Tech Forum

Every three months I print off an attendance roll which has all members on it. This is used by the branch president to take attendance at sacrament meeting and to keep track of how many guests we have.
I did this by creating a new Sunday School class which contained all members. I see now that my custom class is gone, presumably during an update. Now this in itself is very annoying as I had multiple custom classes which we used, but I'm now left with a problem of making a new attendance roll for sacrament meetings.

Does anyone know how I can create an attendance roll with all members on it?

joachimvalgren wrote:Does anyone know how I can create an attendance roll with all members on it?

You could create a spreadsheet, such as the one I've attached. Copy the rows down as many times as you need. Choose whatever columns are needed (I included name and age as a starter, since age is sometimes helpful for distinguishing between John Doe Sr and John Doe Jr). Then copy a list of all members from MLS (you can use a custom report to generate whatever columns of information you need) and paste it into the first columns.

joachimvalgren wrote:Every three months I print off an attendance roll which has all members on it. This is used by the branch president to take attendance at sacrament meeting

You might want to check policy. I'm not sure what the status is - I thought it was at least discouraged.

russellhltn wrote:You might want to check policy. I'm not sure what the status is - I thought it was at least discouraged.

I can find nothing that would either encourage or discourage this practice. If there were such a policy, I would think it would be in Handbook 2, Section 18.2.2 -- but it's not.

It seems like a lot of work, and I can't imagine that any units in my stake would ever do it, but unless someone can cite a policy or guideline to the contrary, I see no reason why it couldn't be done.

aebrown wrote:If there were such a policy, I would think it would be in Handbook 2, Section 18.2.2 -- but it's not.

That would be one place - but note that other restrictions, such as the prohibitions on video recordings is not found in that section either. Where's the guidelines that covers reporting? That would be the other logical place to check. I don't see it in Handbook 2.

russellhltn wrote:

aebrown wrote:If there were such a policy, I would think it would be in Handbook 2, Section 18.2.2 -- but it's not.

That would be one place - but note that other restrictions, such as the prohibitions on video recordings is not found in that section either. Where's the guidelines that covers reporting? That would be the other logical place to check. I don't see it in Handbook 2.

I checked out Handbook 1, Chapter 13, which covers reporting, as well as Chapter 17, which covers Church Policies. I've looked everywhere that seems reasonable to me. I've searched both Handbooks for any phrase that seems like it would fit. Nothing.

If you're going to suggest that such a policy exists, I think you have a responsibility to find it. Otherwise the only reasonable reaction is to assume that no such policy exists.

aebrown wrote:If you're going to suggest that such a policy exists, I think you have a responsibility to find it. Otherwise the only reasonable reaction is to assume that no such policy exists.

Except I don't have access to Handbook 1 ..... But thanks for checking.

I did some searches - I had thought someone reported being cautioned by an area leader not to do it, but if such was posted, I can't find it.

So I guess I'm left with pointing out that this is a local leader requirement, not a church one. So if the roll isn't being acted on, then consider discontinuing it. The only thing the church requires is a sacrament meeting headcount.

But I did find one old work-around that might still work to create the desired report.

russellhltn wrote:I don't have access to Handbook 1 ..... But thanks for checking.

I did some searches - I had thought someone reported being cautioned by an area leader not to do it, but if such was posted, I can't find it.

Because we actually do this in our stake, and because of your comment, I too went looking for a Handbook quote but, as Alan, did not find one. I have access to Handbook 1 and 2. Both Handbooks remind that we do not set quotas or establish reporting systems for temple attendance, and this limitation is sometimes confused with attendance at other meetings and activities. (See Handbook 1:3.2.3 and Handbook 2:5.4)

Most of our bishops run a custom report with just the family name, and they, with their counselors, note who is not in attendance at sacrament meeting. Following the meeting, they meet for just a few minutes (less than 10, and usually more like 5) in the bishop's office with the ward council. The names of those who are not there are divided among the leaders who are assigned to contact the member that day by phone or otherwise to let them know they were missed.

A visiting general authority to our stake conference suggested the process, and I will admit to being a bit skeptical at first. The stake presidency never sent it out as something that "must" be done. It was simply passed on as a suggestion to assist in convert retention. And some of our bishops have not done it with any regularity or at all.

For the benefit of any in leadership positions who may be interested, in each ward where this was done with regularity, sacrament meeting attendance improved between 20-35%, and one ward doubled sacrament meeting attendance in eight months.

I think the list the clerk set up started as a cut and paste job from the Household List in MLS that was updated every so often. But a custom list would be much easier to prepare and print.

russellhltn wrote:But I did find one old work-around that might still work to create the desired report.

I guess that workaround is okay if you really have to have an MLS-only solution. But it takes about 10 times as much work as grabbing a list of members and pasting it into an existing spreadsheet, so if you have any spreadsheet skills, that's the much easier route.

aebrown wrote:

joachimvalgren wrote:Does anyone know how I can create an attendance roll with all members on it?

You could create a spreadsheet, such as the one I've attached. Copy the rows down as many times as you need. Choose whatever columns are needed (I included name and age as a starter, since age is sometimes helpful for distinguishing between John Doe Sr and John Doe Jr). Then copy a list of all members from MLS (you can use a custom report to generate whatever columns of information you need) and paste it into the first columns.

Thanks!