Comments on: Ward Web Site

By: JP S

JP S — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:40:41 +0000

Hi Joel,

I was looking for your email address so I could email you personally about this but could not find it.

We recently moved to New Zealand. Communication in the ward is poor – no one knows what’s going on and as a new arrival in the ward we have no phone numbers/addresses of any of the members. The ward does not have a website setup through LDS.org. I asked the bishop about it and he said he didn’t think it was available to wards outside the US or Canada. I emailed the “help” contact on lds.org but did not receive an appropriate response to my question.

Are the ward websites available to wards outside the United States? If not, why not??? With more membership outside the US than in, it seems appropriate to try and support these members who don’t live in the US and Canada. I am finding that the wards and stakes here are really lacking compared to wards back home in Utah.

Hopefully you can shed some light on this topic and let me know if the ward website truly is (or is not) available to wards outside the US and if not, why not and when will it be available.

Thank you so much for your time. Please email me back at jamesperrys at gmail dot com.

James S.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:03:41 +0000

I agree with “Nate” there should be an “auto-update” from the unit MLS computer system to the ward website for Leadership information.

The bishopric already seems to auto-update from Salt Lake (or at least the Bishop’s name). There should be a similar feature in place for ward / stake leadership.

This ends up creating duplicate work between the ward clerk and a ward website admin. Or as is usually the case, it just doesn’t get updated except once every 2-5 years (whenever a new bishop /stake president / clerk / admin is called).

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:00:21 +0000

The website picture directory needs to be able to upload a picture greater than 135 x 180.

If the church is supposed to be about families how can you see an entire family of 8-10 people and still distinguish their faces with 135 x 180 pixels?

Higher resolution, or even limiting the picture by filesize would be fine. Even 50Kb per picture would be MUCH better than this artificial size limit

Look at what e-bay does when you upload an auction picture that is too large, it auto-resizes it FOR you to the appropriate size/ width dimensions. The site simply says: “too large” or even worse, displays no message at all?

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:59:57 +0000

I would be happy with a synch between the ward computers and the church website. If someone adds an email address, for example, in MLS system, it doesn’t get updated on the website and vice versa.

There needs to be a way to put in more than one email address per person in MLS (like the website)

By: Mark Schultz

Mark Schultz — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:03:19 +0000

A step by step tutorial on how to export a ward or stake calendar to import into Thunderbird Lightning or other calendars. The help button on the Church site does not cover how to export the calendar. I’m sure it is simple, I just don’t know how, yet.

By: Darren

Darren — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:07:55 +0000

Perhaps someone could create a script that would logon to the LDS.org site and download the most recent version of the calendar and auto update my own Google Calendar?

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:25:04 +0000

– My $.02 –
I. Ward Calendar
Pro:
(1) Calendar export.
Con:
(1) No live updating for calendar (RSS, iCal subscription, etc). Having to download a new calendar as the calendar changes is sub-optimal.
(2) No integration with non-web applications for changing/adding. e.g. no uploading text files for populating calendar, no integration with any other calendaring app. “Walled garden”

II. Membership Directory
Pro:
lots of export options
Con:
(1) no way to update my own information, or add a family picture.
(2) no automatic update of leadership list from ward MLS. (The Elder’s Quorum presidency list from 1+ years ago is still listed as current)
(3) no automatic update of missionary list from ward MLS. (The Elder’s Quorum presidency list from 1+ years ago is still listed as current)

By: Jeff R

Jeff R — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:34:35 +0000

1 of the mods I would love to see added would be lesson schedules for all the different quorums. Not just Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society but a lesson schedule to include Primary, Young Men/Women. This would benefit everyone who uses the ward website. My ward has a lot of people who are not tech savvy and even to the point fear tech but making getting registered and logging in simpler will help ease transition.
Another feature that would be neat is to add RSS feeds from the ward/stake website news.

By: David Phillips

David Phillips — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:39:12 +0000

I was trying to put the ward directory into my Outlook to sync with my PDA and I can only get the first entry to save. How can I get the rest?

By: KeVinci

KeVinci — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:10:53 +0000

Too slow, too complicated, too un-lifestyle-inviting.

First suggestion:
Try putting it on a cell phone or an iPod. Yes, the whole thing. No, it doesn’t have to be an iPhone. Just make it quick, simple, accessible (most of all portable) for the masses. (ie. 3 times as many cell phones as PC’s worldwide, and growing, and just as many iPods, soon)

In fact, take the whole web site, and simplify it so it works on a screen the size of any handheld…and deploy. You’ll find maybe 3-5 features that people really want, really need…(kill the rest) and it will force you to make it easy and accessible – like an iPod interface.

You’ll give 1000 times the immediate access you now have, and you’ll learn how to simplify design features to what really matters.

PS: Why Fort Knox security? If we have to exceed banking standards, we’re getting a little creepy. If we can’t do that, then lets build another site designed for fusing non-members with members, so we can be really effective at what we’re asked to do as members, rather than very very isolated.

Which brings me to my second point..

Second suggestion:
Make the thing friendly to a non-member. Test it with non-members. Can they find our Church, come to our Services, feel invited and welcome. Why not? And ask it again: Why not? This site shines our light in our hidden areas, behind walls…not on a hill for all to see, participate, come unto…unless we reinterpret the scripture to say “come unto Christ [and be frisked]“.

Are we really this closed, protective, insulated? If we are. God help us be better.