Using Free Mapping API's for Meetinghouse Locator

Just curious if there has been any consideration given to using API's such as Google Maps or Virtual Earth for tools such as the meetinghouse locator. I'd love to see a tool that would allow you to browse around a map and see where meetinghouses are available.

Our ward recently organized a massive Priesthood effort to go and find some "lost sheep" on our records. I was put in charge of mapping out directions to each home. I used a basic formula that google uses in their permanent mapping links and mail-merged a document together with links to all of these houses. It would be even better to be able to do this online instantly... or to have a tool built that would do this for us so we could map out locations of members all over the ward! I think the API is a great way to do this! We already have the addresses.

As with the additional improvements to the Unit Web Sites, this could be incorporated into these sites, or at a minimum, added to the administrator options. How great would it be to click a button and see the ward members pin cushioned to a downloadable JPG or PDF. Even have varying sizes. What about overlaying it with the boundary maps available from headquarters with locations of meetinghouseses, members, etc... I could then print to a plotter and have a very nice map available to me anytime, instead of the usually outdated torn or shredded maps currently in many buildings.

I can imagine that there would probably be privacy concerns with having that kind of information so easily available, but if those could be resolved something like this would be VERY useful. I would hope that plotting the locations of our meetinghouses would be a safer place to start.

Great ideas guys. There is a pretty big effort internally to utilize mapping apis with tools such as GIS and Esri plus more public apis such as Google and Yahoo Maps.

Keep watching for some of the new things to role out in some of the new apps that are shipping soon. Sorry, I wish I could give more details.

bh5k -

I'm interested in GIS and maps as a hobby. Is there a large group looking at these map APIs and so forth? Are they working with whatever department handles ecclesiastical boundaries? Is this a growing group, specialized group? Just curious at potential job opps... Any insights you could share would be nice

Visit our jobs page for job listings. I can't comment on specific group sizes & such.

Tom

The Tech Talks got me in the mood for brainstorming...

As I was just skimming the net with Google to see what others have already done or started, I came across an idea by Tim Heuer that has to do with this thread.

Click this link to watch a wmv video of his demonstration.

That was great and it gave me a question: Is there a way to get from LDS.org the ward bounderies?

mkmurray wrote:Click this link to watch a wmv video of his demonstration.

Looks like re-inventing the wheel to me. The existing meetinghouse locaterwill take an address and direct you to THE ward that you live in and give you the to option to see it on a map. While I think it would be really nice to see the ward boundaries, doesn't the existing system fulfill the basic need to locate one's ward?

I don't see the point in providing information on multiple wards in your area as the closest one may not be the one whose boundaries you live in. The way wards are handled doesn't permit "ward shopping" unless you're willing to move. Am I missing something?

The part I was impressed with was when he showed ward boundaries, that would be nice to know especially in areas where there are very few or a lot of members. For plain old missionary work you get a good idea on where your area is (where I served no one really knew the boundaries and the wards overlapped up to a mile).

Though the option of knowing which ward you are in is already available. I was lucky in when we moved the ward had kept their site current so we knew when sacrament meeting was.

RussellHltn wrote:Looks like re-inventing the wheel to me. The existing meetinghouse locaterwill take an address and direct you to THE ward that you live in and give you the to option to see it on a map. While I think it would be really nice to see the ward boundaries, doesn't the existing system fulfill the basic need to locate one's ward?

I don't see the point in providing information on multiple wards in your area as the closest one may not be the one whose boundaries you live in. The way wards are handled doesn't permit "ward shopping" unless you're willing to move. Am I missing something?

It's not about "re-inventing the wheel" but is more about exploring the technology and it's capabilities. Very cool!

Tom

I'm in school right now for GIS. Its pretty impressive the stuff you can do with it. I have been looking into some of the ArcIMS services and abilities and have looked at a number of websites with IMS built in. You can do a lot more than just having a pretty map to look at, it can allow downloading of specific data from the image extent you are looking at currently.

I personally think that having something like this built into the ward and stake websites would make a good addition for reports submitted at year end or quarterly. Like the person said how a picture says a thousand words, a thematic map showing ward attendance levels or baptisms by stake would be pretty cool, and help in the interpretation of the reports.

RussellHltn,

You make a good point about the video being a meetinghouse locator replacement. It would be pointless (and even further, misleading) to show more meetinghouses than the one you are suppossed to attend.

However, I just tried my current address and it showed me like 15 meeting houses. The one I attend was like 5th on the list. It must show all meeting houses located in a zip code when unable to find the street address. My housing is fairly new (within a year) and that is almostly certainly the cause. When it doesn't find your street address (or you only know the zip code you may be moving into), it may be helpful to show a map view with ward boundaries so that you can find your house in a ward boundary, even if the locator cannot. Plus, this meetinghouse locator is not solely used after you have moved into a home. I would assume many who use the locator use it during the home shopping process to get an idea of what ward you would be attending if purchasing a potential home.

I also think you're jumping the gun a little though. This technology is not limited to one and only one use. The ward boundary stuff and perhaps showing locations of members homes could prove useful in the unit websites.

Another part that was in the video that would be nice is the list of the bishop's contact info or e-mail at least so that you can contact your new bishop saying when you'll be moving in. This would help not only the person moving in, but gives a chance for the bishop to get a "welcome committee" (RS President, Elder's, etc) together and help with the moving.

canadianforester wrote:I'm in school right now for GIS. Its pretty impressive the stuff you can do with it. I have been looking into some of the ArcIMS services and abilities and have looked at a number of websites with IMS built in. You can do a lot more than just having a pretty map to look at, it can allow downloading of specific data from the image extent you are looking at currently.

I personally think that having something like this built into the ward and stake websites would make a good addition for reports submitted at year end or quarterly. Like the person said how a picture says a thousand words, a thematic map showing ward attendance levels or baptisms by stake would be pretty cool, and help in the interpretation of the reports.

Cool yes but I am not sure all of the Bishops would appreciate this level of reporting being available to the general stake populace. However, showing a map of ward boundaries would be extremely helpful....

FA

tomw wrote:It's not about "re-inventing the wheel" but is more about exploring the technology and it's capabilities. Very cool!

Yes, it's very impressive. But then there's the proper application of technology.

That said, I'd love to see a way to get a ward's boundaries without having to be a member of the ward. Even if the ward uploaded a JPEG of the area, "outsiders" can't see it as things stand now.

To address another issue brought up by others: There's ways of putting contact information on the main page. I suspect the bishops would like to choose whether or not to publish that information. But it would be a good suggestion to make to the web site admins.

I had a sister contact me this week. She has to move and wanted to know what the ward boundaries are for her ward. If that information were already available on the ward web site, I could have directed her there. Instead, she has to go to the Stake President's offices (when they are open) to see an actual map of her ward produced by Salt Lake City. Seems more efficient to have the maps on the Stake and Ward Web sites available to Stake members after they login.

Phyl wrote:She has to move and wanted to know what the ward boundaries are for her ward.

The meeting house locater does a good first try. But it would be nice to see the map just to verify.

i have doing somthing similar for ours stake, i generated the ward boundaries in arc map based on a written discription, because the ward and stake clerk didnt know how to get any gis data, i created a poster size print map in arc then exported the shp to a KML using a plugin for arc map called kmler. then when they want mapping updates they give me a csv to import to google to geocode the addresses, and then i can use the same plugin to pull the addresses into arc for a reprint.

is there a way to get the shp data that i can have the stake presidency to request it.

I think this idea is great and would be really helpful for people like me who like to travel and still attend church. I don't always know my exact address and it would be nice to see where the nearest building is when planning a trip.

Also I remember when I was in a singles branch we loved to attend the various dances in the region and didn't always know where the building was located. Both the Google and Yahoo Maps API are very nice in that you can get good direction to. Some one could click on a building and say give me direction to here.

Using such mapping technology would be also nice when stakes are discussing new ward boundaries, Stake presidents, and others with authority could see where members live to better determine where to split wards.

Be patient, there's a lot going on, and may issues (such as privacy) but the Meetinghouse locator as it stands has to change and will in the very near future...keep your eyes on it. I dont know if they'll use GoogleMaps, or VirtualEarth or KML or what, but it'll get here, and any public information should be readily available....

I have created a file in Google Earth that may be of interest to you. It's an interactive visual map of nearly 13, 000 of the units of the church in the US, Canada, and a few other areas. To download the file, please visit:

http://ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

All the best,
Mark Cross
Eustis, FL

note4mark wrote:I have created a file in Google Earth that may be of interest to you. It's an interactive visual map of nearly 13, 000 of the units of the church in the US, Canada, and a few other areas. To download the file, please visit:

http://ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

All the best,
Mark Cross
Eustis, FL

OK, I'm impressed. That's quite a list. Thank you, and welcome to the forum, Mark!

it isn't necessarily re-intenting, but providing an alternate, more visual way to see a ward. The meeting house locator is fine, but also doesn't help visualize the boundaries...and the prospective member moving to a new place may find it hard to understand the text of a ward (power rd. east to hawes, north to foo street -- means nothing to me if i'm just moving there).

Again, just an alternate, enhanced user experience.

note4mark, cool stuff!

Mikerowaved and daddy-o,

Thank you very much! And Tim, I think your ideas on the boundaries are fantastic.

Mark Cross

Wow that is awesome Mark, way to go.

As for the boundaries they can be used to find where you need to go to church but they can also be used in a variety of other ways by the members. Our stake recently went through a major reorganization of the wards and by geocoding the members locations and having the boundaries of the wards we could create what if scenarios for new units or splitting units. This saved time and made it possible for the Stake president to "try out" several different versions of the new units before making a decision and taking it to the Lord.

CuriousGIS,

Thank you (love your handle by the way!)

I have added a few representations of ward boundaries to the KMZ file of most of the US and Canada meetinghouses at:

ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

The Queen Creek Arizona Chandler Heights Stake is very rare, in that each of the boundaries of its units are described pretty well on their official web site. So it was pretty straightforward to create polygons in Google Earth (GE) that represented the territory covered by each unit. Those polygons are stored in the "Ward Boundaries" folder for the aforementioned stake. The boundaries can be independently hidden or displayed.

I also added paths that are outlines of each unit's boundaries; by clicking an individual unit's path once in the Tours folder of that stake, and then clicking the "Play Tour" button at the bottom of the "Places" bar in GE, you can make GE walk you along the perimeter of each unit. See the "Tips" page on my site for how to adjust the tour playback speed.

The Yale 2nd Ward in the Salt Lake Bonneville Stake also has a precise definition of its boundaries posted on its web site, so you can see and tour that unit's boundaries too..

Mark

note4mark wrote:
I have added a few representations of ward boundaries to the KMZ file of most of the US and Canada meetinghouses at:

www.ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

The www needs to be taken off of the URL to work...

ldschurchmeetinghouses.googlepages.com

It is really too bad that the brethern do not release this information. As you may know, church HQ has a GIS department that maps out boundaries for all the different units. If your stake president requests maps of your stake the department will send him maps of all the boundaries. However, the brethern have said this information is not to be released, though I do not understand why. I suppose you could use how often the boundaries change to interpolate how fast the church is growing.

CuriousGIS,

"I suppose you could use how often the boundaries change to interpolate how fast the church is growing."

Even if that were true -- I have no clue as to the veracity of that statement -- why would knowing how fast the Church is growing be a sensitive issue? Am I showing my naïveté here, is there some larger issue I should be aware of?

Mark Cross
Eustis FL

note4mark wrote:CuriousGIS,

"I suppose you could use how often the boundaries change to interpolate how fast the church is growing."

Even if that were true -- I have no clue as to the veracity of that statement -- why would knowing how fast the Church is growing be a sensitive issue? Am I showing my naïveté here, is there some larger issue I should be aware of?

Mark Cross
Eustis FL

Just a guess: If a bad guy had a map of the exact ward boundaries, he would know when houses of members would be unguarded. The information could facilitate criminal purposes.

rmrichesjr,

Interesting insight. I just don't think like a criminal I guess! I had never thought of using knowledge of ward boundaries in a criminal way before. I suppose it would be best, from a security point of view, that wards or branches not describe their boundaries on their web sites at lds.org. But small towns with only one ward or branch mightn't want to list their meeting times either then, from a security point of view, since the unit boundaries are the same as the town boundaries, and a criminal could easily guess that. For larger urban or suburban areas, the meeting times could be taken off the units' web sites -- then the boundaries could be listed securely. But that would have its cons, too, wouldn't it...Well, at any rate, you have made an interesting guess.

The perpetrator would also have to know where members lived and if they were active. If they know this information already they probably do not need to know boundaries of the wards, ie if they have done their homework and cased out the location.

I am not sure why they do not release it, where there are many units, ie SLC you could probably perform an allocation analysis to find the probable boundaries of the units. There may be legal aspects of releasing the information that we are not aware of. Or perhaps, since the church is growing so quickly it would place a burden on the GIS department to update it and get new copies out. I am sure there could be several other reasons we have not already guessed at.

However, it is nice to know it is available if your Stake does do some reorganization you can obtain a JPG and georectify it and map out your boundaries fairly quickly. (Last time I checked they could not release the shape files)

CuriousGIS,

"The perpetrator would also have to know where members lived and if they were active."

2 more very good points I hadn't thought of!

CuriousGIS wrote:It is really too bad that the brethern do not release this information. As you may know, church HQ has a GIS department that maps out boundaries for all the different units. If your stake president requests maps of your stake the department will send him maps of all the boundaries. However, the brethern have said this information is not to be released, though I do not understand why. ...

This was news to me. Could anyone point to a source for this? What authority has said boundaries are to be kept secret?

I am surprised they are not publicly disseminated on lds.org, and thought it was just due to intertia or lack of prioritized resources. Open file formats formats for GIS programs (.shp) as well as popular web viewers tools such as Google Earth and Google Maps (.kml, .kmz) are readily available.

I have created a precise GIS map of our own ward boundaries and shared it with our leadership. Some of us were wondering if we could share it with members generally. Would we be violating some policy directive, letter from CHQ, etc?

The church does send us a poster-sized map, and .pdf files of same. (One gripe: The .pdf files we got from the church for all the units in our local area circa 2005 were saved as vector drawings. So a user could zoom inside Adobe Acrobat and see the streets clearly. But the .pdf replacement we got after a recent stake reorg was produced from raster images of the same map. Zooming in just yields fuzzies.)

boomerbubba wrote:...
I have created a precise GIS map of our own ward boundaries and shared it with our leadership. Some of us were wondering if we could share it with members generally. Would we be violating some policy directive, letter from CHQ, etc?
...

I have seen paper maps and legal descriptions of ward/stake boundaries shared with members of the unit(s) involved, particularly during and after a split or boundary change. However, it might be a good idea to wait for a more official statement before distributing the GIS file more widely than to those who have a need to know.

rmrichesjr wrote:I have seen paper maps and legal descriptions of ward/stake boundaries shared with members of the unit(s) involved, particularly during and after a split or boundary change. However, it might be a good idea to wait for a more official statement before distributing the GIS file more widely than to those who have a need to know.

That's what I am asking for -- an official statement.

CuriousGIS mentioned above that CHQ would not release its own GIS file formats of the maps created there. CHQ's practice instead is to send printed maps and .pdf files to local units for the asking. CuriousGIS also implied, without citing an authoritative source, that these maps are not to be released. I am asking if anyone can point to such an authoritative policy, or did CuriousGIS just ask for a .shp file from Salt Lake and was told No.

I also note that there may be different issues, such as copyright and resource demands, involved with publishing the church's own maps. Such issues do not obtain so directly if a ward or individual member creates their own map from scratch in GIS software. (Easily done with the right tools.) That is what I have done for our ward leaders. The effort immediately paid off by indentifying several houselholds on our rolls who were outside our boundaries.

My question of whether the church as a matter of policy forbids members and local members from creating their own renderings of ward maps and sharing them. Is the content considered secret?

To be clear, while I welcome discussion about whether this is desirable, what I really want to know is what is officially prohibited. I never imagined it might be an issue until I read CuriousGIS's posts above.

boomerbubba wrote:That's what I am asking for -- an official statement.

CuriousGIS mentioned above that CHQ would not release its own GIS file formats of the maps created there. CHQ's practice instead is to send printed maps and .pdf files to local units for the asking. CuriousGIS also implied, without citing an authoritative source, that these maps are not to be released. I am asking if anyone can point to such an authoritative policy, or did CuriousGIS just ask for a .shp file from Salt Lake and was told No.

I also note that there may be different issues, such as copyright and resource demands, involved with publishing the church's own maps. Such issues do not obtain so directly if a ward or individual member creates their own map from scratch in GIS software. (Easily done with the right tools.) That is what I have done for our ward leaders. The effort immediately paid off by indentifying several houselholds on our rolls who were outside our boundaries.

My question of whether the church as a matter of policy forbids members and local members from creating their own renderings of ward maps and sharing them. Is the content considered secret?

To be clear, while I welcome discussion about whether this is desirable, what I really want to know is what is officially prohibited. I never imagined it might be an issue until I read CuriousGIS's posts above.

If you need an official answer, you should contact CHQ through your leadership.

Unofficially, no one on this forum has ever made a clear statement that boundaries are public or not, nor has any official letter / policy / statement either way been cited. There is also no generally known method to get a computer-readable set of GIS boundaries, only the maps you mentioned above.

There are many of us that would like to see a public official repository of boundaries in a computer-readable format. Please let us know what you turn up.

Thanks
The Earl

Being able to use GIS to both map out a stakes boundaries and its members is indispensible while doing a reorganization of units/stakes. We recently went through several ward reorganizations and prepared for a stake reorganization. Being able to visually see where members lived in relation to the proposed boundaries helped the decision makers come to a decision they could pray about. Several times the stake presidency met and viewed the changed on a GIS and we were able to change boundaries on the fly and see how that affected the demographics of the proposed units. According to those that have gone through this same process without a GIS said that by using a GIS much of the guesswork was taken out of the process and they could go over more options. Besides using a GIS to map out members and boundaries we also used the GIS to perform density analysis of membership to help justify construction to either expand current building or build new buildings.

When we were finished with our organization instead of sending up maps with the boundaries marked on them we sent shapefiles in the specified coordinate system and appropriate metadata. However when we contacted the church GIS Department (just call church HQ and ask for the GIS dept) they said they could not release the shapefiles as per the brethren's directions. However they could send a picture of the boundaries, but only to the stake president. Nothing official, ie a memo, was passed down just the CHQ GIS dept telling us that the brethren did not allow it as this time. I do not know which "brethren" oversee the GIS dept but it may be worth finding out. It may also be worth calling CHQ and asking for the GIS dept and finding out more specifics.

Also note, from what I understand the church uses the ArcGIS suite of products. If your stake is willing they may be able to purchase ArcView at a slightly reduced price through the CHQ customer profile. Though I am not sure it would be worth it, since even at 10% off ArcView you are looking at over $1,300. It has been suggested we may qualify for a grant from ESRI to get it free but I have not gone down that path. However, there are quite a few free and low cost GIS software packages out there that could be used instead of the ArcGIS suite. Google Earth is also an option that we have used on occasion.

CuriousGIS wrote:When we were finished with our organization instead of sending up maps with the boundaries marked on them we sent shapefiles in the specified coordinate system and appropriate metadata. However when we contacted the church GIS Department (just call church HQ and ask for the GIS dept) they said they could not release the shapefiles as per the brethren's directions. However they could send a picture of the boundaries, but only to the stake president. Nothing official, ie a memo, was passed down just the CHQ GIS dept telling us that the brethren did not allow it as this time. I do not know which "brethren" oversee the GIS dept but it may be worth finding out. It may also be worth calling CHQ and asking for the GIS dept and finding out more specifics.

Thanks for the explanation. It seems obvious that, at least as of this time, the church GIS department will not publish shapefiles. SInce I created my own GIS boundary file -- something anyone can do with the right tools and skills -- I don't need the church IT department to release anything.

My concern is the dark implication that if I share my own precise boundary file with ward members I would somehow be violating ecclesiastical instructions from the "brethren." (So far I have only shared it with ward leadership, all of whom are privy to the .pdf file of ward boundaries sent by the church directly to the ward clerk for the asking.) It had never even occurred to me that this might be a problem until I read your post above.

If the "brethren" make such blanket declarations, they typically do so in the Handbook, a letter, or something else definitive and in writing-- none of which seems to exists. So in the absence of such policy directives, I will just follow instructions from my local priesthood leaders.

boomerbubba wrote:... the church GIS department will not publish shapefiles. SInce I created my own GIS boundary file -- something anyone can do with the right tools and skills -- ...

My concern is the dark implication that ... I would somehow be violating ecclesiastical instructions ...

I do not recall any such instructions. I would imagine that it might be more along the lines that the software license the Church uses does not allow them to do more than send out the overall maps, printed or otherwise, as they do now.

lajackson wrote:II would imagine that it might be more along the lines that the software license the Church uses does not allow them to do more than send out the overall maps, printed or otherwise, as they do now.

I doubt that. Licensiing terms of GIS sofware such as ArcGIS typically place no restriction on boundary files, etc., created by the licensee-user (in this case the church GIS department.) I am confident these files would be the work product of the church, which could do anything it chose with them -- publish them, copyright them, license them. or whatever. At this point, for whatever reason, the church has chosen to retain that work product at CHQ.

(That is not the same thing as declaring that the content is secret, either as a matter of law or priesthood policy. In fact, the content is distributed in several forms -- written descriptions, printed maps, .pdf files, etc. I used such sources to create my own GIS boundary file, and anyone else with the right tools can do the same. It gets easier all the time.)

Redistributing the GIS layers for roads, creeks, etc. that may have shipped along with the software and have been used to help create the overall maps could be restricted by the vendor. But that is not what CuriousGIS is referring to. He is talking about the ward/stake boundaries themselves.

CuriousGIS wrote:... when we contacted the church GIS Department (just call church HQ and ask for the GIS dept) they said ... they could send a picture of the boundaries, but only to the stake president. Nothing official, ie a memo, was passed down just the CHQ GIS dept telling us that the brethren did not allow it as this time.

Two years ago I contacted a department at CHQ described as the "Maps and Boundaries Department"; I assume this is the same group referred to above. I indicated that we wanted a map of the stake to include in our stake directory. I had identified myself only as an assistant stake clerk. They e-mailed me a PDF of the stake map, and expressed no objection to the stated purpose of publishing it in a stake directory.

We have continued to include the map (complete with stake and ward boundaries) in our stake directory. The directory includes the required admonition that the information be used only for Church purposes. Personally I see nothing wrong with including the map, and whoever sent the map to me didn't treat it in the highly restricted way described above.

We live in a rather compact stake in Utah, and I'd bet that dozens of stake members know fairly accurately what the ward and stake boundaries are. It's just not that big of a secret, and I don't understand why anyone thinks it should be treated as such. In the absence of any Church directive on the topic, I will continue to follow the direction of my stake president, who encourages the inclusion of the map as a helpful resource for stake members.

boomerbubba wrote:Redistributing the GIS layers for roads, creeks, etc. that may have shipped along with the software and have been used to help create the overall maps could be restricted by the vendor. But that is not what CuriousGIS is referring to. He is talking about the ward/stake boundaries themselves.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the person(s) he was talking to didn't understand that distinction.

On another track, could the GIS information also contain some confidential information that is restricted? If the file is anything like Microsoft Office, if you're not careful, it's possible to use "undo" and version to discover information that wasn't intended to be disseminated.

I've also obtained maps and seen them posted in clerks offices. At this point it seems safe to believe that the issue is with the GIS file itself, not the boundaries.

See the new [thread=1489]New Meetinghouse Locator on LDS.org - Beta Release[/thread] thread - cool new tool!

kgthunder wrote:See the new [thread=1489]New Meetinghouse Locator on LDS.org - Beta Release[/thread] thread - cool new tool!

Having browsed the beta release of this application, I am impressed. It is an excellent tool for a specific purpose: enabling members, investigators, travelers and other visitors to find a meetinghouse. It also will show the right assigned ward (both ordinary and dedicated wards for singles and languages) for a given address.

I note that several commenters have remarked that site omits display of ward boundaries. If I were the user, I would want see them for more generalized uses. But I understand that perhaps those uses would be best served in the LUWS pages: I know my own ward. I would like to see a map showing its boundaries, its meetinghouse, and its members. Basically, display my ward family on a map.

Putting that functionality in LUWS would have the merit of restricting is use to authorized members, with the warning that it is for church use only like the membership directory. I think this should satisfy vague concerns about publishing ward boundaries. The LUWS could not only display the boundaries, but allow download of a files in KML and/or other standard map formats.

The technology is so accessible now that some rank-and-file members are going to produce their own map files anyway, with varying levels of quality. (Just search threads here to see the variety of such homegrown examples.) If church authorities don't want this to occur, they should state this as a formal policy. Otherwise, the optimal place to disseminate accurate files is on the church site.

boomerbubba wrote:I note that several commenters have remarked that site omits display of ward boundaries. If I were the user, I would want see them for more generalized uses. But I understand that perhaps those uses would be best served in the LUWS pages: I know my own ward. I would like to see a map showing its boundaries, its meetinghouse, and its members. Basically, display my ward family on a map.

Putting that functionality in LUWS would have the merit of restricting is use to authorized members, with the warning that it is for church use only like the membership directory. I think this should satisfy vague concerns about publishing ward boundaries. The LUWS could not only display the boundaries, but allow download of a files in KML and/or other standard map formats.

This goes back to our other discussion where I believe this is what the Church could already be doing as we speak.

as a stake assist. clerk I can see all of the unit boundaries (not just my stake) and all households in my stake