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Non-MLS Units

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 8:47 pm
by aspencer
I am in Russia for a year, and most of the units here are not on MLS. Instead, a centralized "CMIS" system is used, based out of Moscow, which is, overall, a disaster for record-keeping. Changes (corrections) to records are supposed to be faxed to Moscow, and updates are sent out (on paper) every three months. In my branch, for instance, there are dozens of major issues, ranging from missing children (the largest problem by far, I'd estimate there are over 1,000 children of record missing from the records in Russia; 10 in our branch alone), to missing baptisms and priesthood ordinations, to move-ins and -outs which are years out of date, to marriages (and surname changes) missing.
Most of these problems would be much, much, much easier to fix (and more likely to be fixed) if there was local ability to make corrections directly. Presumably, when units get MLS here, that will become the case.
When I had my records sent here, my family is the only one that shows up for the District, let alone our branch, in LDS Tools or on the web site. This tells me that the Moscow system is not integrated in to the Church-wide system.
Can somebody here convey the scale of the problem (and our corresponding frustration) to somebody in the Membership Department?
Shepherding the flock requires that we know our sheep, but without good records, it's difficult to know them.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 10:55 am
by jonesrk
aspencer wrote:I am in Russia for a year, and most of the units here are not on MLS.
aspencer wrote: When I had my records sent here, my family is the only one that shows up for the District, let alone our branch, in LDS Tools or on the web site.
Is Russia one of the countries where members have to opt-in to show up in the directory?
If so then that would match what you are seeing, you can only see yourself and anyone who has opted in.

Those in leadership positions can see everyone still.
aspencer wrote: This tells me that the Moscow system is not integrated in to the Church-wide system.
Actually CMIS is the back end for membership information church wide. MLS is just a useful front end copy of the CMIS data. At this point in time CMIS is fully integrated and all memberships are within the one system. Certain areas may only have access into CMIS data for memberships within there respective area.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 7:10 pm
by aspencer
JonesRK wrote:Is Russia one of the countries where members have to opt-in to show up in the directory?
If so then that would match what you are seeing, you can only see yourself and anyone who has opted in.
No, I don't think so. Nobody here is even aware of that option.
JonesRK wrote:Those in leadership positions can see everyone still.

Actually CMIS is the back end for membership information church wide. MLS is just a useful front end copy of the CMIS data. At this point in time CMIS is fully integrated and all memberships are within the one system. Certain areas may only have access into CMIS data for memberships within there respective area.

The bigger problem is lack of local ability to make changes/corrections to the data. Since callings don't get updated is the system in a timely manner, even if the above situation were the case, access would be available to all the wrong people.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 7:46 pm
by greggo
It sounds like Russia is on a similar system to what I had in Japan before they rolled out MLS sometime in 2005.
Membership records were all paper based at the ward/branch level and changes were made by hand revising the pink copies and mailing them in to the Tokyo Administration office.
Updated records were then sent back once/week. Once/mo. we'd get the typical lists for our ward from the stake as they received them for all the units from the Tokyo Adm office.

Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 3:50 am
by aspencer
Sounds the same, except we only get them back quarterly. It's a disaster for the integrity of the records