Tech Forum

Short of being a down right tyrant, how do many of you encouarge your auxillary leaders to turn in the statistics/enter them to MLS to complete your quarterly reports.

I would like for once to meet the stake deadline of having these completed.

kmalone wrote:Short of being a down right tyrant, how do many of you encouarge your auxillary leaders to turn in the statistics/enter them to MLS to complete your quarterly reports.

I would like for once to meet the stake deadline of having these completed.

I have tried several methods. One is calling them at 7:00 am in the morning to ask for the numbers, and then putting them in myself.

Another way is to assign them to speak in sacrament meeting if they do not get their reports in on time. In some wards, that would provide a surfeit of speakers.

When it is a repeat failure by the elders quorum or the high priests group, I have also been known to put zero on their report, and when the stake asks about it, suggest that they do some training for their Melchizedek Priesthood leaders.

But, in general, you just have to be persistent, smile a lot, and take away their car keys until they have finished.

Although mostly in good fun, our stake clerk imposes a $1/day "fine" for every day the reports are late. Any money collected (of course) is donated.

kmalone wrote:Short of being a down right tyrant, how do many of you encouarge your auxillary leaders to turn in the statistics/enter them to MLS to complete your quarterly reports.

I would like for once to meet the stake deadline of having these completed.

Very good situation to describe and one that is relevant in all sorts of situations within the church.

Both as a BP and as a clerk I used to be persistent and smile a lot, just like it was mentioned. I persisted by phoning twice a day and they knew if that didnt help I would then drive to their house to pick them up to get it sorted (yes some lived 25 miles away). Like with most similar situations you only have to do it a couple of times before people start to get the point and realise the extra work they are causing you.

Similar things can be applied as an EQ Pres/HPGL/RS Pres for HT/VT reporting.

I like to compare it against a train and a train station. We can all turn up at the train station on time and the main motivation we have for doing it is that we know the train will not wait for us. Crucially it is that beforehand we know the timetable.

The gospel is a bit like that (although the motivation should be far wider), steaming ahead on time and according to the Lords time schedule and we just need to make sure we managed to catch the train every day as otherwise the track is not so straight and narrow.

Like Larry, as the clerk, I would hound and hound, and when nothing was given, zeroes were entered (of course, I would report myself as attending PH meeting, and home teaching, so there'd be at least 1).

Once the Bishop, and especially the Stake Presidency, inquired, THEN they would turn it in and I would go back and update it accordingly. Of course, you'd think they'd learn after about the 7th time or so...

Perhaps you could remind them that their budget comes from the numbers imputed on the quarterly report. and since they had a zero their budget will be slashed accordingly since the ward wont be receiving their funds.

1historian wrote:Perhaps you could remind them that their budget comes from the numbers imputed on the quarterly report. and since they had a zero their budget will be slashed accordingly since the ward wont be receiving their funds.

Of course this would possibly only work if the EQ and HPG actually used what budget they have.

Greggo wrote:Of course this would possibly only work if the EQ and HPG actually used what budget they have.

Well the entire ward budget would be 0 for the quarter, so it wouldn't affect just the EQ and HPG -- there would be no money for any activities, Scouts, YM, YW, Primary, etc.

And the Church policy of withholding budget funds if the quarterly report is not submitted is not an idle threat; I know of at least one case where it actually happened. If the Church has no numbers, they have no choice but to withhold the budget allowance, since they can't just make up numbers. Of course, the stake would have to enforce this, since the reduction in budget allowance would be at the stake level, but since the reduction would be entirely attributable to one ward, if I were the stake president, I would make sure that the one ward felt all the pain. I doubt it would happen more than once.

kmalone wrote:Short of being a down right tyrant, how do many of you encouarge your auxillary leaders to turn in the statistics/enter them to MLS to complete your quarterly reports.

On the first Sunday following "sweeps" months (i.e. March, June, September, December), I go to the newly updated quarterly report, follow the links within the report for the various organizations (e.g. Primary, YM, YW, Melchizedek Priesthood Holders, Prospective Elders, Total Women), and print out the resulting sub-reports. I then hand them to the corresponding organization secretaries before the meeting block begins with instructions like:

"Please mark on this report those that attended your meetings at least once during the previous month, and then return it to me by the end of the meeting block. Remember to mark adults serving in Primary, YM, YW, full-time missionaries and other out-of-unit callings as having attended RS or Priesthood. Please write in anyone that does not show up on this report but should, so I can investigate it."

For HT/VT reporting, I enter zeros, and then gently remind the RS, EQ, HP that their respective VT/HT percentage remains zero until they update the computer and let me know they are done updating it. I then update the VT/HT visits on the quarterly report as the RS, EG, and HP let me know they have recorded all their visits in the computer. The quarterly report automatically updates and re-transmitts to CHQ whenever changes are made to it until the next quarterly report is generated.

Budget numbers are principally taken from sacrament meeting attendance, with additional numbers comming from Primary, YM, and YW attendance. So I don't think is is right to hold a budget over the RS, EQ, and HP leader's heads when budget is not tied to HT/VT visits reported.

Alan_Brown wrote:And the Church policy of withholding budget funds if the quarterly report is not submitted is not an idle threat; I know of at least one case where it actually happened.

Was it a case where it wasn't filed at all? For budgeting purposes, as long as the sacrament meeting attendance is reported, there's something to base funding on.