Tech Forum

Reviving a discussion on Standardized Callings, something I noticed
the other day was there was a Standardized Calling called "Relief Society Other".

What ? Could that be more vague ?

Has anyone seen any other oddities in the "Standard Callings" ?

Glaring omissions (a while ago I couldn't find one for the person
printing the sacrament program, but that might have since been
remedied) ?

Other Issues ?

I still would like to see a "Calling Notes" field feature to be added so
local detail can be added, but standard callings still used. It is
important for my local leaders to know who is the leader of the
Bear den in Cub Scouts versus who is the Wolf Den Leader.
Without a notes field, they can't use the generic standard
calling of Den Leader and use custom ones instead. With a notes
field they can keep the local detail they need, and yet still use
standardized callings that will populate up to the church computers
systems and callings-based LDSAccount resources.

- Atticus

atticusewig wrote:Reviving a discussion on Standardized Callings, something I noticed
the other day was there was a Standardized Calling called "Relief Society Other".

What ? Could that be more vague ?

This is the result of an old issue when callings were first send to CDOL. Not all units have it. MLS is working to clean these things up, but don't try to use it.

atticusewig wrote: I still would like to see a "Calling Notes" field feature to be added so
local detail can be added, but standard callings still used. It is
important for my local leaders to know who is the leader of the
Bear den in Cub Scouts versus who is the Wolf Den Leader.
Without a notes field, they can't use the generic standard
calling of Den Leader and use custom ones instead. With a notes
field they can keep the local detail they need, and yet still use
standardized callings that will populate up to the church computers
systems and callings-based LDSAccount resources.

For the Wolf and Bear Den leaders, I just added Wolf and Bear Dens as classes and then those callings can be assigned to the class, but I agree that a notes field would be nice in some cases.

atticusewig wrote:Glaring omissions (a while ago I couldn't find one for the person printing the sacrament program, but that might have since been remedied) ?

I don't see how it could be a "glaring omission" to not include a standard calling for a person printing the sacrament meeting program. I don't see such a calling anywhere in the Handbook. For that matter, I don't see a reference to a sacrament meeting program anywhere in the Handbook. That's just a custom in some areas, so it seems entirely appropriate that there is no standard calling.

But even if a lot of wards have such a calling, that doesn't mean it needs to be a standard calling. Standard callings are essential where those callings need special handling, for inclusion in ward leadership lists in online or MLS leadership directories, for special access in MLS or web applications, or for other special purposes. Custom callings work just fine in every other case. When you create a custom calling you are warned "If possible, use an existing standard position instead of creating a custom position." But that's not saying that we should not ever use a custom position; just that we should not use a custom position when a standard position exists. The feature exists, so use it!

I think there are still some oddities - like, you can't have an 'Assistant' anything really.

Also - there is no Seminary Teacher calling at all.

dannykos wrote:Also - there is no Seminary Teacher calling at all.

Seminary Teacher is a stake calling, and the stake can enter a standard position of Stake Seminary Teacher in the Other Callings panel under Organizations.

Alan_Brown wrote:For that matter, I don't see a reference to a sacrament meeting program anywhere in the Handbook. That's just a custom in some areas, so it seems entirely appropriate that there is no standard calling.

Just because I have an annoying compulsive habit of looking for exceptions....

A printed sacrament meeting program is referenced in list item # 1 here, and appears implied by agenda item 4 here. But to be fair, I have found no place (yet) that a sacrament meeting program is mandated/required.

jbh001 wrote:A printed sacrament meeting program is referenced in list item # 1 here, and appears implied by agenda item 4 here. But to be fair, I have found no place (yet) that a sacrament meeting program is mandated/required.

While it is logical that if there is a program, then there is someone who creates it. But it still begs the question of if it's a calling or just an assignment.

jbh001 wrote:Just because I have an annoying compulsive habit of looking for exceptions....

A printed sacrament meeting program is referenced in list item # 1 here, and appears implied by agenda item 4 here. But to be fair, I have found no place (yet) that a sacrament meeting program is mandated/required.

Thanks for keeping me honest. I knew there was no calling mentioned, but then I took the next step and decided that there must be no program mentioned -- without checking. Sloppy.

Ah, well -- the main point was really that there is no such calling in the Handbook, so it doesn't need to be a standard calling.

Just curious - When the calling 'Relief Society Other' is selected, is the box below it available to be filled? Like 'Primary Worker' can then have the class specified in the lower box. Then the actual RS job could be specified.

Its not as much of an issue anymore but in the past, CDOL and the LUWS did not recognize custom positions so they didn't show up in the on-line calling lists. I'm not sure about CDOL, but I believe that now the custom positions do appear on the LUWS. It seems like the 'Relief Society Other' would be a way to have a standard name for a bunch of custom positions and thus, get them to appear on-line. In our RS, there seemed to be several of those types of callings.

idjeeper wrote:Just curious - When the calling 'Relief Society Other' is selected, is the box below it available to be filled? Like 'Primary Worker' can then have the class specified in the lower box. Then the actual RS job could be specified.

Based on the post by Ryan Jones, I think you're pursuing a dead end here. The 'Relief Society Other' calling was essentially a mistake, and will be cleaned up soon. It certainly is not available to all units (I've never seen it in our stake or any of our wards).

Ryan said:

ryan jones wrote:This is the result of an old issue when callings were first send to CDOL. Not all units have it. MLS is working to clean these things up, but don't try to use it.

So I don't think we should use 'Relief Society Other', even if it seems to meet a need.

idjeeper wrote:Its not as much of an issue anymore but in the past, CDOL and the LUWS did not recognize custom positions so they didn't show up in the on-line calling lists. I'm not sure about CDOL, but I believe that now the custom positions do appear on the LUWS.

I think you have this sort of backwards. Custom positions do appear in CDOL now (in orange text to distinguish them from standard callings). But there has never been a link to any callings on LUWS (all callings are entered manually on LUWS), and the new Directory application does not show any custom positions -- it only lists standard positions on the Leadership Directory.

idjeeper wrote:It seems like the 'Relief Society Other' would be a way to have a standard name for a bunch of custom positions and thus, get them to appear on-line. In our RS, there seemed to be several of those types of callings.

Although I can see merit in having a way for custom positions to appear in the new Directory, I don't see much point in a "standard" calling called anything like "Relief Society Other." That's just a different, more awkward way to create custom callings, which we already have. Rather than implement a limited backdoor way to get some custom positions on the Directory, I think it makes more sense to include all custom positions on the Directory.

Some units have custom positions that are very important, and for whom it is important that their contact information be included on the Leadership Directory. If the Leadership Directory continues to exclude custom positions, it seems to me that units will start to shoehorn these custom positions into standard positions just so that the people in the callings will appear on the directory. That would be counterproductive.