Tech Forum

We are a student stake, so it is quite possible many members of our wards do not have patriarchal blessings. Several Bishops have asked if there is a way they can determine through MLS who in their ward does/does not have one. I looked just about everywhere I could think of and cannot find a way of getting MLS to run a report on it.

Has anyone out there found a way to generate this report? Is it possible?

crislapi wrote:We are a student stake, so it is quite possible many members of our wards do not have patriarchal blessings. Several Bishops have asked if there is a way they can determine through MLS who in their ward does/does not have one. I looked just about everywhere I could think of and cannot find a way of getting MLS to run a report on it.

Has anyone out there found a way to generate this report? Is it possible?

There is nothing on the membership record that indicates if a member has received a patriarchal blessing, and thus there is no way to report on it using MLS.

If that's important to a bishop of a student ward, that could be something he asks each of his members in his interviews with them. If he wants to capture that information in MLS, I suppose it could be done with a custom field.

(To MLS developers: ) Hey, guys, can you have this feature in your minds for future versions of MLS? A simple flag can do this job, as I understand. The same can be done for active/less active member status (creating the ability to print forms to more easily contact less active members).

The developers don't get to make the call what does or doesn't go into MLS. The feature request has to go up the chain a lot higher than that in order to get approval.

I suspect, like the recording of baby blessings (which don't get transmitted to church headquarters), patriarchal blessings won't either and probably for similar reasons.

dwterry wrote:The developers don't get to make the call what does or doesn't go into MLS. The feature request has to go up the chain a lot higher than that in order to get approval.

Right. That becomes a policy issue. Any indicator of activity isn't going to happen.

dwterry wrote:I suspect, like the recording of baby blessings (which don't get transmitted to church headquarters), patriarchal blessings won't either and probably for similar reasons.

I would agree that if it was important, it would have happened long before now. I'm not sure what the reason is. I can understand why baby blessings are not recorded - it's not actionable information. It's not like it's a missing ordnance that needs to be (or even can be) done if it wasn't done before.

Patriarchal blessings are different in that it's never too late to get one. It's not a saving ordnance, but it's something a bishop could encourage his members to get. So it seems (to me) useful information.

dwterry wrote:The developers don't get to make the call what does or doesn't go into MLS. The feature request has to go up the chain a lot higher than that in order to get approval.

I suspect, like the recording of baby blessings (which don't get transmitted to church headquarters), patriarchal blessings won't either and probably for similar reasons.

Ok... sorry. ^_^

Don't be sorry. I'm only suggesting that you push the feature request upwards.

This is only peripherally related to the reason for this post, and it isn't a technical question, but I'm curious.

Does anyone know if there is a system in place for bishops/patriarchs to check if someone has already received a Pat. Blessing before one is given? Of course, it would be very rare if someone forgot they already received one, but I'm sure stranger things have happened.

Greggo wrote:Does anyone know if there is a system in place for bishops/patriarchs to check if someone has already received a Pat. Blessing before one is given? Of course, it would be very rare if someone forgot they already received one, but I'm sure stranger things have happened.

I don't know, but could the bishop call CHQ and ask that they check for the blessing? An individual can request a copy of their blessing if theirs is lost so there is at the very least a repository.

Though it is rare, I do know of a case where CHQ did not have a record of one brother's blessing and he certainly remembered receiving it. In this case, he was authorized to receive a new blessing. I do not know where the authorization came from however.

It appears this is still not present in the system. Has anyone seen something here? I'll try and put in a feature request as we are getting this request to determine who hasn't received a blessing as Bishop wants to ensure that all are taking advantage of this opportunity. Though it is not a saving ordinance, this is something that could be a useful avenue for to start a conversation.