Tech Forum

Greetings. I am a ward clerk who has run into a bit of a problem. When we print a copy of the "endowed without a recommend" report it shows that a few of our members do not have current recommends when, clearly, they do. For example; one of the persons in question is my father in law who is a temple ordinance worker and had received his recommend two or three months ago. He is able to work in the temple and attend regularly without problems.

Does anyone know why his name might show up on the report as not having a current recommend? As of yet it hasn't caused us any problems, but I would like to know that it won't in the future.

Thanks in advance for any help or input on the subject.

dirtychris wrote:sWhen we print a copy of the "endowed without a recommend" report it shows that a few of our members do not have current recommends when, clearly, they do.

It's one thing to be in possession of a physical temple recommend, and another to have the electronic system report that you do. There are various possible ways the electronic system may report that someone doesn't have a recommend:

• The recommend was never activated by the stake (either because no stake-level interview was passed by the member, or because of a clerical error at the stake level).
• The recommend was once activated, but has expired.
• The recommend was once activated, but has been canceled. This could be done by the stake because the recommend was reported to be lost or stolen, or because the stake president directs it to be canceled. It can also be done by Church headquarters for various reasons.
• In addition to the above reasons where the entire system would report that the person doesn't have a current recommend, it's conceivable that something could go wrong in the data synchronization where most of the system reports one status for a recommend, but the ward somehow reports a different status.

The first thing a ward clerk should probably do in this situation is to check with the stake clerk, who can easily check to see if any of the first three options applies in this case. If so, there is no mystery, and the resolution is probably pretty obvious.

If the stake records show that the recommend is active, but ward records do not, then that shows a problem with the data synchronization. In that case, I don't know if a Unit data refresh would help, but it might be worth a try. Otherwise, you'd need to call Local Unit Support.

aebrown wrote:It's one thing to be in possession of a physical temple recommend, and another to have the electronic system report that you do. There are various possible ways the electronic system may report that someone doesn't have a recommend:

• The recommend was never activated by the stake (either because no stake-level interview was passed by the member, or because of a clerical error at the stake level).
• The recommend was once activated, but has expired.
• The recommend was once activated, but has been canceled. This could be done by the stake because the recommend was reported to be lost or stolen, or because the stake president directs it to be canceled. It can also be done by Church headquarters for various reasons.
• In addition to the above reasons where the entire system would report that the person doesn't have a current recommend, it's conceivable that something could go wrong in the data synchronization where most of the system reports one status for a recommend, but the ward somehow reports a different status.

The first thing a ward clerk should probably do in this situation is to check with the stake clerk, who can easily check to see if any of the first three options applies in this case. If so, there is no mystery, and the resolution is probably pretty obvious.

It might also be worth asking if the user is having a problem when the barcode is scanned at the temple. In the first three cases, I'd expect it to fail.

In fact, we are having the same problem in our unit for the past four months (when we discovered it) and the first three scenarios do not apply to any of the concerned recommends. I really believe it is an MLS software problem. Recommends are shown as activated in Temple, Mission and District MLS reports but as Expired in the Branch's. We have down done synchronisation repeatedly. We have requested unit data a few times but still to no avail. It is very disturbing in a branch of over 50 endowed members with almost 95% having current temple recommends and the MLS report showing only about 50%.

Does anyone have any solution to this? How can one get in touch with the MLS developers?

You could call Local Unit Support. Be prepared to have the details on a few select individuals so you can have them chase it down.

As a Stake Clerk, I have responded to this same scenario (last bullet point) on several occasions, it seems to be a glitch somewhere, because when I check the Online TR system, it will show the members with CTR status. I've instructed clerks to call Local Unit Support, and haven't heard from them after, so that sounds like the right thing to do.

There is one other thing that can affect recommends, although it is probably not the problem in this case.

When a new recommend book is received, you must verify the receipt in MLS. I'm not sure where problems will arise if this hasn't been done. I can't recall the procedure since it's been a long time since I did this, and I am not sitting in front of MLS, so I can't give any details on how to do that, or how to check to verify that it has been done. Someone else probably knows the answer to that.

ggllbb wrote:When a new recommend book is received, you must verify the receipt in MLS. I'm not sure where problems will arise if this hasn't been done.

IIRC, the stake is unable to activate the new recommend.

russellhltn wrote:

ggllbb wrote:When a new recommend book is received, you must verify the receipt in MLS. I'm not sure where problems will arise if this hasn't been done.

IIRC, the stake is unable to activate the new recommend.

That's what I thought.

I wanted to mention this, because it is easily overlooked.