Is there a way to get addresses of former ward members?

[crislapi]

The simple answer is no. I suppose if there were an important reason for a bishop to locate a member, he could ask the Church for help. But MLS definitely provides no means for this, and the Church would not give such information to a clerk.

But you can use all the normal ways of finding lost members, such as those detailed here: http://www.ldsclerks.com/index.php?titl ... ng_Members

I agree that finding their new address, especially if you did not move their records out, would be very difficult. If you're like me (also a student clerk), another problem is that the turnover is so high that just finding the address where they lived when they were in the ward is a pain. In the past when I've had to get a hold of former members (usually outstanding checks), I've found it useful to load an old backup file. The nice thing about students is most have cell phones (phone number doesn't change), and emails are pretty reliable. See this post.

[jbh001]

We file every Transaction Report, Membership Update batch, and Membership Record that MLS offers to print during Send/Receives into a 5-foot tall filing cabinet. Currently we have filed all of these reports back to the inception of the ward 3-4 years ago.

We have been doing the same here with the exception that membership records get shredded anywhere from immediately (if they only have minor updates) to up to 4 weeks or so (on new move-ins so that HT/VT can be assigned and so forth).

Since the retention policy for non-financial records is vague (keep them until they are no longer required), I started filing them with the financial records. Thus when its time to shred another year's financial records, these other records get shredded at the same time.

We have also been filing quarterly reports along with their supporting reports and attendance rolls with the financial records for the same reason: after the retention period is up for the financial records, all the paper records for that year are shredded.

Edit: Okay, maybe not all, because we still have some old blessing, baptism, and priesthood ordination certificates/forms that I am loathe to shred until we have a membership audit from the stake. I've been waiting a few years for this to happen because the membership audit process was being revised (I think).

[aebrown]

...We have also been filing quarterly reports along with their supporting reports and attendance rolls with the financial records for the same reason: after the retention period is up for the financial records, all the paper records for that year are shredded.

Edit: Okay, maybe not all, because we still have some old blessing, baptism, and priesthood ordination certificates/forms that I am loathe to shred until we have a membership audit from the stake. I've been waiting a few years for this to happen because the membership audit process was being revised (I think).

Regarding membership audits, there was some uncertainty for a while, but certainly for 2008 there were clear instructions given to stakes regarding membership audits. MLS has a built-in feature for doing membership audits, and stakes are to do an annual membership audit using MLS. This is to be done by June 30 of each year. Unlike financial audits, the membership audits are not sent to CHQ, but they are still required to be done for many good reasons.

So if your stake hasn't been doing this, you might check with your stake clerk. He would probably be shocked (when do wards ever request an audit? ), but it is a good thing to do. Even if your stake doesn't follow through, there's nothing stopping a ward from doing a self-audit using MLS to make sure the issues are covered.