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Sacrament Attendance

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:14 pm
by buchleg-p40
Hello, can I count members who are bed ridden and do not attend Sacrament at the meeting house but get HT, VT and periodic Sacrament in the home?

We have a half dozen or so who get the Sacrament in home once a quater, one spouse can not attend becasue they can not leave the other unattended and so on.

Thanks

Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:29 pm
by aebrown
buchleg wrote:Hello, can I count members who are bed ridden and do not attend Sacrament at the meeting house but get HT, VT and periodic Sacrament in the home?

We have a half dozen or so who get the Sacrament in home once a quater, one spouse can not attend becasue they can not leave the other unattended and so on.
The MLS help for the quarterly report says: "Include in your count all individuals who attended sacrament meeting, members and nonmembers alike."

That seems pretty simple and straightforward. The rules for Priesthood meeting and Relief Society allow for exceptions, but for sacrament meeting, a person has to be physically present.

Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 8:54 am
by mprusse
I suspect this thread will soon gain new interest as wards may start to broadcast sacrament meetings to shut-ins. I know our stake is planning that this year. But those people could certainly be counted as attending.

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:30 pm
by mtwerner
A couple of years ago our area president specifically instructed the stake presidents to count the homebound who receive the sacrament. Of course, an area president's direction doesn't necessarily apply outside of his area, but it does indicate that the practice is not completely forbidden.

Also, here's one of the FAQs in the wiki article about Quarterly Reports:

Q: How do we count members that have been homebound due to illness and/or doctor's orders?
A: Counting members that are homebound, but still partake of the sacrament, is left to the discretion of the local priesthood leader responsible for the members.

Sacrament Count Template

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:51 pm
by PJHerman
I created a quick template to help with counting attendance in sacrament. I thought i would pass it on for anyone who may be interested.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:19 pm
by ecotim
This might help others, I hated walking up and down during sacrement meeting, always found it distracting. The first counselor and I came up with a spreadsheet of all the active familes, and made eight columns. First column has the number of members in the family, then the family name, repeated again so that four accross has family names. The number for the members all sum up to the count at the bottom. I also have spot for visitors. This way I look around see which familes there and I can see if any are missing. Thus if the Smith family has 5 members and Bro. Smith is not there I change it to 4. With a quick look around I get an accurate count with out walking up and down. I also can use this on my smart phone. I have a paper copy that I make tick marks (check if all the family is there, or a number with who is) then go to my phone make the changes and I get the total. This helps to also see if a family starts to not show up I can talk to the home teachers, or bring it up in Bishopric meetings.
Also I would write on the side less active familes (if they started coming more would add them to the main) , so on the side is the count of families that showed up that week and visitors. That I would add up and put in the visitor box.