Tech Forum

Our ward has an assistant executive secretary and the Bishop wants him to have the same access to Leader & Clerk Resources that the first Exec Secretary has. MLS doesn't allow more than one Exec Secretary (but does allow and assistant) and therefor he cannot have this same access on LDS.org. I called HQ and was told no way, that they would have to share info in order to do this. Of course on MLS he does but not on home computer.
Does anyone have this problem or can tell me if there is a solution to this?
Wade Beaudreau, Ward Clerk,
Alta Mesa Ward, Mesa, AZ

belair wrote:Our ward has an assistant executive secretary and the Bishop wants him to have the same access to Leader & Clerk Resources that the first Exec Secretary has. MLS doesn't allow more than one Exec Secretary (but does allow and assistant) and therefor he cannot have this same access on LDS.org. I called HQ and was told no way, that they would have to share info in order to do this. Of course on MLS he does but not on home computer.
Does anyone have this problem or can tell me if there is a solution to this?
Wade Beaudreau, Ward Clerk,
Alta Mesa Ward, Mesa, AZ

There isn't any way to give exactly the same access. Assistant Exec Clerk is not a standard calling at the ward level and it's not a calling mentioned in the handbook. As a result there are no rights associated with that calling. However, you can enter him in MLS as an Assistant Ward Clerk. This will give him almost the same access as the Exec Secretary. The bishop may want to consult the stake president before doing this since Assistant Ward Clerk is a calling extended by the stake.

I don't know if you can have more than one Executive Secretary or if programming logic prohibits this. That might be one approach.

eblood66's suggestion of a different calling might be a good approach. I'm an Assistant Ward Clerk. In my case, the bishop first figured out what he wanted to do and then figured out with the stake which calling would give me the necessary permissions, and that's what I was called to do. The Assistant Ward Clerk calling gives you quite a lot of permissions. There's a link out there somewhere to a list of callings and the granted permissions.

mevans wrote:I don't know if you can have more than one Executive Secretary or if programming logic prohibits this. That might be one approach.

As the original post mentioned, that is not an option. MLS (and probably other systems such as CDOL) enforces the limit of no more than one Executive Secretary per unit.

I'm mildly curious as to what role the Assistant Exec Secretary has. There has to be some division of labor to coordinate things between the two of them. It might be found on examining the role of the assistant that it's more clerical than secretarial.

russellhltn wrote:I'm mildly curious as to what role the Assistant Exec Secretary has. There has to be some division of labor to coordinate things between the two of them. It might be found on examining the role of the assistant that it's more clerical than secretarial.

I don't know about the OP but in our ward the assistant schedules appointments for the bishopric councilors while the executive secretary handles the bishop's schedule and the other normal duties of an Executive Secretary. But since the online tools became available the formal calling we've used for the assistant has been Assistant Ward Clerk. That way he has access to contact information listed as Private-Leadership Only and access to the Action and Interview Report which are the main things he needs.

Same with us. Only in addition to scheduling counselor appointments, he also keeps track of the youth interviews. He will pull out the ones the counselor does and pass the ones I do on to the Executive Secretary.
I will switch him to Assistant Ward Clerk tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion.

My ward (Provo YSA) has two Assistant Executive Secretaries. In a college YSA ward, the bishopric does a lot of interviews (new move-ins, ecclesiastical endorsements, temple recommends, mission papers, worthiness, etc.). The Executive Secretary and Assistant Executive Secretaries take turns being outside the office different nights of the week while the bishop is interviewing.

Our Assistant Executive Secretaries don't have any duties that would require giving them access to the LDS.org leadership tools.