Meetinghouse locator map lookup seriously broken.

I have run into this problem several times and it create a serious problem when trying to direct someone to their correct ward.

The address look up makes assumptions and changes the address to what it thinks might be correct.

For example, try to look up the ward for 90 S 400 E, Provo, Utah 84606. The Meetinghouse Locator changes the address to 90 N 400 N, which is in a completely different ward.

Google Maps and USPS Zip Code Lookup both correctly recognize 90 S 400 E.

rpyne wrote:The Meetinghouse Locator changes the address to 90 N 400 N, which is in a completely different ward.

Some address errors may be due to new streets, etc that are not in the map system maps.lds.org uses. However, your error is worse - that address is impossible. Have you sent feedback to the developers?

crislapi wrote:Some address errors may be due to new streets, etc that are not in the map system maps.lds.org uses. However, your error is worse - that address is impossible. Have you sent feedback to the developers?

I think he meant 90 N 400 E, which is a possible address, and is what I get when I enter 90 S 400 E. But it's still wrong.

aebrown wrote:I think he meant 90 N 400 E, which is a possible address, and is what I get when I enter 90 S 400 E. But it's still wrong.

Yes, that is what I meant.

It is not due to new streets in the map system, These streets have existed for well over 100 years (my ward which is only a few blocks south celebrated our sesquicentennial 10 years ago).

I've run into this as well. On one occasion, I entered a "properly" formatted Utah residential address (including ZIP) and it took me to an entirely different STATE. I forget which one, but I remember it was somewhere on the East Coast. It took me several tries to purposely mangle the address so it would finally be recognized by the Meetinghouse Locator for what it was. Most addresses I enter are fine, but once in a while it really gets confused.

Is there indeed a problem with the Meetinghouse locator program in LDS.org?

I ask this question because one of our unit's clerks had problems giving a member the correct unit that they would be moving into. The clerk in question used the meetinghouse locator map to find the proper unit for an address in Richfield, Utah. The new address was used but the wrong unit was identified. I tried on my own computer and ended up with the same results - address not matching the unit correctly. I then tried an old address that I lived at in Oregon and while locating the correct street on the map it put me in a unit that was miles away. However, when using the locator feature for my current address in Colorado it correctly identified my home ward. So somewhere along the line there seems to be a disconnect between what the mapping feature thinks is the correct meetinghouse and what the actual correct meetinghouse should be.

Is this something that the progammers are looking into or just one of the issues that we will have to live with?

That seems to be a two-part question. First, where does the map think the new address is physically located? No geocoder is perfect. If it places it wrong, it's going to point you to the wrong ward.

Second, is the boundaries for the unit in question accurate?

I doubt if there's a widespread issue, but I'll bet there will always be issues somewhere in the world between the geocoder and a boundary error.

FFRsqpilot wrote:The clerk in question used the meetinghouse locator map to find the proper unit for an address in Richfield, Utah. The new address was used but the wrong unit was identified. I tried on my own computer and ended up with the same results - address not matching the unit correctly. I then tried an old address that I lived at in Oregon and while locating the correct street on the map it put me in a unit that was miles away. However, when using the locator feature for my current address in Colorado it correctly identified my home ward.

Reiterating what has already been said, it comes down to 1) either the program not recognizing the address, so it is just going off the city and/or zip or 2) There is confusion somewhere on what the boundaries really are. Can you actually see the street/intersection on the map? If you can see ward boundaries, is the address inside the correct boundaries but the system is telling you it is another?

I would suggest using lds.org feedback. Set "Regarding" to maps and meetinghouses. For the message, give them the specific example(s) you tried so that they can duplicate the problem on their end.

We recently moved a less-active family to an adjacent ward who had been at the edge of our ward for some time. They showed on the LDS Map function right on the edge our ward boundary. They showed in the same location on Google Maps and Bing Maps. There were some distance away so I had not taken time to drive out to their home to verify their location.

In discussion with the HPGL, I learned that when you actually go to their home, the road turns south into the adjacent ward and that is where their home is. I moved their pin, then transferred their record and sent a note to the other ward clerk warning him that LDS Maps may again incorrectly show them in our ward. A later check revealed that LDS Maps again incorrectly shows them in our ward boundary.

The lesson? Systems are not perfect and sometimes they make errors. It's still much, much better than what we had before!

davesudweeks wrote:I moved their pin, then transferred their record and sent a note to the other ward clerk warning him that LDS Maps may again incorrectly show them in our ward. A later check revealed that LDS Maps again incorrectly shows them in our ward boundary.

There was no reason to move their pin just before transferring the record, since pin locations get reset when a record is moved. What this shows us is that the other ward clerk has not moved the pin to match the actual location. He really needs to do now what you did just before you transferred the record out.

aebrown wrote:There was no reason to move their pin just before transferring the record, since pin locations get reset when a record is moved. What this shows us is that the other ward clerk has not moved the pin to match the actual location. He really needs to do now what you did just before you transferred the record out.

You are correct, and I knew I did not need to move the pin before transferring the record. I took that extra step just to see what would happen to it as a result of the transfer (I used the Boundary Change option rather then the Move Out option since LDS Maps already had them incorrectly in our ward). I hoped they would stay in the "Verified" location but, alas, the system re-set them to the wrong location on the map.

crislapi wrote:Reiterating what has already been said, it comes down to 1) either the program not recognizing the address, so it is just going off the city and/or zip or 2) There is confusion somewhere on what the boundaries really are. Can you actually see the street/intersection on the map? If you can see ward boundaries, is the address inside the correct boundaries but the system is telling you it is another?

I will use the actual data I was given by the ward clerk who moved the family. Their new address is 340W 200S, Richfield, Utah. When that address is put into the locator function the response is "No exact match found". By going down the options you can select "View a related area" with Richfield being one of the choices. This brings up the map which shows the "family icon" as located somewhere around Main Street and 250 North which puts the family in Richfield 7th Ward. However, by moving the "family icon" to 340W 200S it gives the unit the family belongs to as Richfield 4th Ward (which is the ward the family now resides in). So back to my original question - is this something we have to live with or is there something askew with the program? I would think inputting an exact N/S/E/W street address in Utah would give a specific location but apparently that is not the case.

FFRsqpilot wrote:Their new address is 340W 200S, Richfield, Utah.

For kicks and grins, try "340 W 200 S" as that is what the USPS tool comes back with as the standardized address.

RussellHltn wrote:For kicks and grins, try "340 W 200 S" as that is what the USPS tool comes back with as the standardized address.

Didn't work. maps.google.com finds it but maps.lds.org does not.

FFRsqpilot wrote:So back to my original question - is this something we have to live with or is there something askew with the program? I would think inputting an exact N/S/E/W street address in Utah would give a specific location but apparently that is not the case.

As you can tell from the other replies, by and large this system works just fine for the majority of cases. You have found an instance where it appears to not be working. I guess you have to live with it until you are willing to report it using the feedback link I provided earlier. We can verify that it doesn't work for us either, but we have no power to do anything about it.

RussellHltn wrote:For kicks and grins, try "340 W 200 S" as that is what the USPS tool comes back with as the standardized address.

What's even more ironic is that if you search for the address of the meetinghouse (159 N 400 W), formatted exactly as it is displayed by the LDS Maps system, it can't be found either.

So it's not just a matter of formatting. There's something odd about the way LDS Maps treats Richfield's addresses. I can enter addresses formatted the exact same way in my neighborhood in a different Utah city, and they work just fine.