New Quarterly Report for 2014

[sbradshaw]

There are a few other reports that aren't integrated into Leader and Clerk Resources – for example, seminary attendance, institute attendance, and FamilySearch indexing statistics. It takes a lot of work to integrate the various Church departments' systems in a way that data can be securely made available in a central place. I hope it's able to all be integrated eventually.

[terra100]

The stake high councilor just forwarded to all wards, and then on down to family history consultants from there, the report I was looking for. It is a monthly report only accessible (currently) by Area Coordinating Councils (near as I can tell) entitled "Family History Key Indicator Report." It appears the report is generated for the area leaders within a limited-access feature of the FamilySearch platform, not LDS.org.

This indicator report is NOT the family history stats that are in your quarterly report. Instead, it lists a rolling stat from month to month of how many unique members in the last 12 months have at least submitted a name to the temple for ordinance (previous posts defined what "submission" means) -- the stats are broken out by ward and stake. The report also lists the percentage of members who have the 1st-4th generations in their Tree at FamilySearch.

Our Area Temple and Family History Advisors stated in the e-mail that contained the report: "In the United States, the average percent of the stake name submissions to the temple is 5.0%. The church goal is to increase that to 10%." And they are basing that 10% on these Area stats, not the Quarterly Report Stats.

[russellhltn]

And yet, since it's only numbers, all you can do is go out and do the best you can and hope the stats reflect that. Without names, you don't know where to concentrate the efforts. The numbers help only to the extent that you learn if new efforts/tactics are succeeding or not.

[drepouille]

One way to raise your percentages is for all the ward clerks to find homes for all the lost sheep in the stake. Within 30 days of being set apart as ward clerk, I moved about 40 membership records out of the ward that had been languishing. I know this is an artificial method for manipulating the percentages, but every bit helps. The real goal, of course, is to increase measurable activity levels among members.

[russellhltn]

One way to raise your percentages is for all the ward clerks to find homes for all the lost sheep in the stake.

While I generally deplore artificial means of raising percentages, there's no point in hanging on to records of people who have left the ward boundaries or are not locatable.

Also, while it's within the clerks' "magnifying of calling", it shouldn't fall on their shoulders to do all the work. It's really the ward's responsibility. While the clerks may do some of the steps, others should probably be done by HT/VT and consulting with the Ward Council. (One of my minor peeves is that the ward has a priesthood quorum whose goal is to visit every household every month, and an auxiliary whose goal is to visit every sister every month - yet some people seem to expect a couple of guys to keep track of where every member is currently living all by themselves. )

If it was my call, I think one thing I'd look at is the dynamics of the work within the families. If the "family genealogist" would involve other family members, it could create an immediate uptick in participation. Of course, one needs to involve more families as well.

[bangertersc]

What does it mean to submit a name? Does that mean reserve?

No, a submission is definitely not counted when a name is reserved. To count as a submission, the person has to reserve a name and then do one of the following:

• Share the name with the temple
• Print a Family Ordinance Request (FOR)
• Print temple cards

Will you please explain the process of "Share the name with the temple?"

Thank you!

[davesudweeks]

What does it mean to submit a name? Does that mean reserve?

No, a submission is definitely not counted when a name is reserved. To count as a submission, the person has to reserve a name and then do one of the following:

• Share the name with the temple
• Print a Family Ordinance Request (FOR)
• Print temple cards

Will you please explain the process of "Share the name with the temple?"

Thank you!

After reserving names on FamilySearch, you have the option to share them with the temple. They will show on your list as shared with the temple and until a temple prints them, you can unshare to do them yourself. When the temple completes the work, you will receive a FamilySearch message that the ordinances have been completed.

In family search, My Reservations:
1. Select the name(s) you want to share (click on the box next to each name)
2. Click on the share button at the top of the list

Edit: You don't have a choice which temple does the work. Sharing them with the temple puts them in the system for any temple to pick them up.