Nonmember listed in MLS Members without Callings report

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waltbristow
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Nonmember listed in MLS Members without Callings report

#1

Post by waltbristow »

MLS allows you to print a report showing members who do not have callings. (Organizations >> Reports/Tools >> Members without Callings)

Whilst looking at the printout this morning, I noticed that a man who is not a member of the Church (but who has a record number -- presumably one of those 'administrative' record numbers) is on the list. Looking closer I see at least one other man who is not a member who is on that list. There may be others as well.

These men are married to members and are included in MLS so that their wives don't appear to be single women when we print out the phone directory, etc.

Is this a known bug? Why would some nonmembers show up on the list but not others?

Both of these men show up on a custom report where the inclusion criteria is 'Member Status is not Member'.

Walt Bristow
Lynchburg (VA) 2nd Ward Clerk
jbh001
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#2

Post by jbh001 »

We had an instance where a non-member record was created so that a person would show up in MLS as a scout committee member. I suspect that if we then had removed that person from that position within MLS but not deleted the non-member record they would have shown up on the Members Without Callings report.

I have not researched it, but I suspect something similar is occuring in the situation you describe.
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aebrown
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#3

Post by aebrown »

wbristow wrote:Whilst looking at the printout this morning, I noticed that a man who is not a member of the Church (but who has a record number -- presumably one of those 'administrative' record numbers) is on the list. Looking closer I see at least one other man who is not a member who is on that list. There may be others as well.

Is this a known bug? Why would some nonmembers show up on the list but not others?
In order to show up on the Members Without Callings list, you don't have to be a member of the Church; you just have to be a member of the ward. But there is one other somewhat obscure requirement -- you have to have a birthdate. I assume this is because of the filtering by age that is built into the list (which defaults to "Ages 12+").

There are a couple of different ways to create a nonmember record:
  1. The most straightforward way is in Membership > Create Records > Nonmember Record. If you use that method, there is no option to enter a birthdate.
  2. Another way is to specify the spouse information for a nonmember spouse of a member. This information includes Birth Date, and you can specify that the spouse is not a member. If you then use the Add Spouse to Household link, a nonmember record will be created, which does have a birthdate (you can't see the birthdate from his Individual Record, but you can see it in other places in MLS, including Custom Reports).
Nonmembers in this second category will show up on the Members Without Callings list (as long as they don't have a calling).
jbh001 wrote:We had an instance where a non-member record was created so that a person would show up in MLS as a scout committee member. I suspect that if we then had removed that person from that position within MLS but not deleted the non-member record they would have shown up on the Members Without Callings report.

I have not researched it, but I suspect something similar is occuring in the situation you describe.
It doesn't matter whether a nonmember has ever had a calling; if their record has no birthdate, they will not show up on the Members Without Callings list.
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ericb
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#4

Post by ericb »

Alan_Brown wrote:It doesn't matter whether a nonmember has ever had a calling; if their record has no birthdate, they will not show up on the Members Without Callings list.

Alan, thanks for the explanation on this -- both myself and our membership clerk were scratching our heads on this one.

I'm linking a suggestion on the wiki to this thread -- the suggestion is to include an option on non-member records indicating if they should appear on anything other than phone/address directories. The implicit behavior described above is enough to cause the 'natural man' to come out of even the best clerk during report generation time :rolleyes:.
geek
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#5

Post by geek »

wbristow wrote:These men are married to members and are included in MLS so that their wives don't appear to be single women when we print out the phone directory, etc.

I thought that was a no-no, unless they had given their express consent. (I was told when I started as a clerk that the consent of the non-member was a higher priority than the convenience their inclusion might provide to the ward.)
Former membership clerk under 3 bishops, now on 2nd stint as executive secretary. Can I go back to teaching priesthood now?
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

geek wrote:I thought that was a no-no, unless they had given their express consent. (I was told when I started as a clerk that the consent of the non-member was a higher priority than the convenience their inclusion might provide to the ward.)

It's true that consent is required, but the original post never mentioned one way or the other whether consent has been obtained. I see no reason to assume that it was not.
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ericb
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#7

Post by ericb »

geek wrote:
wbristow wrote:These men are married to members and are included in MLS so that their wives don't appear to be single women when we print out the phone directory, etc.
I thought that was a no-no, unless they had given their express consent. (I was told when I started as a clerk that the consent of the non-member was a higher priority than the convenience their inclusion might provide to the ward.)


It's probably good to clarify the two different ways non-member spouse info can be recorded:
  1. A member's records can contain basic non-member spouse information, which does not appear on reports (and prevents the member from appearing on single members reports).
  2. Additionally, a non-member record can be created and linked with the member spouse (assuming consent has been given), and has the same behavior as noted above plus causes the non-member spouse to appear on reports.
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