Tech Forum

I noticed when running the Endowed Members without Recommend report, a member in our ward is included that has been disfellowshipped and his recommend cancelled. He is included on the report with an expiration date of March 2009 (I assume this is the date it was set to expire before being cancelled). To me, this is confusing -- why include a disfellowshipped member with a cancelled recommend on this report? It seems like only members in good standing with expired recommends should appear.

I'll appreciate feedback if I'm missing something here.

A disfellowed member will have their temple recommend revoked. Their endowment is not revoked. Therefore they will show as an endowed member without a recommend. See the CHI, Book 1, page 109.

jdlessley wrote:A disfellowed member will have their temple recommend revoked. Their endowment is not revoked. Therefore they will show as an endowed member without a recommend. See the CHI, Book 1, page 109.

That makes sense to me but maybe the expiration date should go away on the report if the recommend was revoked.

jeffclark1070 wrote:That makes sense to me but maybe the expiration date should go away on the report if the recommend was revoked.

Or perhaps have the word 'Cancelled' in place of the expiration date.

ericb wrote:Or perhaps have the word 'Cancelled' in place of the expiration date.

Which might be a problem if this report is viewable to those who shouldn't have access to such information. I don't know who currently has rights to this report though.

Or better yet, change the expiration date to the date it was cancelled so that it shows as already having expired. That reduces the potential confidentiality mess.

With the new recommneds, I guess the stake clerk, or stake president would need to be notified that they can change issue date of the recommend by back dating it by 2 years so that the recommend shows as having expired already.

If all you want to do is get rid of the expiration date you should be able to remove the member's temple recommend entirely from MLS. Using the MLS test data I was able to remove a temple recommend for a member. The procedure was to go to Membership>Temple Recommends>Current Recommend Holders and select the member's name and select remove. I don't know if this is how it will work in an actual unit since I added a recommend before removing it. If it works the same for an actual unit then this procedure will remove the expiration date because the recommend is removed.

jdlessley wrote:If all you want to do is get rid of the expiration date you should be able to remove the member's temple recommend entirely from MLS.

Since I'm a ward clerk, I don't have the ability to update any temple recommend information. Does anyone know if the correct procedure is for the stake clerk to remove the expiration date when a recommend is cancelled? I noticed this date appears on several reports, including the household report, so I would agree that removing the date is the best idea.

As a ward clerk, have you contacted the stake clerk and asked this question of him?
I would hope that he would know the process and be able to detail it for you.

Techgy wrote:As a ward clerk, have you contacted the stake clerk and asked this question of him?
I would hope that he would know the process and be able to detail it for you.

Good idea. Since originally submitting this post, we now have a new stake clerk who I believe will be more motivated to figure this out. I thought I would at least see if other experienced clerks may have info to pass along.