Tech Forum

We have had cases in our ward lately where the bishop indicated we should pull a record into our ward, and then a few days (or within a week) that record is pulled back to the originating ward (minor child, divorced parents, custody, etc.). We have also had times where we have sent a YSA record to a ward, as we verified that is where the individual is living, just to have it sent back to us. We sent it a second time to the apartment address (YSA ward) and it was again sent back to us within a week or two. Finally, on the 3rd try, it "stuck" and did not "bounce back" to our ward.

For these reasons and for simplicity and better communication it would be GREAT to have a "notes" field that can be filled out by the person requesting or sending the records. Something simple, where I can put something like "verified with Mother that this young sister has moved to apartment on college campus and will be attending YSA ward" or "this boy has been living with her grandmother but due to custody will now be living with her father in our ward. The bishop spoke to the boy as well as the bishop in her former ward and father and all agree that her record should reside in our ward."

Finally, when listing the former ward that the record resided in or when listing the date the record was moved in or out it would be great to see WHO moved that such as "moved (in/out) by John Jones who's calling is Ward Clerk of the Zion Ward". This would aid in preventing the bouncing back and forth from ward to ward.

OK, so one more future enhancement: Maybe flagging a record that has been moved a lot recently? As a software tester, I always thought it would be 'fun' (my definition of fun is skewed here) to have me sit at my computer terminal in the clerks office and the clerk of the other ward sit at his terminal and transfer my record (or my wife's?) back and forth between the two wards continuously and see if a flag or warning was issued after it went back-and-forth between the wards a couple of dozen times in a matter of minutes?

I think the church is a bit leery of "free form" fields when it comes to membership records. You never know when something legally embarrassing would be entered there.

There are a couple of tools that can help in your situation. The main one is to send a email to the other bishop explaining the situation. The other tool is to "lock" the record to prevent a move-out. I think you have to contact Local Unit Support for that. That may be helpful in cases where the children bounce back and forth between divorced parents and the other ward keeps forgetting that it was agreed that you'd keep the records. Also if the member is in the process of being disciplined and are looking for a "new start" in a ward that doesn't know their past.

I believe a bishop or ward clerk can put a move restriction on a record in their ward without contacting Local Unit Support, to keep the record from moving out. If I remember correctly, this is done from the member's profile page on Leader and Clerk Resources.

If a record bounces back to you after you purposefully send it out, the first thing I would do is contact the clerk by phone or email. Sending it back and forth multiple times will only lead to frustration on both ends, because both of you are trying to do your job.

sbradshaw wrote:I believe a bishop or ward clerk can put a move restriction on a record in their ward without contacting Local Unit Support, to keep the record from moving out. If I remember correctly, this is done from the member's profile page on Leader and Clerk Resources.

Yes. There is a checkbox under the Actions menu just to the right of the profile picture.

sbradshaw wrote:If a record bounces back to you after you purposefully send it out, the first thing I would do is contact the clerk by phone or email. Sending it back and forth multiple times will only lead to frustration on both ends, because both of you are trying to do your job.

I can think of only a few reasons why a record would come back:

• Insufficient/incorrect contact information. (Things like a bad address, or a address in a secured building with no other means of contact.)
• Member lives outside the boundaries of that ward.
• The bishop knows the member and considers them to be a member of another ward.
• In the case of a YSA ward, the bishop may have a policy about less-active members. In that case, it might we wise to consult Handbook 1: 9.1.6, "Membership", 4th paragraph.

Notes would definitely be helpful; as the church doesn't yest support many common scenario's such as:
- Members who move back to parents' homes who do not want members at their residence
- Members who move to sibling's homes who do not want members at their residence
- Preferred method of contact (would go along way towards the above 2 scenarios)
- youth with divorced parents that have Joint & Equal custody
- retired or wealthy with multiple residences to which they repetitively frequent

sdunham wrote:- youth with divorced parents that have Joint & Equal custody
- retired or wealthy with multiple residences to which they repetitively frequent

Both of these are supported by current systems.