member moves into or out of the ward.
sherrypterry1 wrote:I will attempt to export the addresses...can I export them to a map or just the text?

From MLS, an admin can export a list of addresses. It will not have the information about map coordinates/location.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
kisaac
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#6

Post by kisaac »

sherrypterry1 wrote: Question 1: How are addresses verified?
I think your calling and some cooperation is all you need.

Look to the help files (here) for many answers to your questions. It may help your ward clerk to look it over as well. The new version may be a bit different.

I would begin by working with your ward clerk to get all your ward member addresses verified first, as described in previous posts. Our region made this request of all the stakes to assign it to all ward clerks to correctly verify every address and report back when finished. This will enable outside assistance (such as from members of other wards or stakes) to do member welfare checks of your ward, if your local leadership cannot do it.

As far as dividing your ward into zones, don't overlook the simple way...perhaps print your ward map on an 11x17 paper at a copy center and cut it up with scissors into your zones. Or, using regular sized paper, place printed maps in a page protector and draw on it with marker, and make "emergency books." When all the power goes off, and the internet goes down, you can still access you paper zone charts. Maybe someday LDS.org maps will allow us to make custom zones....

The map does have a unique feature to identify those with special needs during an emergency, and those who are the "emergency response leaders." I clipped this from the Help files
You can edit household information to place the household in two categories: those with special needs or those who are emergency response leaders. Households with special needs are identified by this icon: Image. Emergency response leaders are identified by this icon: Image. You can filter maps and lists to view or print only those two categories.
Ward leaders identify the emergency response leaders. They may include:
  • Those assigned as a leader over a portion of the ward.
  • Those who have lifesaving or other specialized skills.
  • Those who own equipment (such as chain saws, generators, heavy equipment. or communications equipment such as short-wave radios).
  • Those with other skills identified by leaders.
Ward leaders identify those with special needs. They may include:
  • Those with physical disabilities.
  • Older members who would have difficulty evacuating their homes in an emergency.
  • Those who would not know about an emergency (those without electricity, those without a telephone, and so on).
  • Those with other disabilities.
RossEvans
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#7

Post by RossEvans »

sherrypterry1 wrote: We are getting ready for hurricane season; the Bishop has asked for some assistance to identify the location of ward members. ...

The Bishop would like me to divide up the ward membership into small areas so in a disaster, a Priesthood holder could "walk" to the members home if transportation is not available.
For determining local districts in your ward, which I assume to be rather large geographically since there are few hurricanes along the Wasatch Front, it may be helpful to look at the Census maps. They subdivide counties into a hierarchy of tracts, block groups and blocks. The Census geographers tend to design areas that make sense on the ground, which are practically superior to simple grids.

You can browse these Census areas online at the TIGERweb site.

PDF versions of these Census boundaries, which of course you can print offline, are also available.

For your own offline use in your own geographic software, you can download electronic map files from Census in different formats. The shapefile format is generally used by more sophisticated Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
KML files, down to the tract level, are also downloadable directly from Census and can be viewed directly in free map viewers such as Google Earth. If you need KML files of more granular block groups and blocks, it is possible to convert the shapefiles mentioned above into KML format.

Although low-end tools such as Google Earth can allow you to visualize which members live in which districts, they lack the ability to automatically classify geocoded member address points according to the districts they belong to. That is a basic function of GIS software, which can do it for custom areas the user designs. Unfortunately, full GIS systems are not easily installed and used.

But one advantage of using Census areas is that because they are standardized, other resources -- some of them free -- are available for that task. One such tool, free for limited use, is available at the University of Southern California's GIS web site. That tool would allow you -- before the hurricane hits -- to get your most current ward roster (which I am assuming to be already geocoded and downloaded from maps.lds.org) classified into Census areas. You would still need to piece the final list together in a spreadsheet, etc.
RossEvans
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#8

Post by RossEvans »

After you have decided how you are going to assign priesthood holders to groups of families, for which I still suggest the districting approach, you can test the walking routes for each of them using this website. (Make sure to set your Route Options - > Walking.)

Of course, the time to do that is before the hurricane hits.
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johnshaw
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#9

Post by johnshaw »

sherrypterry1 wrote:I will attempt to export the addresses...can I export them to a map or just the text? I was not asking to be extended another calling. I know the RS president (I used to be one) has access to make changes in VT, etc. Disregard the question.

Thank you for your help.
One caution I would give you, the maps does have tools to do what you are looking at doing. Before doing something on your own, it would be better to explore what is available. I understand your Bishop asked YOU to do something, but that doesn't mean you can't sit down with a Clerk to view the maps functions that might get what you need done. It might be appropriate to report back to the Bishop that without the Access you are left to export information and work with Google maps, due to restrictions in place, you can only save this data locally, it would require a ton of manual processing and maintenance and upkeep, and likely will not survive when someone else is called to fulfill the calling. I believe maps has the ability to create 'areas' and view special needs and Emergency Leaders in each of these areas. I would encourage you to work with one of the clerks or the execsec to see what's available.
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#10

Post by RossEvans »

JohnShaw wrote:One caution I would give you, the maps does have tools to do what you are looking at doing. Before doing something on your own, it would be better to explore what is available. ... I believe maps has the ability to create 'areas' and view special needs and Emergency Leaders in each of these areas. I would encourage you to work with one of the clerks or the execsec to see what's available.

If you are referring to the maps tool at maps.lds.org, I don't think there is any such capability to "create 'areas.'" That is a frequently requested enhancement, but it isn't there yet.
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