Help with mapping

My bishop has asked me to divide my ward into 6 geographic areas. What do you think would be the best way to do this?

You can print your ward from the lds.org "maps" tool and use a red marker to draw lines, of course! Other than that, the map tool doesn't allow you to make custom zones for fast offering collection, emergency preparedness, etc.

Look at this thread for a similar discussion:
Many ?? about Maps

There are other ways in MLS, such as using geocodes, or coding some identifier into custom member fields you create for that purpose. While these two won't give you a map, they will allow you to print off lists of your zones and use all the MLS sort and custom reports features.

Which is best? I would start simple and see if that does what you need. Do you have a red marker?

Only problem I have is the map is not big enough when I print it out it says 2 households in a particular area and so on. How do I go about printing off a large copy.

lehrschallbrian wrote:Only problem I have is the map is not big enough when I print it out it says 2 households in a particular area and so on. How do I go about printing off a large copy.

You can change the paper size in the Page Setup of the Printer-Friendly Map. If you pick a larger paper size, you'll greatly reduce the number of cases where 2 neighboring households are merged into a single icon.

lehrschallbrian wrote:Only problem I have is the map is not big enough when I print it out it says 2 households in a particular area and so on. How do I go about printing off a large copy.

If you must display the names of households on a printed map, that introduces a significant new requirement. Perhaps you could explain your general purpose.

As aebrown noted, the problem of printing household names on a map from the maps.lds.org site can be mitigated by going to a larger paper size. But that doesn't help much if the geographic area of your ward is large, which I assume to be the case in North Carolina. See this thread. You might need to export the data to some external software.

lehrschallbrian wrote:Only problem I have is the map is not big enough when I print it out it says 2 households in a particular area and so on. How do I go about printing off a large copy.

Going to Kinko's or some other similar place is always an option as well if you want a map to actually put on the wall... Depending on how large your ward boundaries are, 8.5 by 11 might look a little silly on a wall

scotthamilton57 wrote:Going to Kinko's or some other similar place is always an option as well if you want a map to actually put on the wall... Depending on how large your ward boundaries are, 8.5 by 11 might look a little silly on a wall

If the need really is to print all the household names on the large map, using maps.lds.org that way may work for dense, geographically tiny wards such as those in much of Utah. But it very likely won't work for units that are much more spread out. (See the other thread I linked above.) I would guess that the LDS density in North Carolina is a couple of orders of magnitude less than it is in, say, Orem UT.

But if the orignal poster really just needs a large paper map showing only the ward boundaries (on which lines could be drawn) the easiest and most cost-effective way to get that wall map is to have the ward clerk ask church headquarters for it. I really don't have a clear enough idea about lehrschallbrian's purpose to know what to recommend. By what criteria, and for what purpose, is he supposed to analyze and decide where the lines go?

If you are a member of a Bishopric or you can ask the ward clerk to go to lds.org under clerk or leader resources click
Resources, click on Church Directory of Organizations & Leaders, click on you ward or stake, at the top you can click where it says
ward or stake boundary map. You can save it (pdf file) to a memory stick & take it to Kinkos/or Staples and have it printed. I think the size is like 34" x 34". Every ward should have one printed & posted in the clerks office for Emergency Response purposes. SLC HQ can mail you one also & they will charge your ward for it. You will have to manually divide the map into zones. Dreaming of the day all this can
be done on lds.org Map & make Emergency Response Specialist callings easier. Good luck!