[Ldsoss] Ward Mapping

[Ed Ashton]

Client side mapping, sounds like a geographical information service (GIS).  
Check out www.esri.com they are the big boys for client side GIS.  However 
$1500 is too steep for most stakes.  The church has an account and I think 
they get it for a discount, still $1250 is too steep for most stakes.  
Manifold, www.manifold.com is a cheaper alternative.  These will allow you 
to do everything you have asked for plus quite a bit more.

However for most of us there are a number of opensource projects out there 
that will fulfill most of our needs.  Qgis, www.qgis.org and Udig 
http://udig.refractions.net/confluence/display/UDIG/Downloads are two of the 
more polished GIS packages.  There are lots more though.

Expect to spend lots of time keeping your data updated.  Our unit used one 
of the previously mentioned software applications to do somthing very 
similiar and the time committment was quite high.  Once you geocode your 
members, you will find that the geocoding can't locate them at exactly the 
right location. So you can download imagery for the area 
(http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/, http://gisdata.blogspot.com/index.html) 
and have the members help you locate them.  You can obtain the parcel plots 
from the county tax assessor office (the same location that zillow obtains 
theirs) and then plot them.  But parcel data though it is public information 
fee associated with it.

Despite the time, the return investment can be very big.  Our stake recently 
went through and mapped out all the members and distributed the lists the to 
elders.  There was at least two baptisms that I am aware of that can be 
directly attributed to the maps, and numerous teaching opportunities.  Many 
times the elders did not even know members lived where they did.  Some units 
have found the maps very beneficial in doing hometeaching and visiting 
teaching assignments for aparent reasons.

It would be ideal to have the church offer somthing like this on their side 
and allow the units to update the location information for the members.  
They could distribute a client, much like MLS or use a WFS-(T) server and 
allow us to modify and download the information.

Ed Ashton

From: "Jesse Stay" <jesse at thestays.org>
Subject: Re: [Ldsoss] Ward mapping application
I would love to have a client-side app that works similar to this, uses 
Google maps or such to generate the map, and then plots more than just 
membership data on the map.  As Ward Mission Leader, I'd like to see names 
of non-members and have the ability, on my own computer (not stored remotely 
anywhere), write notes about each name, creating a mapped area book of 
sorts.  Ability to store pictures of individuals (for members, perhaps 
downloaded from the ward website), notes about visits and individual 
circumstances to pass on to missionaries and other ward leaders, ability to 
color code perceived inactives vs. actives vs. non-members.  Then I'd like 
to take these mapped reports and print them out in various forms.
Right now I am manually doing this with a plot map of our ward boundaries.  
Does anyone know where Zillow gets their plot maps from?

From: "John Harrison" <johnharrison at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Ldsoss] Ward mapping application
The manual process of updating the map using MS paint is too much of a pain. 
  I'll report to the list as I make progress.  It will be aimed at "Utah 
Wards" that cover a small area.

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