Tech Forum

Our Stake has asked us to obtain a new form called the "New and Returning Member Progress" report. It is supposed to have a SKU of 08616000.

I have searched the ldscatalog site for it and cannot find it. Has anyone heard of it or know where I can get it?

- Garrett
Kelly Creek Ward
Gresham OR Stake
Ward Clerk

gdow wrote:Our Stake has asked us to obtain a new form called the "New and Returning Member Progress" report. It is supposed to have a SKU of 08616000.

I have searched the ldscatalog site for it and cannot find it. Has anyone heard of it or know where I can get it?

The form is available on lds.org under Serving in the Church > Melchizedek Priesthood > Conversion and Retention.

That page does mention that it is available from Distribution Services, but I agree that it doesn't seem to be on ldscatalog.com yet.

As a followup, this form is also available now in MLS, as of v 3.1.2.

If you navigate to the form from the Reports/Forms menu in MLS, you can select a member and MLS will fill in the header information (name/address/phone, home teachers, baptism dates, etc) for you.

Perhaps you could be more specific on how to get to the Reports/Forms menu in MLS because I am the Ward Mission Leader and I can't seem to find it, do I have to be in the Bishopric or something?

mjnestor wrote:Perhaps you could be more specific on how to get to the Reports/Forms menu in MLS because I am the Ward Mission Leader and I can't seem to find it, do I have to be in the Bishopric or something?

My guess is that you have been given only Organization privileges for MLS. I'm not sure if people with Organization privileges are supposed to be able to access this report (although it certainly seems that a Ward Mission Leader should be able to access this particular report).

In any case, whether it's a bug or a feature, MLS will allow you to access the New/Returning Member Progress Report by using the Reports/Forms menu:

I was looking all over lds.org for that form. type into google, and voila! I found it in two clicks.

modameister wrote:I was looking all over lds.org for that form. type into google, and voila! I found it in two clicks.

Yes, the form is on lds.org under Serving in the Church > Melchizedek Priesthood > Conversion and Retention. The direct link is here.

But there's a significant advantage to using the form in MLS -- you can specify which member to put on the form, and MLS will fill in a lot of information for you automatically.

It appears that this becomes a paper form that must be maintained and filed. Will this eventually be available on line for collaboration and updating?

smodell wrote:It appears that this becomes a paper form that must be maintained and filed. Will this eventually be available on line for collaboration and updating?

I am also trying to have MLS retain a filled in version of the form electronically so we can update every month more easily rather than refilling everything in MLS again each month based on previous month's paper copy. Does anyone know how to do that?

stakayama7 wrote:

smodell wrote:It appears that this becomes a paper form that must be maintained and filed. Will this eventually be available on line for collaboration and updating?

I am also trying to have MLS retain a filled in version of the form electronically so we can update every month more easily rather than refilling everything in MLS again each month based on previous month's paper copy. Does anyone know how to do that?

If you find yourself typing the same information into the form and printing it multiple times, here is something that can help you. You can "print" the report to a PDF file, which would save any information that you typed in to the form before printing it. Then, you can print the PDF file, saving you the steps of 1) Logging in to MLS and 2) Typing the information into the report.
The above method would capture and save the "Names(s) of ward council member(s)" field, which must be entered manually. All other fields are pulled from the MLS database and should be recorded in their primary location. For example, "Names and ages of children" is pulled from the member's Individual Record and should be recorded there. The same applies for the fields Home teachers, Visiting teachers, Address, Phone, etc.

However, I suspect that what you are after is some way to save entries under "Date completed." I agree this would be a wonderful addition, for three reasons: First, the form is distributed to four different leaders or members of the ward (see the small print at the bottom). Second, the form is updated over a period of time. Third, this form will be used over a period of at least a year. Considering these three facts together, this form would benefit greatly from storing the information in MLS and then distributing updated copies to each person on the distribution list. Or, even better, an online version of the form, to which each of the four leaders or members could add, and which all could see the latest copy. I'm sure this is what smodell and stakayama7 intended above, but I felt to expound and repeat it here (five months later).

I just thought of another idea, building on the PDF idea above, you could add "comments" to the PDF file, which could then be an electronic, updatable copy of the form. It's kludgy and not in MLS, but I offer it in hopes that it will help.