Tech Forum

i've been told that when the quarterly reports are due, that we're only suppose to count the last month for the report, and NOT the average of the whole quarter, is that true or not? where can i find the answer to this on the church website?

thank you very much

You should only count the last month of the quarter for your average. You can find information about this in the MLS Help section under quarterly report.

Actually, the answer varies. (don't you just love it?)
Depends on which line of the form you are on.
You could be counting all bodies.
You could be counting members only.
You could be only counting *part* of the members present (Primary, for example)
You could, or could not, be counting people away on other church assignments, you could be counting specific members ----

**Some** of the data is last month of the quarter

**Some** of the data is an average

Attendance, for example, can be an average, is sometimes an absolute sorta ( if someone attended 1 time ever, then they count---) :p

I always pull down the "help" for the page in MLS and print it out as I do the report -- just to make sure I have it right.

I have found that it can be confusing to new clerks where all the information comes from that goes into the quarterly report. I put together the attached handout which outlines where the information comes from. The biggest thing to get over is that it is only sacrament meeting attendance which is a headcount. We had a case where the stake president was reviewing high priest activity, he wanted to know who the less active high priests where. On doing so he found out that each member of the stake presidency were being reported as not attending, as credit was not being given for attendance at church away from their home wards.

If it is not a burden to the clerks and secretaries we suggest collecting the data each month for use within the ward. Only the data from the last month of the quarterly is submitted to stake.

Thanks for the PDF document. Clean, clear way to show how to count. It is helpful as a Clerk to train the secretaries (especially when they are first called) to know how to count for the Report. This is a great document to help with that explanation.

IF the secretary reads the info at the top of the attendance roll for their class. it will tell them how who and what to count for the quarterly report

Our Stake updated the file by cottrells to go with the new Quarterly Report, and added the page numbers where the Handbook tells you what to count (for reference).

I always thought this was simple. When I noticed that certain lines on the old statistical report were actually links, I changed the way I gathered the information. For Primary, RS, etc. I click those links, print the corresponding report, and hand it to the organization secretary with the following instruction.

Please mark all those that attended <insert meeting here> during the month of <whatever month the reporting period covers>.

Remember all those that have callings or assignments that take them out of Priesthood or Relief Society meeting (e.g. Primary, YM, YW, full-time missionaries, stake callings, etc.) should be marked as having attended.

If you know an individual attended these meetings at another unit, they should also be marked has having attended.

If there is anybody that is not printed on this list that should be, please write them in.

Hopefully the new statistical report will be similarly simple.

jbh001 wrote:I always thought this was simple. When I noticed that certain lines on the old statistical report were actually links, I changed the way I gathered the information. For Primary, RS, etc. I click those links, print the corresponding report, and hand it to the organization secretary with the following instruction.Hopefully the new statistical report will be similarly simple.

Sorry to bump such an old thread. I'm a new ward clerk and am preparing for my first quarterly report, and I'd like to try this method of gathering data. My only concern is that when I print these reports they contain the members' membership numbers and birth dates. Should I be concerned about handing this personal information over to the aux. secretaries? Is there a way to easily print these same reports without the personal information?

cougs wrote:My only concern is that when I print these reports they contain the members' membership numbers and birth dates. Should I be concerned about handing this personal information over to the aux. secretaries? Is there a way to easily print these same reports without the personal information?

Yes, you should be concerned. The Church is treating the membership record number as very sensitive information, so you are wise to be careful in how it is distributed.

There are no ways that I know of that are quite as simple to print those same reports, but two ideas would be:

• From the Quarterly Report or from Unit Statistics, click on the appropriate link for the desired organization. But instead of printing the report, copy and paste the entire contents to a spreadsheet, remove the sensitive columns, and print.
• Create a custom report for each organization that does not contain the sensitive information. This involves a bit of setup to get the reports right, but once you've done that, it will be really easy to run the reports each month -- just as easy as the other technique.