Phones - Bishop's Office vs. Clerk's Office

I am the high councilman in my stake over Technology. Typically the bishop's office and the clerk's office share the same phone number. A problem could occur when the bishop is on the phone and someone picks up the phone in the clerk's office and might hear confidential information. Is there some device that I can install so that if the bishop is on the phone is his office, the person on the clerk's office phone couldn't hear anything on the phone?

Phones are the responsibility of the FM group, not the stake technology specialist. I'd be wary of modifying the phone system without the approval of the FM group.

Our FM group has configured all the shared phones so that when the bishop is on his extension, the clerks just hear silence. I'm not sure how they did it, but I'd recommend that you (or your stake PFR) contact your FM group about this.

The only thing I'm aware of would also cause the bishop to interrupt/cut off any conversation the clerk might be having and prevent transferring calls.

There are devices that indicate "line in use". Installing one on the clerk's phone would prevent accidents.

To do anything else would require installing a phone system. Maybe you can find one that is the "matching handsets" style. (So you don't have to re-wire the building and install a key unit.) They used to be popular, but I don't think I've seen one in 10 years.

To my knowledge, the church has never worried about this. I'm guessing that most people would immediately hang up the phone when they find it's in use and only hear a few words - rarely enough to breach confidentiality.

Thank you. I'll contact my FM group to see what they have to say.

Every clerk's office phone in our stake is configured to cut out completely whenever the bishop's phone is in use. Same with the stake clerk's phone and the stake president. I've never seen it any other way, so I assumed it was standard practice in the church, just like the white-noise generators.

Mikerowaved wrote:Every clerk's office phone in our stake is configured to cut out completely whenever the bishop's phone is in use.

In our old buildings, it's an old fashioned party line.

In our new building, each bishop and each clerks office have different phone numbers. Same for the stake president and stake clerks office.

We have 4 wards meeting and the stake offices in our building so we potentially have 5 bishop/stake president and clerk office conflicts. I'll have to test out if every ward is having this "problem".

I get or make very few calls on my office phone. Most are on my cell now. Same for my clerks.

I would make sure it is really a problem before you go to a lot of bother to fix it.