Support for Dependent Group with different language & different location

We have several situations where member Groups (affiliated with a Ward or Branch) meet in different cities and with different languages than the parent unit (such as Portuguese for Brazilian immigrants or Tagalog for Filipino immigrants). How do we go about getting these listed in LDS Maps and Meetinghouse Locator? In other locations the language unit meets at the same location but at a different time and it would be helpful to show the separate meeting time and language.

Sr. Missionary in Tokyo North Mission --

I'm not seeing any groups listed in CDOL or in Maps. So, I don't think that's supported. I'm not sure why since the Handbook lists groups as being for members who can't gather in a ward or branch.

russellhltn wrote:I'm not seeing any groups listed in CDOL or in Maps. So, I don't think that's supported. I'm not sure why since the Handbook lists groups as being for members who can't gather in a ward or branch.

The Handbook also explicitly states that groups do not have a unit number. See the second paragraph of Handbook 1, 9.1.4.

I also notice that approval for a group seems to be made by the Area President whereas a ward or branch has to go all the way to the First Presidency. As a result, I'm not sure as CHQ is even aware of the groups created.

Still, it would seem beneficial to have groups be listed in Maps to help them (and members in similar situations) grow. But that's going to take a pretty significant policy change in how groups are handled.

All I can suggest at this point is to have the stake president and/or mission president talk to their presiding authority about the need.

There was a thread about this a while back...I forget in which forum, although I think scgallafent was probably involved in that discussion. Perhaps they haven't come up with a good solution for it yet. rusellhltn gives good advice on the stake president discussing it with his presiding authority.

mevans wrote:There was a thread about this a while back...I forget in which forum, although I think scgallafent was probably involved in that discussion. Perhaps they haven't come up with a good solution for it yet. rusellhltn gives good advice on the stake president discussing it with his presiding authority.

scgallafent and I did a little research back then and currently the key in maps to tie all the data together is the unit number. Since groups can't have a unit number there would be a fair bit of effort needed to make maps work with groups. So as suggested going up the priesthood chain is the best option.

It might be helpful for a single unit number to support multiple languages, times, and/or locations although I can understand that multiple locations might be difficult. At the same time I would think that Dependent Groups are a common situation in the International Church.

ddbrown wrote:It might be helpful for a single unit number to support multiple languages, times,

I don't think the church follows Google's "20%" rule. The problem isn't convincing the developers, but the First Presidency/Presiding Bishopric.

I agree this seems like something that's really needed, especially in sparse areas.