So how do you see this working out? When would age be displayed? Would a person have a check box that says "show age" or something like that? That way their birthday could still be shown but the age/birth year display is optional?

There was a previous discussion about the display of age information on the public calendar, but haven't had anyone concerned with it while logged into the app. What do others think?

Not sure on this. Obviously, if someone has rights to edit people's records they can see EVERYTHING, including DOB so the only way to protect that is to not enter a year. So I guess I see two options if this is enough of a concern to modify the program: 1) Anyone who CAN edit people records sees the dates, anyone else cannot not. Perhaps then if group leaders can edit people in their group they still have important age information for the people they lead but not the rest of the church. 2) Other option is to have a check box next to the "birthday" field in the people record that gives the option "do not show year in calendar" and maybe even a "keep birthday as a private event" option. I do not care for this option as much... I think there is too much to mess with and keep track of. I think #1 is better for the way stafftool works and it should fit MOST people's needs? If they are really that picky, don't enter a year to begin with I guess.

Toby, I would suggest that non-administrators can't access age information. It really is amazing how sensitive some people are about their age, especially as they move into the last half of their life. I'm also a little concerned about the calendar getting overloaded with information. In the past I've managed systems with 2,000+, that's 200 birthdays a month.

 

One minor response to Michael  :-) .  I would hate to give up age information. This is pretty important for leaders to know, but I know older women would prefer their age not to be displayed anywhere.

Sam, I appreciate the stuff you post, thanks! Since most of our church is under age 45 the issues you share have not been things on my plate. I guess one perspective I am looking at is say children's or teen ministries. I think the leaders NEED to see the ages there but I would not want them all to be admins.

Hey guys, thanks for the further information. Like Mike said, my church is very young so not as much concern on the ages. Maybe Mike is right in that only people who can edit a person can see their age and everyone else just gets the month and day...

Sam, I've also been wondering about the display of birthdays in the calendar...the more people the more overwhelming it could get. Would it be better to have some sort of church-wide option to display birthdays on the main calendar? And if they were turned off, what would be a way of making that information available. Something like the upcoming birthdays smart group would help or something along those lines, or perhaps when the automated event reminder messages and emails get in place they could notify you of them. Or, perhaps a way of getting to a birthdays calendar or something like that...I wonder...

Reminder: whatever you do with birthdays may also need to be done with anniversaries.

Let me make a try at your questions, Toby.

1. I think I would prefer the ability to turn birthdays off. I would call this a Global Setting in Church Setup.

2. Leaders need to be able to see birthdays of the groups they lead, even when they are "turned off" of the calendar: either a calendar or a report or a smart group. I would pefer it be on my calendar when I log in. Perhaps put a Tab on the list of messages for birthdays.

3. You could also let people create a list of "Friends" which allows their information be seen to a group they select. btw, anything which encourages people to log on will make the system better, since a goal should be to keep their information current. These are just some quick thoughts. I hope they help someone think of a better idea. I really appreciate the approach your taking, Toby.

Having some way to turn birthdays off for the calendar display would help me. Our staff doesn't think of birthdays as being in quite the same "events" category as committee meetings and choir rehearsal. And there are A LOT of birthdays. They can quickly overwhelm the other events on the calendar