Receiving membership records not in our units

Discuss questions around local unit policies for membership (creating records, transferring records, etc.) This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
veehb
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Receiving membership records not in our units

#1

Post by veehb »

In the past few weeks one of our wards has received several membership records for members living outside our stake boundries. I called the membership and boundaries support group today and they asked me if the boundaries of our wards and stakes are correct. I checked them in the maps in LDS.org and yes they are all correct. They said that if our boundaries are correct that these membership records do not originate at church headquarters, but are being sent to the wrong unit by the ward they are leaving. Several of them belong in the stake just to the South of our stake.

When a ward clerk moves a membership record from his ward to a new ward, that record goes through church headquarters, doesn't it, before being sent on the the new ward? Is it true that church headquarters doesn't check the new address with the new ward? I was told that we needed to look up the correct ward on LDS.org and then forward the membership to that ward. Seems like there needs to be some kind of check at headquarters when the new membership record is created to be sure it is going to the correct ward, based on the new address. Am I missing something here?

I'm a stake executive secretary. Thanks for help on understanding this.
russellhltn
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#2

Post by russellhltn »

veehb wrote:I was told that we needed to look up the correct ward on LDS.org and then forward the membership to that ward.
No, you don't. There's absolutely no requirement to provide the new unit in most move-outs. In fact, that's probably the source of the problem. In most cases you only need the new address. Let CHQ figure out the unit. The problem comes when the old unit decides to be "helpful" but uses wrong or outdated information.

If you put the new unit on the move-out request, CHQ will assume you know what you're doing and will follow that direction - regardless of how wrong the address might be.

But, since you're on the receiving end, there's not much you can do other then look for a pattern to see if there's someone you need to teach "correct principles" to.

Now, there are times when providing the unit would be a very good idea - such as when you're sending them to a singles or language ward. Failing to do that will cause their record to end up in the family ward for that area.
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veehb
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Location: Taylorsville, Utah, USA

Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#3

Post by veehb »

Thanks for the clarification. We will instruct our ward clerks to only send the new address when moving a membership out of the ward and not try to find the new ward. I can see how this can really cause problems (like it did for one of our wards with wrong incoming membership records). Good point on moving to singles wards, etc. where it is necessary to put the new unit number on the request. It makes sense to notate that when it applies.

Thanks again for the information.
jacknclegg
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#4

Post by jacknclegg »

I am the Membership Clerk in our Ward and I live over 30 miles from the Ward House. I need to be able to do my job from home. I have not been able to move member records. I am using Clerk Resources under LDS.ORG. I can update and change member records, but can't find a way to move a record without driving into the church and use MLS. We only have one computer and everyone in the ward leadership wants to use the computer so I really need to be able to do my work from home.
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aebrown
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#5

Post by aebrown »

jacknclegg wrote:I have not been able to move member records. I am using Clerk Resources under LDS.ORG. I can update and change member records, but can't find a way to move a record without driving into the church and use MLS.
As I understand it, that capability is under development, so you should have your wish granted soon (but I have no way to clarify what "soon" means).
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Biggles
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#6

Post by Biggles »

The ability to move records out is available under the beta version of Clerk Resources. The option to try the beta version has been made available to us Clerks, in the UK at least, for the last few weeks. I thought the beta test had been opened up to everyone, but I could be mistaken on that!

Check to see if there is a pale blue banner on the Clerk Resources home page, follow the instructions and with the necessary permissions from the Bishop and Stake President, accept the terms & conditions, and away you go!
jasonfitt
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#7

Post by jasonfitt »

russellhltn wrote:
veehb wrote:I was told that we needed to look up the correct ward on LDS.org and then forward the membership to that ward.
No, you don't. There's absolutely no requirement to provide the new unit in most move-outs. In fact, that's probably the source of the problem. In most cases you only need the new address. Let CHQ figure out the unit. The problem comes when the old unit decides to be "helpful" but uses wrong or outdated information.

If you put the new unit on the move-out request, CHQ will assume you know what you're doing and will follow that direction - regardless of how wrong the address might be.

But, since you're on the receiving end, there's not much you can do other then look for a pattern to see if there's someone you need to teach "correct principles" to.

Now, there are times when providing the unit would be a very good idea - such as when you're sending them to a singles or language ward. Failing to do that will cause their record to end up in the family ward for that area.
When I move records I look in the 'Meetinghouse Locator' link on LDS.org to see what ward a particular address is in, and then move it to that ward accordingly. I assumed that's the same system that CHQ uses to determine where to send a record, and is up to date. Is that wrong?
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aebrown
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#8

Post by aebrown »

jasonfitt wrote:When I move records I look in the 'Meetinghouse Locator' link on LDS.org to see what ward a particular address is in, and then move it to that ward accordingly. I assumed that's the same system that CHQ uses to determine where to send a record, and is up to date. Is that wrong?
It's not necessarily wrong, but in most cases it's unnecessary, and in some cases it could be wrong.

As RussellHltn explained, specifying the ward doesn't really help if you're moving records to a regular ward -- if you don't supply an address, the Church will simply move the records to the correct ward based on the address anyway. If you make a mistake in which ward you specify, you'll force the records to go to the ward you specified, regardless of the address.

I think it's best to leave the destination ward blank, except in cases where you are moving records to a student, language-specific, or some other ward other than the default residential ward for the destination address.
davesudweeks
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#9

Post by davesudweeks »

aebrown wrote:If you make a mistake in which ward you specify, you'll force the records to go to the ward you specified, regardless of the address.

I think it's best to leave the destination ward blank, except in cases where you are moving records to a student, language-specific, or some other ward other than the default residential ward for the destination address.
We experienced this from wards in our own stake after a boundary change. They kept throwing members into our ward instead of the other ward (main boundary went from N-S to E-W so about 50% of the addresses changed wards). They thought they were helping, but made things worse. My advise is always, "the Church is very smart about getting records in the correct ward - allow their process to work because the clerk of the losing ward often does not know about changes in what they think is the gaining ward." Things are better with the LDS Maps function now, but still...

Other than a nuisance, this can cause a problem if the sending ward flags the record for the bishop to contact the prior bishop. Since the member really is not in the ward that receives the record, it would be inapproprate for that Bishop to have that discussion with the prior bishop and also adds a level of complexity to communication the private information to the actual ward. If the clerk then forwards the record to the correct ward, there is no way to "forward" the "contact prior bishop" flag to refer to the original ward.
spencerwbingham
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Re: Receiving membership records not in our units

#10

Post by spencerwbingham »

You can't simply move records to a different ward if you don't have the address. I tried that and had to go to Bishops approval. If you have the address it will be much easier. However if you don't have the address than it won't move until you go down checklist. Even than may not get records out. Calling someone and requesting records makes job a lot easier, As is changing address and number of people that move within ward boundaries. Moving people out should happen soon I think.

I doubt we will ever be able to record events from home. Maybe can edit things like households.
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