I've merged your post with an existing thread of the subject. It seems to be causing some confusion for several clerks.dennisorvaldavis wrote:I'm new to the membership calling so I don't know if there is an error in the records somewhere or does the program put out this error automatically for folks over a certain age?
Membership audit 'Unrecorded marriage', how to fix?
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russellhltn
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Re: Ward Audit - Unrecorded marriage of female over 50 yoa
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jtjacks
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Re: Membership audit 'Unrecorded marriage', how to fix?
Hi Dennis,
Look at her record - family tab. If (a) it doesn't show a marriage, and (b) nobody in leadership told you she is actually married (as part of the membership audit), it is probably just a mistake in the audit.
There is a step in the audit where you are presented with a list of people for whom the system has no marriage information, and you are asked to "check the box" for people who are actually married, but whose records don't show the marriage. If you check that box, then the system will show it as an exception and start nagging you to get the marriage information.
If that box was checked in error for your member during the audit, SLC won't fix it in the current audit and the system will hound you to record her marriage information. In other words, if you checked the box in error, or if the error crept in some other way (data errors) SLC says they won't change the audit, even if it is wrong. SLC says the only way to fix it is to submit a complete new audit. Note that you can also just choose to ignore the exception and system nagging and do nothing about it (and let your ward and stake clerks know that you are doing so). Then enter it correctly next time you do an audit (you can actually do a membership audit at any time - you don't have to wait for the deadline).
Also note that if you checked the box (not in error) but have no practical way to get the marriage information (unfortunately common with some less active members), the system will basically hound you forever (or until you stop checking the box in each year's audit or actually get the marriage information). Makes me wonder why anyone would ever check that box. If you had the marriage information at hand, you would just record the marriage. If you didn't have the marriage information, you would just be setting up an error to nag you forever.
Look at her record - family tab. If (a) it doesn't show a marriage, and (b) nobody in leadership told you she is actually married (as part of the membership audit), it is probably just a mistake in the audit.
There is a step in the audit where you are presented with a list of people for whom the system has no marriage information, and you are asked to "check the box" for people who are actually married, but whose records don't show the marriage. If you check that box, then the system will show it as an exception and start nagging you to get the marriage information.
If that box was checked in error for your member during the audit, SLC won't fix it in the current audit and the system will hound you to record her marriage information. In other words, if you checked the box in error, or if the error crept in some other way (data errors) SLC says they won't change the audit, even if it is wrong. SLC says the only way to fix it is to submit a complete new audit. Note that you can also just choose to ignore the exception and system nagging and do nothing about it (and let your ward and stake clerks know that you are doing so). Then enter it correctly next time you do an audit (you can actually do a membership audit at any time - you don't have to wait for the deadline).
Also note that if you checked the box (not in error) but have no practical way to get the marriage information (unfortunately common with some less active members), the system will basically hound you forever (or until you stop checking the box in each year's audit or actually get the marriage information). Makes me wonder why anyone would ever check that box. If you had the marriage information at hand, you would just record the marriage. If you didn't have the marriage information, you would just be setting up an error to nag you forever.
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dennisorvaldavis
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Re: Membership audit 'Unrecorded marriage', how to fix?
JTJ, Thank you for the reply. I dug a little deeper and found that her husband (deceased) is listed plus a date of marriage. She is not active and has joined another sect so information will be difficult to obtain. Three sons carry the last name of the deceased father. I'm told that there is a fourth child with a different last name. As I mentioned, I'm new to this calling, but I feel that this audit error has been there for many years.
You said that an audit can be done at any time. Can an audit be done without the results being sent to SLC? I'd love to have an audit worksheet that shows what errors I can work on before the next official audit is submitted.
You said that an audit can be done at any time. Can an audit be done without the results being sent to SLC? I'd love to have an audit worksheet that shows what errors I can work on before the next official audit is submitted.
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jtjacks
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Re: Membership audit 'Unrecorded marriage', how to fix?
Sorry for the delay i responding.
If nobody has been "checking the box" for the sister you mentioned, then it would seem that there has been an audit issue for a while, it just hasn't been tracked in the system.
Personally, I am seriously considering not "checking the box" for any members where we suspect they are married, but we don't think we will be able to get complete information about the marriage in a reasonable time. All "checking the box" will do is create an audit exception, which we will have no practical way to clear. Last thing we need is an automated nag to raise issues with the stake, etc. Instead, I think I will create a paper tracking list and review it with our PEC periodically. If we can get marriage information, I will enter it. Until we have the information, the issue won't be flagged as an ongoing exception to waste the time of our leaders.
It is really disappointing that the system developers can't be more helpful with the tool design so that we could use it to help track issues instead of making them big red errors we would have to spend too much time trying to explain again and again. I guess it is just another example of "things you have to do to manage your calling despite the systems."
To answer your question - yes, you can start an audit and not submit it to SLC. Until you click the button to submit the audit to SLC, you can use it as a local tool. Unfortunately, it is the only way I know to get at some of the information the audit generates. If SLC looks (which they likely won't), they will see that you have started an audit, but they won't really care about it.
If nobody has been "checking the box" for the sister you mentioned, then it would seem that there has been an audit issue for a while, it just hasn't been tracked in the system.
Personally, I am seriously considering not "checking the box" for any members where we suspect they are married, but we don't think we will be able to get complete information about the marriage in a reasonable time. All "checking the box" will do is create an audit exception, which we will have no practical way to clear. Last thing we need is an automated nag to raise issues with the stake, etc. Instead, I think I will create a paper tracking list and review it with our PEC periodically. If we can get marriage information, I will enter it. Until we have the information, the issue won't be flagged as an ongoing exception to waste the time of our leaders.
It is really disappointing that the system developers can't be more helpful with the tool design so that we could use it to help track issues instead of making them big red errors we would have to spend too much time trying to explain again and again. I guess it is just another example of "things you have to do to manage your calling despite the systems."
To answer your question - yes, you can start an audit and not submit it to SLC. Until you click the button to submit the audit to SLC, you can use it as a local tool. Unfortunately, it is the only way I know to get at some of the information the audit generates. If SLC looks (which they likely won't), they will see that you have started an audit, but they won't really care about it.