Cleaning out the clerk's office

[drepouille]

My ward was formed in March 2005, and has had several ward clerks. The current ward clerk reports that he still has paperwork from the beginning of the ward.

[russellhltn]

On a related note, I was checking out, tuning up a ward computer. Found MLS backups going back to 2006.

[Biggles]

You had Clerks that actually did backups, without being prompted!

[drepouille]

My complaint about backups is that they never verify where the backups are written. Many clerks leave the USB flash drive inserted, and simply assume MLS is writing the backup files to the flash drive without setting the backup destination. Another complain is that they do not remove old financial statements from MLS, which makes the backup files larger than necessary.

[randybecraft]

Gracious! Be the Ward Librarian in a ward that had, literally, books from the late 1800's! MONTHS of sorting. Clerks offices are generally a little easier...but not always!

[aebrown]

Another complain is that they do not remove old financial statements from MLS, which makes the backup files larger than necessary.

At the risk of taking this tangent even further off-topic, I would note that the ability to remove old financial statements from MLS was removed a while back -- we're stuck with the old financial statements until the record retention period expires. So don't be too hard on clerks who fail to do the impossible!

[aclawson]

When I cleaned out the current clerk's office I found myself shredding a neat collection of backup 5.25" floppies from years gone by. I had to destroy a full garbage bag (the bags for the big cans that the church provides) of documents that were long past their retention period.

To make life easier for me - and for any who come after me - after the 2nd half audit (the one that takes place in February-ish) I take all of the previous year's records and use twine to tightly bundle them up into a nice, neat package. I add a note to the top of the package that reads something along the lines of "fiance records, 20xx - destroy promptly after 1/1/20xx" and put the entire thing in the bottom drawer, with the older records at the front of the drawer. Anybody who opens that drawer will see a nice, neat bundle of records with an absolutely clear expiration date. They can grab everything with one hand and do whatever disposal process they want.

Professional document shredding service is the easiest. Throwing all of the papers into a 55 gallon metal drum with a healthy dose of saltpeter is the most fun.

[ggordon]

Some things change, and some things don't: Last week I found a 5" floppy disk from 1991, but also a check folder labeled April 1972--and that manila folder is exactly like the new ones.

[cabrooksby]

I agree that priesthood, and other ordinance records (baptisms, etc), should be kept indefinitely! In fact at one point the church was asking for Melchizedek Priesthood records from 1993 to 2001 be turned into them so that these could be recorded into the system (because the full info had not been saved in the system during that period). I believe they still want these. Does anyone know if that is the case?
I have also seen baptism info not recorded years later, and having the paperwork to prove the ordinance happened is easier than finding witnesses, or having to re-baptize the person!
Other than these ordinance records (which don't take up much space!), I agree that most clerk's offices have way too much old stuff that can be thrown out, or shredded!

[lajackson]

In fact at one point the church was asking for Melchizedek Priesthood records from 1993 to 2001 be turned into them so that these could be recorded into the system (because the full info had not been saved in the system during that period). I believe they still want these. Does anyone know if that is the case?

That is still true. The missing information being sought is the name of the person who performed the ordination.

I think, though, that once the annual membership audit is completed, and it has been verified that all ordinances are recorded on membership records, it is no longer necessary to retain the paperwork longer than the normal retention period.

A thorough annual membership audit leads to a cleaner clerk's office.