Tech Forum

So we are having this conversation in Bishopric meeting the other day and the bishop is talking about how many of the wards in our very large stake are getting sometimes five to six families a week moving in. Our ward usually has at least one or two because we have lots of apartments in our ward.

I asked the Bishop, what is the one thing you would like to change if you could. His response made total sense.

"Add the previous ward Bishop's phone number" to the Bishop's copy of the membership record for a new move in."

I don't think any bishops have a computer in their office. This means they have to come in to the ward clerks office and log on to CDOL to find the previous bishop, or they have to ask the ward clerk to look it up and get it back to him.

If MLS just added the previous ward bishop's name and phone number to the Bishop/Clerk membership record, it would make things a lot easier. I agree.

Is this something that can be queried and added to the membership record report for the bishop?

Ammonihah wrote:If MLS just added the previous ward bishop's name and phone number to the Bishop/Clerk membership record, it would make things a lot easier. I agree.

Is this something that can be queried and added to the membership record report for the bishop?

That is a good suggestion. You might want to add it to MLS: Feedback and Suggestions on the wiki.

Ammonihah wrote:I don't think any bishops have a computer in their office. This means they have to come in to the ward clerks office and log on to CDOL to find the previous bishop, or they have to ask the ward clerk to look it up and get it back to him.

It's a clerk's responsibility to offload as much administrative work as possible from the bishop. So if the bishop has a standard practice of communicating with former bishops of new move-ins, the clerk could make it his standard practice to look up the phone number for those bishops and jot it down on the paper copy of the membership record (the one MLS prints out for new move-ins) before handing it to the bishop. Given the way MLS works now, such a procedure would be helpful to the bishop.

Alan_Brown wrote:That is a good suggestion. You might want to add it to MLS: Feedback and Suggestions on the wiki.

It's a clerk's responsibility to offload as much administrative work as possible from the bishop. So if the bishop has a standard practice of communicating with former bishops of new move-ins, the clerk could make it his standard practice to look up the phone number for those bishops and jot it down on the membership record before handing it to the bishop. Given the way MLS works now, such a procedure would be helpful to the bishop.

Alan,

Thanks. I figured out how to log into the Wiki and added it. Love the interaction this site provides!

Alan_Brown wrote:It's a clerk's responsibility to offload as much administrative work as possible from the bishop. So if the bishop has a standard practice of communicating with former bishops of new move-ins, the clerk could make it his standard practice to look up the phone number for those bishops and jot it down on the paper copy of the membership record (the one MLS prints out for new move-ins) before handing it to the bishop. Given the way MLS works now, such a procedure would be helpful to the bishop.

Actually, I suspect most clerk's would love to be able to look up the phone number. However, only the Bishop is granted rights to CDOL - so the clerk, and even the counselors, are really incapable of providing this help.

gabbitasml wrote:Actually, I suspect most clerk's would love to be able to look up the phone number. However, only the Bishop is granted rights to CDOL - so the clerk, and even the counselors, are really incapable of providing this help.

That was changed last November and now clerks and counselors have the same rights as bishops. See the note under Authorized users.

ryan jones wrote:That was changed last November and now clerks and counselors have the same rights as bishops. See the note under Authorized users.

Cool! I'm glad I posted. Sure enough, I just logged in successfully. So when this was changed, was any sort of notice sent out to Bishops informing them of this change? My Bishop sure didn't know about it. This will be a big help in reducing his burden.

Thanks for correcting me!!

gabbitasml wrote:Cool! I'm glad I posted. Sure enough, I just logged in successfully. So when this was changed, was any sort of notice sent out to Bishops informing them of this change? My Bishop sure didn't know about it. This will be a big help in reducing his burden.

Thanks for correcting me!!

Notice, did you get the standard issue Urim and Thummin at your last PPI?

I like the Urim & Thummim idea, but not sure if I'd want such an upgrade in responsibility.

There was some form of notice about CDOL access rights change, which prompted me to check mine. It might have been one of the e-mail notices to MLS on our ward PC.

An alternative that I've notified a local home health agency (HHA) about is to use Meetinghouse Locator on LDS.org. Some HHA's find occasional need to contact clergy of clients and seek special support. Search results include the Bishop's name and a phone number. It has become a nice tool that members with concerns about a straying or 'lost sheep' in their family can use, as well as those moving to new territories.

JJ