Managing Your Directory
Adding a New Family
To add a new family, click the New Family button that appears either on the Dashboard, or on the Directory list page. Once you are on the family page, enter the name of the family, such as "John & Jane Smith" for a couple, or "John Smith" for an individual. In the next field, enter the names of any children, separated by commas.
Next, enter a home phone number, and home address for the family. Once you are done with this, you should see that a table of all the family members you entered has appeared at the bottom of the screen.
Using the table at the bottom, fill in any email addresses, cell phone numbers, and birthdays you want to have listed in the directory. If you want to include a birthday without revealing someone's age, just enter month/day. If someone in the family has a different last name, correct it in the Last Name column. If you realize you made a mistake when you first entered the family members, correct it using the add and remove buttons, the same way that you would if you were on the family edit page.
If you have a picture of the family, select it using the 'Browse...' or 'Choose File' button underneath the camera placeholder. The picture will not show up until you click the Save button when you are done making your changes.
When you are done, click Save. You will see a message that the family was saved correctly, and be taken back to the New Family page. This is so that you can quickly add several people in a row. If you are done, you can go back to the Dashboard or the Directory list page.
Updating a Family
To update a family, go to their family page, and click Edit Family. You will be taken to an edit screen where you can modify any of their data, upload a new picture, and add or remove family members.
To add a family member, click either 'Add Spouse' or 'Add Child'. These buttons will appear underneath the family members table. To remove a family member, click the 'X' button next to their line in the table. None of these changes will take effect until you click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
Removing a Family
To remove a family, simply navigate to that family's page, and click Delete Family on the right-hand side of the page. Once you confirm, this family will be removed from the directory immediately.
Note that removing a family does not revoke directory access to any of the members of that family. See the section on revoking member access for more information.
Viewing Directory Statistics
If you would like to get an idea of how well your directory is being used, go to the Statistics page under Settings. This will show you some basic information about:
- How many members you have
- How many of your members are using your online directory
- How complete their contact information is
- How many families have photos
We hope this information will encourage you to promote your online directory with your members, and to use it more effectively.
<{:id=>"faq"}>Frequently Asked Questions
- What should I do with roommates?
- What should I do with a family where the children are church members but the parents are not?
- If a child is not living at home, should they have their own family record?
- What should I do if someone has multiple addresses?
- How can I enter international addresses?
- How do I remove a photo?
What should I do with roommates?
If you have adults living together who are not married, we would recommend creating separate family records for each of them, using the same address and home phone. It is not possible to create a family with more than two adults, or with no adults and all children.
What should I do with a family where the children are church members but the parents are not?
If you prefer not to include the parents in your directory, and you do not want to put the children in separate entries, you could change the first person in the family to have a name like "The Smiths" or "The Smith Family". This is admittedly a workaround, but it has worked well so far, and we have not encountered this situation very frequently.
If a child is not living at home, should they have their own family record?
This is really up to you. It often depends on whether the picture you have has them with the family, or separate. It also depends on whether you have the child's address and want to include it in the directory. This situation typically occurs when a child is away at college. If the child has gotten married, they should definitely be removed from their parent's record.
What should I do if someone has multiple addresses?
There are a variety of reasons why you may want to include multiple addresses for someone in your church. Perhaps they get their mail at a P.O. Box. Or perhaps they live one place during the summer, and another place during the school year. Whatever the reason, the way to handle this is to enter both addresses in the address field, one after the other. Ideally, the first address listed should be the primary address, as it will be the one to show up on the map.
How can I enter international addresses?
Because we store addresses in a text area, you can format the address however you would on a piece of mail. In most cases it will even show up on the map, if you zoom all the way out.
How do I remove a photo?
If you made a mistake and want to remove a family photo, go to that family and click Edit Family. Underneath the photo on the edit page, you will find a check box that says 'Delete Photo'. Check this box and then click Save. The photo should now be removed.