Please Show Who Their Home / Visiting Teachers Are

As bishopric members we frequently want to know who someone's home or visiting teachers are, so we can involve them when their families need help. Right now the only way we know of to find out who a families HT / VT are is to go through the list of HT / VT assignments until we find the family listed.

It would be very useful to have this listed in the ward directory in LDS Tools. There could be an HT / VT section under the address / phone number section. Same for the online directory.

There are already parts that only bishopric members can see (and certain things only the Bishop can see), so if this is considered restricted information it could be restricted to them, and maybe HP, EQ, and RS presidencies.

Thanks! We love, love, love all the recent additions to LDS Tools and use it all the time. It is definitely a heavily used tool in the "hastening of the work" in our ward.

I don't know for sure, but it may be that HT and VT data resides only in your local copy of MLS (in your clerks office) right now, and thus could not be displayed online yet.

At this point, it is certainly the case that home and visiting tracking info is only in MLS. But efforts are underway, as described in the July 18 MLS message, to move HT/VT administration to leader and clerk resources on LDS.org by "late fall."

aebrown -can you provide a link to the July 18th MLS message? I would love to read it.

hayfam5 wrote:aebrown -can you provide a link to the July 18th MLS message? I would love to read it.

While I won't speak for aebrown, MLS messages are not in the "Official Communications Library" on LDS.org LCR, but are found in the "messages" section of your units MLS computer. You would need access to your MLS computer to obtain it (or a local leader.) Your local leaders will decide if this should be distributed to your ward council members.

(Note to forum users: Why didn't I just print it to a PDF from my MLS and post it here? To my knowledge, the church has not yet decided to make this document public through their usual channels of Press Release or Official Communication letter, so I choose not to do so. Those with the proper callings have that access.)

Added later: I actually made an announcement sheet for our stake to use on the ward level announcing LCR access to their ward councils, and mentioned that HT VT is not available yet, as we had some questions from the MLS message. I think far to many of these enhancements go unnoticed by those who could really use them because they roll out so fast and without any fanfare...

Thanks kisaac, I agree about these items going unnoticed, I certainly missed the MLS announcement you are referencing. I only stumbled upon this forum and the new leader and clerk resources info on LDS.org by accident. I am pleased with the new leader and clerk resources web features on LDS.org, and am very hopeful for the web based HT/VT administration in "late fall" (fingers crossed). Thanks for the feedback.

And in "early 2015" units will no longer be able to update HT/VT via MLS. (Email to STS dated Sept 4.)

Anybody know when and if this functionality will be added to LDS Tools? I really appreciate all the work done on LDS Tools. It is a great app. I believe adding HT & VT to records would be the single biggest improvement that could be done at this point.

gator96man wrote:Anybody know when and if this functionality will be added to LDS Tools? I really appreciate all the work done on LDS Tools. It is a great app. I believe adding HT & VT to records would be the single biggest improvement that could be done at this point.

I don't know, and we rarely hear of future plans until features are in beta.

But for anyone who happens across this thread, please note that the home teachers (and visiting teachers where applicable) are shown on the member profile page on LCR 3.0. And it's clear from the interface that a separate API call is fetching the HT/VT data, so the framework is in place for LDS Tools to implement it. Nonetheless, we have no idea of what the priorities or timeline for future enhancements to LDS Tools are at this point.

I agree this would probably be one of the most beneficial additions to LDS Tools, from a bishopric standpoint, and probably for HP, EQ, and RS, too.

I echo the appreciation for the great work the Church is doing on LDS Tools, LDS.org, etc. I wish the BSA was doing the same (or would let the Church do it for our units / districts).

Viewing home and visiting teaching information will be included in LDS Tools 2.5 (the next version).

That's great news! Thanks for the update.

I hope that Mission Leaders will be included as those who will be able to view Home/Visiting Teachers for a family. As Home/Visiting Teachers can be of great assistance in reactivating less-active members or help with part-member families.

Permissions in LDS Tools follow the decisions made for Leader and Clerk Resources – if you don't have access to see a report in Leader and Clerk Resources, you won't be able to in LDS Tools.

barkerm79 wrote:I hope that Mission Leaders will be included as those who will be able to view Home/Visiting Teachers for a family. As Home/Visiting Teachers can be of great assistance in reactivating less-active members or help with part-member families.

If think that such a thing would be done as a ward council.

barkerm79 wrote:I hope that Mission Leaders will be included as those who will be able to view Home/Visiting Teachers for a family. As Home/Visiting Teachers can be of great assistance in reactivating less-active members or help with part-member families.

sbradshaw wrote:Permissions in LDS Tools follow the decisions made for Leader and Clerk Resources – if you don't have access to see a report in Leader and Clerk Resources, you won't be able to in LDS Tools.

Or to put it more positively, since Ward Mission Leaders already have access to view HT/VT for a family in LCR, they will also have access to view that information in LDS Tools, once the HT/VT features are added to LDS Tools.

Thanks for clarifying – I wasn't sure and I was too lazy to check the access table.

sbradshaw wrote:and I was too lazy to check the access table.

It wouldn't have done you any good. HT/VT permissions haven't been added to it yet.

Just for clarification- I have had legions of members ask me as ast ward clerk to be able to see who their home teacher is and many elders/high priest members ask me for access to see who they home teach on lds tools. Can you let me know if this will be accessible in the next 2.5 version of lds tools? And when will that come out- the date? jon keller ast ward clerk Mt pleasant sc

The church rarely gives a time-line for changes until imminent or implemented. This is no exception.

If you need the information to make a decision, I'd suggest expecting it later than sooner.

jonathandkeller wrote:Just for clarification- I have had legions of members ask me as ast ward clerk to be able to see who their home teacher is and many elders/high priest members ask me for access to see who they home teach on lds tools. Can you let me know if this will be accessible in the next 2.5 version of lds tools? And when will that come out- the date? jon keller ast ward clerk Mt pleasant sc

I would just like to second this post. I am the clerk in a military ward and lots of people move in and out and deploy. There are lots of people that instead of going to the bishop first would like to contact their assigned HT/VT but don't know who they are. If this functionality hasn't been passed up to the developers is there a way to add this functionality to LDS Tools? The leadership can see it under members Callings/Classes tab, members should be able to at least see that as well. Just my 2 cents.

idmontague wrote:There are lots of people that instead of going to the bishop first would like to contact their assigned HT/VT but don't know who they are.

They should contact the elders quorum president or high priests group leader first, if they do not know who their home teachers are.

Some points once again.

No one here can help you. The developers rarely frequent this forum and do not make these programming decisions.

This is a much requested feature. It is my understanding that it is under consideration.

I expect it will be some time in coming, if it does, as it would require some extensive coding changes.

Your best method of letting the developers know you desire this feature is to submit your request through the app using the feedback link. The developers would then pass your request to the decision makers.