Tech Forum

Last Sunday (8/30/13) we received the attached notice from MLS SUPPORT. It basically states that eventually 'Clerk Resources' in LDS.org will be the primary resource for clerks to perform their duties, including finance. It sounds to me like the long term goal is to phase out MLS and transition to LDS.org? I welcome this news as it will allow me to spend less time in the Clerk's office and more time home with my family. Any thoughts?

It seems like it's been a couple of years since I first heard (or read somewhere on these forums) that MLS would eventually be replaced by online tools. Of course, for some of us it's seemed like a very slow transition already (especially to those who keep calling for Home Teaching data to be completely available online).

I'd heard that all of membership would move online, but hadn't heard that finance would. If everything moves online, I wonder what will happen to church units in locations where a computer might be available, but an internet connection is not?

I know many areas of the world continue to get better connections, but I imagine there are places the church reaches that the Internet does not (or does not reach cost effectively).

mevans wrote:I imagine there are places the church reaches that the Internet does not (or does not reach cost effectively).

I once heard that only a very small number of buildings in the world did not have Internet access. I believe it was in a public setting (an LDS Tech monthly broadcast?), but I will not repeat it here just in case.

And I mean the number was so small I tweaked our FM Group about it the last time I referenced the one building in our stake that was not yet wired.

Is there any more information on the possibility of getting MLS functionality at home? I could think of a number of things that could be done more efficiently if this was possible. Could you imagine logging in, seeing the families you home teach and then checking off the ones you visited for that month?

That would be wonderful and, yes, I'm an Elders Quorum President.

No, there is no more information. Even if there was a timetable, I'm sure it would slip.

But for planning purposes, I'd suspect you'll be released before that function comes to the web.

There is a tentative timeline for improved clerk resources to come out this year. I tried looking for the post, but gave up. That's going to help clerks, but it won't help you as EQ pres. HT/VT wasn't on the list.

mevans wrote:There is a tentative timeline for improved clerk resources to come out this year. I tried looking for the post, but gave up. That's going to help clerks, but it won't help you as EQ pres. HT/VT wasn't on the list.

The timeline is here.

As with all things related to this tool... we're well behind the timeline schedule. The May date for Temple Recommends was done (which BTW, already existed online, just not incorporated into the tool) - But there was a June date for 1st Presidency letters, and an August date for adding Callings.

They might be behind, but the timeline mentioned the dates were for release to the beta environment. Are you in the beta test? It sounds like they won't be released to the general church membership until localization is complete.

When I've worked on localized products, we usually did support for a few languages with the initial release and the other languages might take another 2-6 months...and we were only doing 15-20 languages. I don't know how many languages the church supports on the web site tools.