Stake Geo Codes

I've been working with Stake GEO codes for some time. I would like to provide feedback that I think that whenever there's a change in the address of the Head of House, this field should be automatically emptied. This should happen whether it involved same ward, new ward, same stake, or new stake. Right now, it's not changing and I don't know that a person's address has changed so that I need to review the Stake GEO code.

Who/how would I make this suggestion?

You can try emailing your suggestion to mlssupport at ldschurch.org. But I wouldn't get your hopes up. The focus on development is to move features to on-line and away from MLS.

jsmackley wrote:I've been working with Stake GEO codes for some time. I would like to provide feedback that I think that whenever there's a change in the address of the Head of House, this field should be automatically emptied. This should happen whether it involved same ward, new ward, same stake, or new stake. Right now, it's not changing and I don't know that a person's address has changed so that I need to review the Stake GEO code.

I personally don't like this suggestion. There are many reasons an address might change (standardizing street names or formats, or moving to 9-digit ZIP codes) that don't imply a physical move. And with ward divisions or other boundary changes, the code may not need to change.

I agree that it would be helpful to know that an address has changed, but causing information to be lost when there may well be no need for the geo code to be cleared seems a bit drastic as a proposed solution.

An alternative approach that can be done with current technology is to export the list of households, addresses, and geo codes to a spreadsheet that you then save. Then at some later date you can do another export and compare the addresses to see if they have truly changed and if their address change necessitates a change in the geo code.

russellhltn wrote:You can try emailing your suggestion to mlssupport at ldschurch.org. But I wouldn't get your hopes up. The focus on development is to move features to on-line and away from MLS.

This particular suggestion really isn't unique to MLS, even though it may currently apply only to MLS. Once the geo code and boundary change features move to Leader and Clerk Resources, the same issue will exist there.

aebrown wrote:

russellhltn wrote:You can try emailing your suggestion to mlssupport at ldschurch.org. But I wouldn't get your hopes up. The focus on development is to move features to on-line and away from MLS.

This particular suggestion really isn't unique to MLS, even though it may currently apply only to MLS. Once the geo code and boundary change features move to Leader and Clerk Resources, the same issue will exist there.

The new boundary change feature won't use geo codes like MLS does. It will let you draw on the map and uses the members locations in lds.org/maps

aubrown: I would agree that sometimes addresses are changed for standardization purposes, but that is done by the wards as that stake doesn't have that ability. My purpose for suggesting it would be just to use it as a flag that it needs to be verified. I've also had many Stake Geo codes come in from other stakes that are not applicable to my stake. Those are easy to pick out, but more difficult.

rkjones: If they're creating a new boundary change feature, I'll wait for the enhancement as it sounds much better. thx

aebrown wrote:I personally don't like this suggestion. There are many reasons an address might change (standardizing street names or formats, or moving to 9-digit ZIP codes) that don't imply a physical move. And with ward divisions or other boundary changes, the code may not need to change.

I agree that it would be helpful to know that an address has changed, but causing information to be lost when there may well be no need for the geo code to be cleared seems a bit drastic as a proposed solution.

In my mind the alternative is worse. Sure, it's a pain when the data is lost simply because the address was reformatted. But realistically, that's only going to happen to a household once - and only some households. The alternative is that when using the data one has to review ALL the points on a regular basis because you can't be sure if they're still accurate. If information is lost, then it calls attention to get updated. If the information remains but is no longer accurate it's more insidious and more work to find and fix. And ultimately I'd think minimizing the workload is one of our major goals.

I believe that's how maps works now. And it's behavior decreases the value of the maps.

russellhltn wrote:In my mind the alternative is worse.

Well, that depends on your particular stake's situation; how geo codes are used, how often addresses change and why, etc. I was just offering a contrasting viewpoint based on my personal experience.

But this is all really rather irrelevant, given the helpful post of jonesrk explaining how boundary alignment will be done in the future on LCR. Geo codes will become obsolete, and we know MLS won't be updated to change their behavior at this point anyway.

aebrown wrote:But this is all really rather irrelevant, given the helpful post of jonesrk explaining how boundary alignment will be done in the future on LCR.

True, but I'd like to see Maps updated.

The Geo Code for the Ward was a great tool if not for anything else but for EP Emergency Perparnes.
it a great way to use for zones. I hope they keep that. Are the custom field, and Custom Reports also going away. Some of the filter were taking away in LDS Maps at least with LDS Tools you can make lisyt. It would be nice if they could show up on LDS Maps. and someway the Leadership could post list for the ward to use.

jonesrk wrote: The new boundary change feature won't use geo codes like MLS does. It will let you draw on the map and uses the members locations in lds.org/maps

I am wondering how this will work for us in the UK, and Europe, with the privacy issues we have. If I understand things correctly we will have to verify all the member household locations on the map for us to do any boundary stuff.
As many of our members, including active ones, have their info set to private won't that effectively make their address 'public' on the map? I don't know the privacy laws well enough to know if this is an issue for us.
I am assuming that when an address is verified on the map it is visible to all members of the unit, not sure about further afield.

simonawright wrote:I am assuming that when an address is verified on the map it is visible to all members of the unit, not sure about further afield.

I wouldn't make that assumption. Maps knows when profiles are private. Seems pointless to acknowledge a profile as private if it's going to show it to everyone.

simonawright wrote:

jonesrk wrote: The new boundary change feature won't use geo codes like MLS does. It will let you draw on the map and uses the members locations in lds.org/maps

I am wondering how this will work for us in the UK, and Europe, with the privacy issues we have. If I understand things correctly we will have to verify all the member household locations on the map for us to do any boundary stuff.

I am guessing that as a clerk or priesthood leader you will be able to see the information you need to do a boundary change, but that others will not if their settings are restricted.

It would be nice to confirm that a map location remains private even if you verify it. If it does not, I would see this as a significant bug in the system that needs to be fixed.

lajackson wrote:It would be nice to confirm that a map location remains private even if you verify it.

The visibility settings in the Directory do affect the display of a household on Maps. Verifying a household location marker does not affect the household location marker visibility set in the Directory.

There is a privacy setting in the Directory for the display of the household on a map pop-up and on Maps titled "Show on Map" If it is set to "Private - Leadership Only" then the household marker is only visible to leaders. In the Directory there will be no "Show on Map" link for a household for any members who do not have the proper access rights. And on Maps the household will show the household location as unmapped in the Maps directory and no location marker on the Maps map display.

Of course the "Household Visibility Limit" setting in the Directory sets the highest visibility for any of the other household and personal visibility settings. As such, if the household visibility setting is "Private - Leadership Only" then only leaders will be able to see the household location marker in the map pop-up in the Directory or on Maps.