How do you Print the Names of Children on the Branch Directory?

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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rlbrady
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How do you Print the Names of Children on the Branch Directory?

#1

Post by rlbrady »

28 May 2012

Only two of many children under the age of 8 are printed on the MLS Branch Directory.
Two children under the age of 8 are listed as "Children" with Membership Record ID's in the "Children" section of the father. The father, mother, and another child 9 years old are all printed on the directory, but not the two younger children.

Also: The Print Organization "Primary" does not list the two children mentioned above.
(As well as many other children in the Branch.)

The "Custom" feature in the print Directory section does not have a select criteria to print the children, or not to print the children in the printed Directory.

QUESTION:
How does one include all children in the branch to be printed on the Membership Directory?

Thanks,

Brother Brady
Assistant Branch Clerk
bob7540@gmail.com
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

rlbrady wrote:Only two of many children under the age of 8 are printed on the MLS Branch Directory.
Two children under the age of 8 are listed as "Children" with Membership Record ID's in the "Children" section of the father. The father, mother, and another child 9 years old are all printed on the directory, but not the two younger children.

First of all, let's be clear on what report you are printing. It sounds like you are in MLS, using the option under Reports/Forms called "Directory of Members" -- is that correct?

There are two kinds of issues that might be affecting how the directory prints:
  • Do the member records have correct information, including how they are grouped in households and placed in organizations?
  • Are you selecting the correct report to print and specifying the correct options?
I'm not understanding what the exact problem is. First you said that "only two of many children under the age of 8 are printed," but then you said that "the two younger children" are not printed. Which is it?

If only two children are missing from the report, then I would definitely be looking at those children's membership records, since the most likely problem is that there is something about their records that is incorrect -- they might not be linked to the household properly, or they might be nonmember records instead of children of record, or something else.
rlbrady wrote:Also: The Print Organization "Primary" does not list the two children mentioned above.
(As well as many other children in the Branch.)
In MLS, when you go to Organizations > Primary, on the left side there is an options for "Class Members." When you click that, the right side should show a long list of all the classes, each with their members listed.

When you do that, are you saying that many of the children are missing? That could be a problem with membership records, or with the class membership. Each class has its list of members, which MLS will update automatically, but which a clerk can also modify manually. You might consider the Reset classes option if the lists of who is in each class are incorrect.
rlbrady wrote:The "Custom" feature in the print Directory section does not have a select criteria to print the children, or not to print the children in the printed Directory.
Actually, for the Directory of Members report there is a Customize link, and if you click that, you'll see that one of the options is indeed "Show children of each household." Is that box checked?
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russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

I'll add to Alan's post.

Sorry to point out something that may be obvious, but I've seen too many clerks get confused on this point. From the front page of MLS, go to Membership Records > Individual Records. Do you see the children listed there? If not, then you don't have a record for that child.

Just because a child appears in the "children" tab of the parent's records, doesn't mean you have a record for that child, or that child is properly grouped with the household. All that does is provide a genealogical link between parent and child. The child could be away at college or starting their own family in another ward and they'll still be listed on the parent's record.

Until you have an individual record of all the children living in the ward, MLS will not create the correct listings.
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rlbrady
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#4

Post by rlbrady »

2 June 2012

To: aebrown and RussellHltn,

Thank you for your helpful inputs to my request.
You instructions and comments helped me solve the problem.

The problem was that individual records for the children had not been created in the branch MLS.
Apparently the records of children (with official looking Record Numbers listed in the Household records as Children) are called
"Link Records" or something like that, and have not been added as Individual records in MLS. (That is VERY Confusing.)
I am trying to find out more about "Link Records".
If you know anything about them, please add your comments.

Thanks again,
rlbrady
a more knowledge assistant branch clerk.
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aebrown
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#5

Post by aebrown »

There's a bit of information on the wiki under Linked record.

But the most important point you need to be clear on is the one RussellHltn mentioned: the fact that children are listed on the Children tab of the individual record of the parents is not at all the same thing as children with individual records in your ward who are members of the Household that the parents are in.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
jbuhl68
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Re: How do you Print the Names of Children on the Branch Dir

#6

Post by jbuhl68 »

Here is a related question: A child, age 2, and not having a baby blessing, does not appear on lds.org in their family in the directory. But, in MLS, the child is listed as a member of the family. What might the reason for the difference? Can it be corrected?
russellhltn
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Re: How do you Print the Names of Children on the Branch Dir

#7

Post by russellhltn »

jerry9989 wrote:But, in MLS, the child is listed as a member of the family. What might the reason for the difference? Can it be corrected?
A few possibilities - First, the child was added as a non-member. The child would then appear in most directories produced by MLS, but not on-line.

The second is that the child was not added as a member of the household, and is only listed as a child on the parent's records. In which case the child will appear nowhere except on the parents individual record.

A third possibility is that the child has a different legal last name. I don't think the directory breaks them out, but it's worth checking.

What needs to happen is to have the child added as a "child of record" to the household. Until then, they'll never be in the directory.
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.
jbuhl68
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Re: How do you Print the Names of Children on the Branch Dir

#8

Post by jbuhl68 »

Thank you for the quick and helpful reply. I will try these.
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