Tech Forum

Has anyone found a list, or been productive and created your own list, of the now standardized calling names being used in MLS 3.0?

We want to do our best to work within the standard callings in Bishopric and when issuing/sustaining/setting apart callings but the only place I saw the list was inside the Custom Calling List when I showed all Standard Callings and only a few of the 186 show at a time. I was not able to copy the list into a spread sheet.

Thanks. John

Ctrl-Shift-C, once you click on a name (to set the window focus)
should let you copy it to the clipboard, and a spreadsheet.

Noticed there is no provision for a Sacrament Program Specialist.

It's probably too late for the 3.0 release, but an extra field say
"Calling description" or "Notes" for each calling record would be nice.
For example, I might have 3 "Den Mother"s and would
tie them in to this "official" calling name, but for local use
it would be nice to be able to say that one "Den Mother" was
in charge of "Bobcats", one in charge of "Wolves", and one in
charge of the "Bears".

Basically, this "notes" field would allow standardized callings names
to be used, yet maintain the details local leaders need to operate.
Without such a field, leaders would be more inclined to use the
more descriptive custom calling of "Bear Den Mother" instead of
the generic "Den Mother".

atticusewig wrote:Ctrl-Shift-C, once you click on a name (to set the window focus) should let you copy it to the clipboard, and a spreadsheet.

That's good advice, but you still have to find a place in MLS where a more complete list of callings can be viewed. In most places, the callings are filtered by context; e.g., when you are adding a calling to the YW organization, you only see YW callings.

The best way I have found to see a pretty complete list is to go to the Custom Callings Review, click on the "Find nearest match" link, then click the Show All button at the bottom. Then you should be able to click on an item in the list and do Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the whole list. I've done that and it gets most of the callings.

At least at the stake level, it leaves off callings that have to be entered using the Leader and Unit Change Request, such as the stake presidency, stake clerk, and stake executive secretary.

n4yrd wrote:Has anyone found a list, or been productive and created your own list, of the now standardized calling names being used in MLS 3.0?

This seems like a great idea for a new wiki article, perhaps as a sub-article to the MLS one.

Alan_Brown wrote:The best way I have found to see a pretty complete list is to go to the Custom Callings Review, click on the "Find nearest match" link, then click the Show All button at the bottom.

I've been trying to get a list of callings to see how it can best be done. I tried to find the Custom Callings Review you mentioned. The closest I could find is a Custom Positions Review that is available on the Organizations > Reports/Tools > Custom Positions Review menu item. But when I get to that page there is nothing on the page except a 'Close' button and empty Position, Organization, and Member columns (test data base). Could you provide more information on how you get to the Custom Callings Review if it is not the Custom Positions Review page I found?

jdlessley wrote:I've been trying to get a list of callings to see how it can best be done. I tried to find the Custom Callings Review you mentioned. The closest I could find is a Custom Positions Review that is available on the Organizations > Reports/Tools > Custom Positions Review menu item. But when I get to that page there is nothing on the page except a 'Close' button and empty Position, Organization, and Member columns (test data base). Could you provide more information on how you get to the Custom Callings Review if it is not the Custom Positions Review page I found?

That's the page -- I was just listing the name from memory. You're right that it is called "Custom Positions Review."

It's blank on the test data, because nobody is assigned to a position by default. In order to have something show up on that list, you have to create at least one custom calling with a person assigned to it.

mkmurray wrote:This seems like a great idea for a new wiki article, perhaps as a sub-article to the MLS one.

I'm not so sure. There are 186 ward callings currently and 69 stake callings (plus 5 that can't be assigned in the normal ways) to make 260 callings right now. It seems like a lot of tedious work to maintain that list, as it is certain that it will change with MLS updates.

What are you envisioning that would be the great benefit of such a wiki article? The latest version of MLS always has the latest list built in, so the people who need to see it have access to it already.

I've attached a spreadsheet with the callings, in case anyone is curious.

Alan_Brown wrote:There are 186 ward callings currently and 69 stake callings (plus 5 that can't be assigned in the normal ways) to make 260 callings right now.

After going through the MLS Custom Positions Review for both the ward and the stake I come up with 156 ward callings and 69 stake callings. Thirty (30) of the ward callings are listed as 'out of unit' which are in fact stake callings. Those out of unit callings for the ward are duplicated in the stake callings list. That begs the question - why are only 30 of the 69 stake callings listed in the ward callings list as 'out of unit' instead of all 69?

jdlessley wrote:That begs the question - why are only 30 of the 69 stake callings listed in the ward callings list as 'out of unit' instead of all 69?

How many of the 69 stake callings prevents the member from holding a ward calling? I suspect the main reason that stake callings are recorded at the ward level is to prevent that member from showing up in the "Members without callings" list.

RussellHltn wrote:How many of the 69 stake callings prevents the member from holding a ward calling?

I can understand asking this question to some degree. But in answering it I am compelled to say that there are only a few callings that prevent a member from holding a calling at the stake level and another at the ward level. From the standardized callings positions list I hold four stake callings and one ward calling.

I think one of the purposes for the standardized positions list is explained in the MLS Release Notes:

Recording Church positions (callings). When recording a calling, MLS now contains messages that encourage clerks to use standard position names and discourages the creation of custom positions. As the Church begins to provide local leaders and members access to Church applications and programs over the Web, the Church must limit access to authorized users only. For example, someone with the position of “Ward Clerk” in MLS could access a clerk Web site, but someone with the custom position of “Senior Clerk” would not be admitted to the site. Use custom positions only when no standard position fits the calling, because custom positions cannot be used to access Church Web applications.

RussellHltn wrote:I suspect the main reason that stake callings are recorded at the ward level is to prevent that member from showing up in the "Members without callings" list.

Taking that reasoning a little farther would indicate that the ward level standardized positions list would include all (for the current MLS beta version that is 69) the stake callings and not just 30 of them.