MLS records for part member families

[dshep2020]

I have looked around other posts for the answer to this problem. If I missed the solution which has already been answered, my apologies.

We are uncovering an odd problem in our MLS membership information. I can't put my finger on if it was a MLS upgrade issue or human error.

We have a number of part member families in our ward. Recently it was discovered that the non-member spouse record was duplicated and listed a single member. Let me illustrate.

How it was listed a few months ago:
John Doe - Non-Member, HoH, Married, MRN (the non-member type)
Jane Doe - Member, Spouse, Married, MRN

What we are seeing:
John Doe - Non-Member, HoH, Single, different MRN
John Doe - Non-Member, HoH, Married, MRN
Jane Doe - Member, Other, Married, MRN

We see this on all the part member families in MLS (about 12 of them). Pretty strange. Has anyone else experienced this? I won't discount that it was a membership clerk who may caused this issue, but it kind of seems like a MLS problem.

Also, MLS help suggest that non-member husbands should be listed as Head of Households (HoH). Just want to verify that this is how we should be listing them. We have had a couple request to change the sister to the HoH. Is there any reason why we should NOT be doing this?

Thanks!

[aebrown]

I have looked around other posts for the answer to this problem. If I missed the solution which has already been answered, my apologies.

We are uncovering an odd problem in our MLS membership information. I can't put my finger on if it was a MLS upgrade issue or human error.

We have a number of part member families in our ward. Recently it was discovered that the non-member spouse record was duplicated and listed a single member. Let me illustrate.

How it was listed a few months ago:
John Doe - Non-Member, HoH, Married, MRN (the non-member type)
Jane Doe - Member, Spouse, Married, MRN

What we are seeing:
John Doe - Non-Member, HoH, Single, different MRN
John Doe - Non-Member, HoH, Married, MRN
Jane Doe - Member, Other, Married, MRN

We see this on all the part member families in MLS (about 12 of them). Pretty strange. Has anyone else experienced this? I won't discount that it was a membership clerk who may caused this issue, but it kind of seems like a MLS problem.

This has been discussed at length in several other threads. The most recent ones are:

Issues with nonmember spouse records added by "Add Spouse to Household" link
Non Member Spouses

But older threads also discuss it:

Spouse showing as "Other"
Spouse Listed at Other

Basically, the fix is to remove the nonmember record and then add it again by going to the member wife's individual record, making sure that the spouse information is entered correctly, and then choosing the Add Spouse to Household link. This procedure is detailed in the MLS Software Manual on page 11.

Also, MLS help suggest that non-member husbands should be listed as Head of Households (HoH). Just want to verify that this is how we should be listing them. We have had a couple request to change the sister to the HoH. Is there any reason why we should NOT be doing this?

If you have the sister listed as HoH, then the husband can't be listed as her husband in that household. That seems to be reason enough to have the husband listed as HoH. Of course, if the husband doesn't want to be in MLS at all, then the sister would have to be HoH and there's no issue.

[dshep2020]

This has been discussed at length in several other threads. The most recent ones are:

Issues with nonmember spouse records added by "Add Spouse to Household" link
Non Member Spouses

But older threads also discuss it:

Spouse showing as "Other"
Spouse Listed at Other

Basically, the fix is to remove the nonmember record and then add it again by going to the member wife's individual record, making sure that the spouse information is entered correctly, and then choosing the Add Spouse to Household link. This procedure is detailed in the MLS Software Manual on page 11.



If you have the sister listed as HoH, then the husband can't be listed as her husband in that household. That seems to be reason enough to have the husband listed as HoH. Of course, if the husband doesn't want to be in MLS at all, then the sister would have to be HoH and there's no issue.

Yeah...I agree that the Head of Household items and spouse designation have been discussed, I am concerned that a duplicate record listing the non-member spouse is being created. The whole HoH is a difficult one...and maybe one of our clerks was trying to work around it and created a bunch of duplicate records. None have indicated that they have done that type of thing....but just trying to figure out where the duplicate record came from.

[mkmurray]

Yeah...I agree that the Head of Household items and spouse designation have been discussed, I am concerned that a duplicate record listing the non-member spouse is being created. The whole HoH is a difficult one...and maybe one of our clerks was trying to work around it and created a bunch of duplicate records. None have indicated that they have done that type of thing....but just trying to figure out where the duplicate record came from.

We're all pretty much in agreement that the current implementation of MLS encourages recognizing the husband as the Head of Household, member or not. This implementation assumption could be carried even further into other parts of the software as well, for example in reporting functionalities, directory making, or even HT/VT assignments. If a household doesn't conform to the "default scenario," it wouldn't be surprising if the way the data comes out in some given report or view comes off odd or missing. Following that logic, it could then be reasonable that some clerk could try to make compensating changes by adding another member entry or something similar to try and make the software work.

I guess I'm really only validating the reasonability of your assertion that "maybe one of [your] clerks was trying to work around" a problem encountered around Part-member Families and Household Units in MLS.

[dshep2020]

Thanks for the feedback. It is nice to be able to post and get such a quick reply.