Uber/Lyft for missionaries

We are trying to arrange a system whereby carless missionaries can get a ride from available members.

Anyone want to get on board with us?

I'd have a talk with the Mission President first. There's a risk the idea will be doomed before the first line of code.

It came about in a meeting with a high counselor.

The stake has no say over the missionaries. That's up to the Mission President. If he's not on board, he may not allow the missionaries in his area to use the app. That's assuming he has the ability to allow your app to be loaded on the church-controlled devices.

It’s a good point.

How difficult do you think the app would be to produce, assuming we got green lit?

Is your thought that it would be similar to a dinner calendar, where members could sign up for certain times?

alexgreenfield wrote:How difficult do you think the app would be to produce, assuming we got green lit?

I don't have a feel for that. I'm sure it's not trivial. My quick answer would be to suggest that if you don't know, you're already over your head.

I'd also suggest a survey among the members of how many would be willing to provide the service and when it would be available. On average, you'd be talking about one ward supporting one pair of missionaries. I'm not sure as there would be enough willing to drivers to handle more than a few trips per week. Even then, it might require advance notice. I don't see this as working as well a Uber or Lyft. It's going to be more like missionary meals.

You're also going to have to consider security. You're not going to get access to people's LDS Account login to authenticate them. (The Church's security department would shut you down.) So, how do you know who is "valid" (both drivers and missionaries) and how to match them up? You don't want missionaries getting picked up by some anti's. Nor do you want members to be giving rides to unknown non-members.

I'd also ask who is going to be developing this. A lot of people say a lot of great things about "open source" development, but the odd thing is that almost all of them are willing beta testers. I'd ignore any claims by those who are not willing coders.

I'd sit down and do some serious planning to make sure this would work.

Some of those issues could be resolved by having an assigned ward leader add access for the missionaries and/or willing members, instead of allowing anyone to access the page.

sbradshaw wrote:Some of those issues could be resolved by having an assigned ward leader add access for the missionaries and/or willing members, instead of allowing anyone to access the page.

That's workable - as long as the leader followed some kind of process to verify people who emailed him. (I'm not so worried about in-person requests.)

Ok...so, anyone know someone who can build it? Easier said, I’m sure.