Reece wrote:“The stake is authorized for one office telephone line for the stake and one for each ward/branch in the stake. Clerk offices, interview rooms, and computer rooms should all be tied to that line. Each building can also have one hall phone for member use...”
It is clear to me that there is one telephone line for administrative purposes that the bishop, clerks, and other leaders use. There is an additional telephone line for the building with the restrictions stated. It is apparent to me that the hall phone is necessary for emergency use. Without it calling for emergency and safety services could be problem - especially during those times in which the building is open and in use and administration offices are not open.
So the answer to the questions are:
1. Two, one for administrative purposes and one for the building/hallway.
2. Answered by 1.
I would expect that the building/hall phone could have extensions in other locations in the building for those general membership needs. The administrative telephone line would be restricted to those needing confidential/private communications.
Looking at the wording of the message tells me that the interview rooms would need confidential/private communications and possibly a need to call Church offices outside the local area. The computer room would need long distance for service support. Until now these needs were met in our stake and wards by two administrative telephone lines and one building/hall line. The bishop's line was/is separate from the clerk line. We do not have telephone access in the interview rooms and the computer room is the clerk's office since the only computers outside the family history center are there.
I suspect that going to one administrative telephone line will require a modification to the line access to permit the bishop to control whether or not the other extensions will have access when his telephone is being used for one of those confidential/private calls. I can see how units use the telephone for their communication needs will need to be adjusted. With the ubiquity of cell phones members my be using their own cell phones to make those calls in which they used the unit's telephones for in the past.
The issue for units still using dialup for their administrative computers adds an additional level of complexity to solving communications needs for a unit. It begs the question as to whether the Church plans for all administrative computers to be connected to the Internet and not rely on a dialup line. Planning/coordinating the times for MLS send/recieves will have to be worked out with the bishop until then.
EDIT: After reviewing the message wording again I see there is no mention of bishops/stake presidents for the one line shared amoung the clerk offices, interview rooms, and computer rooms. Perhaps the bishop's/stake president's line is not intended to be a part of this new policy. If so, then some of the issues discussed are not a concern. Then the answer to question 1. is then three (3) - the bishop's line, the administrative line, and the building/hall phone line. The FM Group can probably shed a clearer light on this new policy since they manage this asset.