Clerk Training

Discuss basic duties of stake and ward clerks, including where to begin.
drepouille
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Clerk Training

#1

Post by drepouille »

Next week, I plan to hold a breakout session in the high council room for all clerks and assistant clerks in the stake. I have prepared the attached presentation (using LibreOffice).

Much of it is copied from various LDSTech Wiki articles. You are welcome to use it, adapt it, and throw stones at it. I promise to accept all criticisms gracefully.
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Clerk Training March 2013.odp
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Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
jirp
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Re: Clerk Training

#2

Post by jirp »

I am running normal open office so the file type differences may account for it but the slides were coming up to long and had to be scrolled.

If I were a new clerk attending I would have felt it was a little to much why without enough what to do and how. For example attached you will find a copy of my weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi annual and yearly clerk cheat sheet. I started in June as the ward clerk with no assistants and a relatively new bishopric. So I felt totally overwhelmed. I really wish I had something similar to the cheat sheet to help me get through the learning curve. I am endeavoring to get a cheat sheet built and keep it up so there is a resource for our system so no one else faces that struggle. It is posted inside the cabinet doors just above the computer so there is help that won't get lost right handy.

From trouble in the other ward in our building recently the next thing I need to get added to it is the contact information for the various helps. They lost all the logins for MLS and it was apparently quite a trial to find the right people to help them recover. So I need to get that list of phone numbers put together in case I ever need them. I am also in the midst of a unit data refresh cycle and trying to get that huge bunch of errors fixed. So my cheat sheet probably needs that added a a semi annual or quarterly task so I never again have the big mess I have now to fix. It would have been nice if someone told me that the errors would keep coming in from the outside if it wasn't done.(I may have read it early on when I didn't know what I was reading and simply missed it) Some of the things I am hopefully permanently fixing now I have fixed 3 and 4 times only to have the problem reappear weeks or months later.

Now as a longer time clerk what I would want is answers to specific how to type questions. For example the one that leaps out at me from your slides is I have no idea how to get MLS to accept a common law marriage. With no date or place and in many cases since they are often inactive or people who want no contact with the church I may not even have the spouses full name. My guess is you might want to ask for questions this time to be ready to provide answers at another training session.

A review of the rights and responsibilities of the clerk position is well and good. But that much is easy to get doing the online training. MLS skills are another piece of the puzzle of being a clerk. Another topic that might be covered is social engineering skills of being a clerk. How to get all the information in on time for the quarterly report for example. I have tried handing out roll sheets and HT/VT sheets for the new quarter 2 weeks ahead of time and reminding them I will be needing the information at the end of the quarter. Then weekly reminders at church there after. That wasn't enough. I have run training sessions for the presidencies of the aux and made sure the appropriate people had MLS access if they needed it to help in the task. Will see if any of that has helped for my third go round of it. I am still learning too.

Finally you might consider doing a change of pace. I know having implemented the talents and interests section under the custom fields section has been interesting. People have had skills I had no idea they had and it has been interesting to learn so maybe looking at that might be of interest as a change of pace.(assuming you haven't already done it.)
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Clerk cheat sheet1.odt
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drepouille
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Re: Clerk Training

#3

Post by drepouille »

Hey, I can fix lost MLS logins. I've done it several times.

This will not be a "How to" training session. I just want to provide an overview of tasks and responsibilities. I've only been a stake clerk for less than three months, and I've never been a financial clerk.

I am covering a lot of ground, but not at a really deep level, and even so, I am only covering a fraction of everything we all need to know. I firmly believe it is more important to teach where to find the information you need than to try to dump it all on you. You won't remember it until you have a need for the information, so it is more important that you learn where to find the information.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
jonesrk
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Re: Clerk Training

#4

Post by jonesrk »

drepouille wrote:This will not be a "How to" training session. I just want to provide an overview of tasks and responsibilities. I've only been a stake clerk for less than three months, and I've never been a financial clerk.
We did something like this and one of the things that worked well is we had a list of responsibilities and after a survey before the meeting we discussed the 5 or some most requested. We had an open discussion and so some of the more senior (in experience, not age) clerks were able to help give insight as well.
Gary_Miller
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Re: Clerk Training

#5

Post by Gary_Miller »

Its an nice slide show has some problems as I lose the bottom of the page when I bring it up as a slide show, using open office.

On the other hand its to much information to try and give out during the break out session of a Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting. I would cut it down and only pick a couple of topics to discuss. For example discuss how to handle the other accounts along with the YW camp funding, and maybe the Missionary accounts. There will be enough questions and answers from just those two topics to fill up the time allot ed at a stake leadership meeting. Save the other topics for other meetings or have a special training meeting just for clerks.
russellhltn
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Re: Clerk Training

#6

Post by russellhltn »

Gary_Miller wrote:Its an nice slide show has some problems as I lose the bottom of the page when I bring it up as a slide show, using open office.
I had the same problem. I had to switch to "Outline" view to see everything.

Yes, this is a lot of content. I think you're probably need about an hour to go over it.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
drepouille
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Re: Clerk Training

#7

Post by drepouille »

I am planning on a fast 75 minutes. I'm not going to read every bullet, because they will have the complete text in a handout. Who knows? I may have 15 minutes left for Q & A.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
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johnshaw
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Re: Clerk Training

#8

Post by johnshaw »

You might want to look at the training on Missionary Transfer, the online missionary app now has the ability to coordinate some of that and if the bishops jump on it quick can get it all done, in many cases, online without talking to SLC.
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
drepouille
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Re: Clerk Training

#9

Post by drepouille »

My clerk training session yesterday went pretty well. The biggest glitch was that my assistant stake clerk for finances showed up ten minutes late, missed the break-out, and sat in the wrong session. So I was unable to answer most financial questions thrown at me.

Other questions were about common law marriage and gay marriage. I told them to send questions about gay marriages and gay converts to the mission president and the stake president. If those issues ever come to a clerk, the big decisions have already been made.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
waynecooke
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Re: Clerk Training

#10

Post by waynecooke »

jirp: I really appreciate the work you went to to create the "Cheat Sheet". It will come in handy. Today I get to "count" with a new councilor in the Bishopric. It will be just him and me. That first page will be a good lead in for him.

One thought, you mention stapling all the donation slips, calculator slip, etc. together. What I have done for about 14 years (three wards, now on my sixth Bishop), is to put all of the appropriate items from each weeks donations into an envelope (some old ones from previous Bishops, there always seem to be some left over), put the date on the front, and file them chronologically. It keeps everything together but still easily available for the audit. The reimbursement stuff is stapled together and filed. After each audit, I then rubber band the envelopes and the reimbursement paper work together for the period audited, and file them in a box awaiting the time when I can destroy them. Just a thought.
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