The List of Officers Sustained (Ward or Branch in Stake) autofills the name of the stake presidency. Unfortunately, we always get the name of the presidency of the stake from which we were divided over a year ago.
We thought as we held conferences in each of the wards and branches last year, and changed the names of the stake presidency each time, that this matter would resolve itself. It has not. The presidency of the former stake still appears each time a new List is called up.
This leads me to believe that there is a data point somewhere in the program that is not updated when a stake presidency changes. This is happening in every ward and branch in the stake.
Any suggestions for correcting this?
Fortunately, the clerk knows the names of the presidency and, in a pinch, so does the counselor who reads the List, especially when it has been printed relatively closely to the beginning time of the meeting. [grin]
List of Officers Sustained Autofill
-
lajackson
- Community Moderators
- Posts: 11472
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
- Location: US
-
russellhltn
- Community Administrator
- Posts: 34485
- Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
- Location: U.S.
lajackson wrote:The List of Officers Sustained (Ward or Branch in Stake) autofills the name of the stake presidency. Unfortunately, we always get the name of the presidency of the stake from which we were divided over a year ago.
Has the Stake unit number/Name in System Options > Unit been updated in each of the wards?
It seems likely that MLS does indeed update the stake presidency, otherwise we'd have a rash of complaints from stakes who have changed their presidency. So I suspect that instead of a failure to update, there must be a "pointer" to the old stake. That seems like a likely place to look.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
-
lajackson
- Community Moderators
- Posts: 11472
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
- Location: US
RussellHltn wrote:Has the Stake unit number/Name in System Options > Unit been updated in each of the wards?
Yes, that was the first thing we did at every unit. But it happened after the new stake was created, and I wonder if the presidency change "trigger" to the units was missed because of that?
On the other hand, the NEW stake presidency from the old stake is the one that is showing in all of our units, so I still suspect something deeper in the database.
-
russellhltn
- Community Administrator
- Posts: 34485
- Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
- Location: U.S.
lajackson wrote:On the other hand, the NEW stake presidency from the old stake is the one that is showing in all of our units, so I still suspect something deeper in the database.
That confirms my "old pointer" theory. I'd give Local Unit Support a call and see if they can figure it out.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
-
lajackson
- Community Moderators
- Posts: 11472
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
- Location: US
Local Unit Support has responded. Their answer is that the problem cannot be fixed at the local level because of a known bug in MLS. The bug is very low on the priority list for the developers, because (among other things) they feel the problem only comes around once every year. Well, that's true for a ward or branch, but it comes around every month for the stake clerk in a large stake.
Here are the technical details, according to LUS.
At the ward level, the stake presidency fields do not populate from the database. When the form is changed and printed, the names entered in the stake presidency fields are supposed to be saved and appear when the form is called up again. There is a known bug where in some instances the form does not save, and the old information remains.
When this bug is present, it almost always occurs and the form will almost never save. After changing and then previewing or printing the names of the presidency over and over, on rare occasions MLS might, but is unlikely to, save the changes.
It seems our stake is special. In our stake, "some instances" of this bug means 100%, i.e., 9 out of 9 units. In our stake so far, one unit last year successfully changed the names of the presidency and the change saved in MLS, but the names were not spelled correctly and the unit has not been able to get a correction to save since they made the error.
So why, you ask, are names of the new stake presidency from the former stake included on our lists, instead of blanks that never saved? LUS explained that when a unit is assigned to a new stake, headquarters sends a one-time file to populate certain areas of MLS, such as quarterly report information and, yes, the stake presidency for the List of Officers Sustained.
In our very special stake, we were blessed to receive the names of the new stake presidency from the former stake from which we were divided. Why headquarters erred in sending the wrong information is not known, but this does explain some other problems we had with bad information on reports that we were able to fix shortly after our new stake was created.
We did not know at the time that erroneous data had actually been pushed to our units. We figured that the information was merely a carryover from the previous stake. Since we were able to change and update most of it in MLS, there was no real issue other than the inconvenience factor.
I had this discussion with LUS because they asked me to call. I e-mailed MLS Support, and in their response they said they could not duplicate the problem. They called up the stake data and the Officers Sustained lists correctly populated. So it appears that stake MLS does populate the stake presidency fields from the MLS database.
That makes sense, of course, but does not help with the ward and branch lists.
Bottom line: A known save bug in MLS that only occurs "in some instances" does not allow the local unit to solve the problem. The nine units in our stake will have to enter the names of the stake presidency every time they wish to print the list, not just one time after a change occurs every ten years or so.
Here are the technical details, according to LUS.
At the ward level, the stake presidency fields do not populate from the database. When the form is changed and printed, the names entered in the stake presidency fields are supposed to be saved and appear when the form is called up again. There is a known bug where in some instances the form does not save, and the old information remains.
When this bug is present, it almost always occurs and the form will almost never save. After changing and then previewing or printing the names of the presidency over and over, on rare occasions MLS might, but is unlikely to, save the changes.
It seems our stake is special. In our stake, "some instances" of this bug means 100%, i.e., 9 out of 9 units. In our stake so far, one unit last year successfully changed the names of the presidency and the change saved in MLS, but the names were not spelled correctly and the unit has not been able to get a correction to save since they made the error.
So why, you ask, are names of the new stake presidency from the former stake included on our lists, instead of blanks that never saved? LUS explained that when a unit is assigned to a new stake, headquarters sends a one-time file to populate certain areas of MLS, such as quarterly report information and, yes, the stake presidency for the List of Officers Sustained.
In our very special stake, we were blessed to receive the names of the new stake presidency from the former stake from which we were divided. Why headquarters erred in sending the wrong information is not known, but this does explain some other problems we had with bad information on reports that we were able to fix shortly after our new stake was created.
We did not know at the time that erroneous data had actually been pushed to our units. We figured that the information was merely a carryover from the previous stake. Since we were able to change and update most of it in MLS, there was no real issue other than the inconvenience factor.
I had this discussion with LUS because they asked me to call. I e-mailed MLS Support, and in their response they said they could not duplicate the problem. They called up the stake data and the Officers Sustained lists correctly populated. So it appears that stake MLS does populate the stake presidency fields from the MLS database.
That makes sense, of course, but does not help with the ward and branch lists.
Bottom line: A known save bug in MLS that only occurs "in some instances" does not allow the local unit to solve the problem. The nine units in our stake will have to enter the names of the stake presidency every time they wish to print the list, not just one time after a change occurs every ten years or so.
-
giffordrb
- Member
- Posts: 115
- Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2011 8:24 am
- Location: Eagle Mountain UT
-
lajackson
- Community Moderators
- Posts: 11472
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
- Location: US
giffordrb wrote:Just curious - are you opening the saved form by going through Reports/Forms -> Saved Forms -> Officers Sustained Forms? Opening up a new Officers Sustained Form does not recall any previously saved information and just opens a new form.
No, we are not opening a saved form. The saved forms work properly, but return all of the saved information and do not pull up any changes to the ward staff since the form was first saved.
We are opening a new form, which pulls the current ward leader information and the stake presidency as was listed the last time the new form was used, printed, and closed. Except for those of us with the bug. Are you saying that the new form should not ever include anything for the stake presidency? It always does.
There are two paths to the new form, one the direct link on the front page and the other through the More link. Either path returns the same new form.
-
nathancook1
- New Member
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 12:50 pm
- Location: United Sates
-
lajackson
- Community Moderators
- Posts: 11472
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
- Location: US
nathancook1 wrote:I am having the exact same problem. Does anyone know if this issues has been resolved yet?
The help desk said that the bug is very low on the priority list for the developers and that they will not get to it any time soon because of higher priorities. Perhaps during the Millennium, eh?
-
PartridgeRM
- Community Moderators
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:21 am
- Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Alternative - Use Clerk Resources
One option for a work around would be to sign into Clerk Resources on LDS.org and go to Membership » Forms » Officers Sustained List. This form pulls the calling information real time from CDOL.