Membership directory indentation - third-level

[jdlessley]

I may have to defer to your experience. Most of the names in my ward do not have preferred names set because I haven't gotten around to doing it. But some do. The family where I was testing had some of the preferred names set, but not all of them. I know that I didn't set the preferred names. These members are not signed up for LUWS, so they didn't do it themselves. That leaves two potential sources: The preferred names were populated from MLS at some point, or the preferred names were assigned in LUWS in another ward. I don't know how the preferred names were assigned.

Do you know if MLS preferred names are propagated to LUWS?

The only name available to the LUWS is the name on a membership record. All the variations of a name stored locally on a unit MLS (preferred name) is not transmitted to Church headquarters. The only interface between MLS and the LUWS is what is stored on the Church servers.

Your last supposition is the most likely cause.

How names are handled in LUWS v2 may be different.

[Mikerowaved]

That leaves two potential sources: The preferred names were populated from MLS at some point, or the preferred names were assigned in LUWS in another ward. I don't know how the preferred names were assigned.

Do you know if MLS preferred names are propagated to LUWS?

The answer to your last question is no, the preferred names are definitely not propagated from MLS. This is an LUWS feature we've been asking for for quite a while.

To answer your first part, I can offer you another option. Some diligent clerk sat down for several hours each night, for several nights and updated all the LUWS preferred names for each member by hand, based on the preferred name field found in MLS. (BTW, for our ward, that guy was me. )

[aebrown]

Your last supposition is the most likely cause.

Just to make this clear:

As several people have noted, MLS Preferred Names are definitely not propagated to LUWS.

However, once a member or administrator sets a preferred name in LUWS, that name becomes part of the user's profile. That profile is not affected by a change of ward or stake. Thus a new move-in to a ward may arrive with a LUWS preferred name already set (as well as e-mail address -- including whether or not that e-mail address is displayed -- and notification preferences).