Membership Record in Wrong Ward

Discuss questions around local unit policies for membership (creating records, transferring records, etc.) This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
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aebrown
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#11

Post by aebrown »

RussellHltn wrote:That's why I said "if possible" ;)

But that does bring up a good point. Just how is the record being sent? If the clerk is sending it to another ward and not supplying the address (because it's already correct) then the ward receiving it isn't going to see the address and of there's a good chance they are going to send it back.
When you send a record, you supply the address if you can. You only omit the address if you don't know it (in which case -- and only that case -- you can supply a comment).

So in the case at hand, the record should be sent to the other ward, and the address should be supplied, since it is known. So the receiving ward will see the address.
greggo
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#12

Post by greggo »

Without knowing what your ward clerk did, I would suspect that the reason the record keeps coming back is because he is sending it to the other ward, but a clerk in the other ward thinks it in your ward boundaries and keeps sending it back.

This has happened to me more than once - usually because it was outside our stake.
danpass
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#13

Post by danpass »

Alan_Brown wrote:
RussellHltn wrote:But that does bring up a good point. Just how is the record being sent? If the clerk is sending it to another ward and not supplying the address (because it's already correct) then the ward receiving it isn't going to see the address and of there's a good chance they are going to send it back.
When you send a record, you supply the address if you can. You only omit the address if you don't know it (in which case -- and only that case -- you can supply a comment).

So in the case at hand, the record should be sent to the other ward, and the address should be supplied, since it is known. So the receiving ward will see the address.
This is correct. However, as Russell points out, the clerk that is attempting to move the record to the other unit may be neglecting to input the address. It's an easy mistake for a clerk to make. Unless one knows better, if there is no change in address, it is reasonable to assume that there is no need to even go to the address section when moving a record.

As I suggested in this post, when you are moving a record to another unit, MLS should not assume (as it does now) that the address will be changing and blank it out.

At the end of the above mentioned post, I recommended:
danpass wrote: Add a check box control on panels where you are asked to enter contact information or addresses for a household or individual that lets you choose to preserve the existing data.
Upon further reflection, I believe the following would be even better...

Place 3 radio buttons on the address form displayed when moving a record. The labels for these buttons would be something like:
  • New Address
  • Keep Current Address
  • New Address Unknown
MLS would not preselect a default. MLS should require the clerk to choose one before allowing him to finalize the request.
jdlessley
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Issue Resolved

#14

Post by jdlessley »

I provided step-by-step instructions to the clerk on how to move records out when the new unit and address is known. He had not been entering the new unit nor the member's address since he had never dealt with a move out in this manner. So now I think the records will be sent to the correct ward with no further problem.

Note: Having a copy of MLS available on my home computer with test data sure helps when trying to troubleshoot issues, or in this case provide step-by-step instructions. Before providing the instructions to the clerk he was certain he could only send the records to Salt Lake and not designate the new ward nor the address for the move.

Thanks for the support everyone!
JD Lessley
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jwtaber
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#15

Post by jwtaber »

RussellHltn wrote:That's why I said "if possible" ;)

But that does bring up a good point. Just how is the record being sent? If the clerk is sending it to another ward and not supplying the address (because it's already correct) then the ward receiving it isn't going to see the address and of there's a good chance they are going to send it back.
To me, one of the cardinal rules of being a membership clerk is that you never send a record to another unit without an address.
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mkmurray
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#16

Post by mkmurray »

JTaber wrote:To me, one of the cardinal rules of being a membership clerk is that you never send a record to another unit without an address.
While that's a good rule to follow generally, I would say if the person moved 6 months ago and you still don't have the forwarding address (and you also don't have a reasonable way of contacting the members), then you should move it out of your ward and let CHQ seek them out, which goes to Address Unknown world. If you do know the unit at least, I would say that's better than sending it to Address Unknown.

But I do agree with you that if you have the means to contact the member and it's been under 6 months or so since they moved out, I would keep it in your ward while you try to find out the forwarding address.
AaronJames
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#17

Post by AaronJames »

danpass wrote:This is correct. However, as Russell points out, the clerk that is attempting to move the record to the other unit may be neglecting to input the address. It's an easy mistake for a clerk to make. Unless one knows better, if there is no change in address, it is reasonable to assume that there is no need to even go to the address section when moving a record.

As I suggested in this post, when you are moving a record to another unit, MLS should not assume (as it does now) that the address will be changing and blank it out.

At the end of the above mentioned post, I recommended:


Upon further reflection, I believe the following would be even better...

Place 3 radio buttons on the address form displayed when moving a record. The labels for these buttons would be something like:
  • New Address
  • Keep Current Address
  • New Address Unknown
MLS would not preselect a default. MLS should require the clerk to choose one before allowing him to finalize the request.
To add into this for Singles\students wards when they have members moving back to their home ward add in "Move back to last unit" with their old address as most of the time they are moving back to their home ward.

Also with most everyone having cell phones add in an option to keep phone # and e-mail address, as when a new ward receives their rec's they have some way of contacting them, or something to go off of
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