Exporting Member Lists to a CSV

My apologies if this is not the right forum to address this question...
Is there a way to export a directory list from the LDS.org web site, so that it can then be imported to a personal mail client (gmail, in this case)? If so, how is the export process executed?

Thanks in advance for any direction that can be given...

Tom Coe
Oak Harbor 2nd Ward
Oak Harbor, Washington

At one time, there was a feature in the directory, but it was restricted to only a few leaders. Most other export functions have been removed for security.

As of right now it still exists in the Directory (lds.org/directory) but I always expect it to disappear at any time since every other export has been removed. I'm pretty sure it's only available to bishopric members, clerks and the executive secretary.

First of all, make sure your effort to capture these emails in an external email client application is consistent with church policy on membership data (I still struggle to find things in the Handbook that I know are there...maybe someone else will come along with a section reference).

If you're trying to email a Ward Organization group, you have the option to "Email all XXX". Click on it and you can get a comma- or semicolon-delimited list of email addresses. The bad thing is that you don't know who is associated with each email, which may defeat your purpose of getting them in an email program with associated names.

If you want to get the whole ward, you can print a ward directory to PDF. Just do 1 column and show email (and possibly individual details). Copy and paste the contents of the PDF into a text editor. You can clean it up from there to suit your purposes.

I am a membership clerk. There are many reasons why I or a leader would benefit from efficiency of downloading directory data and editing it for various uses that in pursuit of their callings. For instance, we live in a high-turnover ward with ebbs and flows related to university schedules. We are a "town" ward, but have waves of new arrivals and departures. I want to download to Excel and remove columns and lines to remove all but the person or people that I need to contact. And elders president (I've been once twice) from making a list with contact info only of elders he and his counselors want to interview, or etc.

terence wrote:I am a membership clerk. There are many reasons why I or a leader would benefit from efficiency of downloading directory data and editing it for various uses that in pursuit of their callings. For instance, we live in a high-turnover ward with ebbs and flows related to university schedules. We are a "town" ward, but have waves of new arrivals and departures. I want to download to Excel and remove columns and lines to remove all but the person or people that I need to contact. And elders president (I've been once twice) from making a list with contact info only of elders he and his counselors want to interview, or etc.

I certainly feel your pain, but too many members cannot resist the urge to export lists of membership information and then email or host it on a google drive (etc) in violation of church policy. I think the church is taking the stance that the privacy of the many outweighs the convenience of the few. I'm just a ward clerk in Oklahoma and have no special insight into the workings of the decisions regarding this, but in watching the forum posts for several years and watching as the church has removed export abilities, this is my conclusion. My opinion is just that, though, an opinion...

Well, the techier of us can do a work-around. That's probably what I'll do, although I'm not truly techie. The computer tech just left my home. Made solution to my problems (not with MLS) seem simple.

However, the Church can solve the problem I'm concerned with simply by creating some additional, appropriate lists, even editable lists, within security for leaders.

Thanx for your response.



'

Custom Reports are not enough?

Lists provided aren't adequate. Not by a long way.

terence wrote:Lists provided aren't adequate. Not by a long way.

I recommend you provide feedback from the custom report page and identify the kind of custom report you need (what information and columns are needed). Feedback is read and passed to those who make the decisions for what the programmers work on. They may be able to add the selections that will allow you to generate a custom report to your needs.

davesudweeks wrote:I recommend you provide feedback from the custom report page and identify the kind of custom report you need (what information and columns are needed).

I'd also suggest making a "business case" for the request and how it supports the instructions the church has given.

Leaders have been known to go off of tangents and ask for things that are not supported by the Handbook or other official instructions. Showing that this is not a "tangent" makes it mare likely this will happen sooner than later (although probably not soon enough).

I'm a new ward clerk. The bishop has asked me to generate a list of members with odd addresses and another list with even addresses to divide the ward up for meetings during Covid-19. This is a YSA ward. He wants to do it this way because he wants everyone in an apartment to come together and this accomplishes that. Dividing the ward by last name or first name (A-M, N-Z) won't work. I see no way to do this with a custom report. If I could just export the ward list, I could easily do this in Excel. Am I just out of luck?!

You can create two custom reports to get what you need. I am assuming by odd or even that you are referring to the street number of the address. If so then the custom report would sort on the "Address - Street 1" criterion using the "Ends With" parameter. You would have to use the "Or" boolean operator for each of the odd ending numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, & 9) in the "Odd Address" report and likewise the even ending numbers for the "Even Address" report.

For example the Odd Address report would include the criterion:
Address - Street 1 Ends With 1 Or
Address - Street 1 Ends With 3 Or
Address - Street 1 Ends With 5 Or ...