FamilySearch Center Budgets
I have recently been called to be a FamilySearch Center Assistant Director (Stake Temple and Family History Consultant--FamilySearch City State Stake). Our FSC has ben closed down since COVID and we are planning on reopening within the new couple of weeks. A couple of issues have come up and I'm seeking your advice and insight, so that I can better understand how theses things work. To start, we do not have a working phone line in our FSC. The stake has said there is zero budget to provide a phone. Additionally, Facilities has said they have no requirement to provide a phone to the FSC. We originally looked into getting a VOIP phone to ride over the Liahona network, so that consultants could remotely check voicemail, but the stake won't pay for the phone or the $30 monthly charge. So we began looking into getting a Google Voice phone number set up for the FSC.; free if we set up a personal Google Voice number, but a monthly fee if we did a business number...which we feel is more appropriate. The problem there is that there isn't a phone line in the FSC to tie the Google Voice line to, so our only option would be to tie to to a consultant's personal cell phone. This would not be optimal as people's callings change and the number would have to periodically change accordingly. And even if we did tie it to a personal cell, only that person's cell would ring. Ideally the Google Voice phone number would ring to a phone in the FSC. During open hours a consultant would answer it, but during closed hours, it would go to voicemail, which any consultant could check via the tied email account. Which brings up the next hurdle. While trying to set up a Google Voice account, we have to have it associated with an Google account. We tried to experiment with @familyhistorymail.org email address, which we understand to ride on the Google platform, but it says "We are sorry, but you do not have access to Google Voice. Please contact your Organization Administrator for access." So all of this said, how do the other FSC's work their phones? Do your stakes pay for the phones? Does the Family History Department pay for the phones? How is it possible to have community outreach and such without a means for the community to reach us? Since the FSC is part of the Family History Department, what responsibility does the stake have to provide the tools to enable the FSC to function or is there none? Who pays for the Liahona internet used by the FSCs? Would they also pay for phone service? Any ideas or suggestions on where to start and how to get phone service to our library would be greatly appreciated by this newbie.
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@Karim Lazarus I can only answer two of your questions: How do the other FSC's work their phones? Do your stakes pay for the phones? Up until six months ago, we had a regular land line into our FSC. At that point it was switched out at the direction of Family History Department to be in compliance with Church policy to use Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone service. The charges for the previous land line, as well as charges for current VOIP service, were/are deducted from our Stake account by Salt Lake. In essence the Stake is paying the bill out of their allocation, but it's an automatic deduction.
We view, and our Stake agree, that having phone access is vital on a number of levels: 1. Safety of individuals working in the Center, especially at night; 2. Ability to communicate with patrons regarding availability of Center (operating hours), as well as answer questions pertaining to research being conducted from location other than the Center; 3. Ability to communicate with Salt Lake for technical support for computers, printers, etc and software updates and correction of computer operating problems; 4. ability to communicate with Salt Lake FamilySearch department to resolve log in errors by patrons, or to assist in resolving issues that a patron is having within the FamilySearch program. I'm sure there are other considerations that make it important to have telephone access within your Center.
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Karim, if we didn't already have a land line, we wouldn't get one - there really is very little usage. After we reopened, we got more calls from people trying to sell us services, than from patrons. The answering machine frequently has calls from business services. We do get emails from the community, from the email address posted in our wiki page. The problem is that someone has to be in the center to answer the phone. If there were an emergency, anyone in the center would use their personal phone to call 911. I do not know who pays for our phone. In general, operating expenses are the responsibility of the stake and such things as furniture, computers, printers, etc., are from FamilySearch via the FM group. Wiring, switches/routers, etc., are part of operating expenses.
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I'm looking at donating an older cell phone and having stake just pay for a prepaid sim card as a solution
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For what it's worth, all of the other phones in our building (clerk phones for both wards and the stake office) were taken out of the building. However, our stake correctly left the phone on the wall in the FSC operational for exactly the reasons stated above - SAFETY, with a secondary reason for people to be able to call in to determine hours, make special appointments during non-operating hours, etc. My understanding is that a phone (whether wired or someone's personal cell phone) is required in the FSC for safety reasons at minimum. But that's a stake decision as to how it's taken care of. I thought that the FM Group paid for the basic phones, but I don't remember where I believe I saw that in writing at one time - and I could be wrong.
Our phone is an old but very functional Panasonic set of three phones (a base phone wired into the phone company line), with two additional wireless extensions in other parts of the FSC for convenience. That main phone has the capability of providing a recorded message with our hours, and also take messages which we can get when we go into the Center the next time we're open. But that's just our set up, and it's not required that others have that convenience. The only expense would be the single line service to the FSC since we already had the Panasonic multi-phone set in the FSC.
--Chris
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