Member
Would it be possible to add a feature where the bishop can check a box on the membership record of members who don't want to be contacted and thus have their membership record be completely hidden from everyone except the bishop? It would be nice to also include a comments field so that subsequent bishops can know why a member doesn't want to be contacted.
For members who don't want to be contacted, we've been adding additional text to their contact information (e.g. john@gmaildonotcontact.com, (123) 456-7890 DNC). However, (1) the Church asks that we not use invalid email addresses because "putting invalid information in the email field creates other challenges in Church operations" and (2) making the aforementioned notations on a member's record creates potential privacy issues.
The Church recommends that the contact information be left blank for members who do not want to be contacted. I don't think that's the best approach as there might be times when we'll want to contact those members (e.g. when natural disasters occur, for emergencies, etc.). Also, in my experience, members who don't want to be contacted are on a spectrum - from "I don't currently want to be contacted, but I might be open to contact in the future" to "I don't ever want to be contacted", and everything in between. So while deleting the contact information for members who do not want to be contacted might be a suitable approach for some, for many others it would be a suboptimal, even perhaps a detrimental approach. Sure, we could record their contact information on a separate document, but that's probably not the best approach as documents can get lost (even electronic ones) or information can get lost in transcribing.
Circling back to my first paragraph above, in this age of social media, I opine the membership record of members who do not want to be contacted be hidden [from everyone except the bishop] and not just their contact information. We had an incident where missionaries sent a friend request to a "do-not-contact" member (whose phone and email address are blank on her membership record) and that made that member very upset.
For members who don't want to be contacted, we've been adding additional text to their contact information (e.g. john@gmaildonotcontact.com, (123) 456-7890 DNC). However, (1) the Church asks that we not use invalid email addresses because "putting invalid information in the email field creates other challenges in Church operations" and (2) making the aforementioned notations on a member's record creates potential privacy issues.
The Church recommends that the contact information be left blank for members who do not want to be contacted. I don't think that's the best approach as there might be times when we'll want to contact those members (e.g. when natural disasters occur, for emergencies, etc.). Also, in my experience, members who don't want to be contacted are on a spectrum - from "I don't currently want to be contacted, but I might be open to contact in the future" to "I don't ever want to be contacted", and everything in between. So while deleting the contact information for members who do not want to be contacted might be a suitable approach for some, for many others it would be a suboptimal, even perhaps a detrimental approach. Sure, we could record their contact information on a separate document, but that's probably not the best approach as documents can get lost (even electronic ones) or information can get lost in transcribing.
Circling back to my first paragraph above, in this age of social media, I opine the membership record of members who do not want to be contacted be hidden [from everyone except the bishop] and not just their contact information. We had an incident where missionaries sent a friend request to a "do-not-contact" member (whose phone and email address are blank on her membership record) and that made that member very upset.
