Tech Forum

I'm a Ward Exec Sec and Ward Website Administrator.
I help members of the Ward Council and Ward Members set up LDS accounts. I used to be able to do that because I had access to MRN's....but not any more. I understand that the Church, perhaps, does not want me to have access to sensitive or confidential information on a membership record, however I don't see why I couldn't have access to MRN's?...I have access to other sensitive info, such as temple recommend status.
It really makes it more difficult and time consuming trying to work with members setting up their account without MRN's..
Please give me your input
Thx

The rights in LDS Tools is set for ALL holders of a given calling in the church, not on a individual level such as what's done with MLS on the clerk's computer.

Not all wards have their Exec Sec or Ward Admin doing LDS Account things. Perhaps the powers that be thought that it would be clerks helping members set up their LDS Accounts.

kirtkennedy wrote:I have access to other sensitive info, such as temple recommend status.
Thx

Speaking of recommends, for those who have them, their MRN is noted there. Makes it easy to find.

Thanks for your input. I'm sure that most of the time it is the Ward Clerk, or Membership Clerk, that deals with collecting information on "move-ins". It has been my experience that most clerks are most interested in getting the information into MLS and not as much concerned about LDS.org and it's funtionality. It's also true that the Exec Sec set's appts for them and therefore is in a position to "orient" and familiarize these new families to the Ward. I don't see what the downside is of providing MRN's to Exec Sec's or Website Admins?...by the way I do know that the MRN is on the Temple Rec., which helps in many situations.

I would think that one of the main functions of a Website Administrator is to train Bishoprics, Ward Councils, and members how to use the tools found on LDS.org, which requires them to have an LDS Account. Therein is my problem. All I'm asking for is the MRN and not access to the Membership record.
I would appreciate your thougts
Thanks to all

The decision as to what callings have access to the MRN in the tools is not made by the community or the developers, but by the church leadership.

Given the nature of your effort to help people register, I would ask the Bishop for permission to have the Ward Clerk run a special report with MRN and Confirmation date for the members, and print it for your Web Administrator files. Seeing that you are the Exec Sec, you already have received training on confidentiality and such.

Why not just have the members ask the clerk for their IOS, then they have all the information they need to register by themselves. The registration process is not a hard process so they should be able to do it on their own.

Gary_Miller wrote:Why not just have the members ask the clerk for their IOS...

I agree. I suggest working with your ward finance clerk, as that magic time of tithing settlement will soon be upon us again, which is a great opportunity to get IOS's into the hands of members. When I was finance clerk, we would get a letter out to every member which, among other things, contained their IOS and instructions on how to use the information to create an account.

kirtkennedy wrote:Thanks for your input. I'm sure that most of the time it is the Ward Clerk, or Membership Clerk, that deals with collecting information on "move-ins". It has been my experience that most clerks are most interested in getting the information into MLS and not as much concerned about LDS.org and it's funtionality. It's also true that the Exec Sec set's appts for them and therefore is in a position to "orient" and familiarize these new families to the Ward.

I'm going to assume here that you are referring to your particular experience as an ExecSec, and that it may or may not be representative of your stake in whole, but what you describe here is outside of the organizational guidelines provided by the handbook, certainly local adaptation can occur, but you will notice, that, and as indicated, it was Church Leadership that made the call. It seems that it should be instructional to us as well. Maybe what needs to happen is a process change in the ward to accommodate the policies in place (whether they are written or executed through Electronic Automation). Help a clerk to understand his role in helping people acclimate to the ward, which might include scheduling an appointment with the Bishop through the ExecSec. I did my best not to take offense, because it wasn't intended, I'm sure, but that was a bit harsh treatment of a clerk, IMHO.

I hope that you find peace with the reduction in access eventually, I know members of our Stake Presidency are also having to contend with the issue as well. I'm encouraged the church is doing more granular access restrictions, because we are, generally, a church culture which has been way too loose with data about each other.