By default, the Connections->Roles does not allow the contributor or subscriber roles see the directory. I want subscribers to be able to view the directory so I changed the role. However, no matter what permissions I check on for the subscriber or contributor, they can never see the directory. They just get a "No results" message on the page. I checked to make sure the role change updates were being saved, the the check-boxes are still checked, so I don't know what is going on.
I also tried using the [connections private_override='true'] to see if that made a difference, but it didn't.
If I promote the to user anything above contributor, the directory shows up.