In 3.4.2 (my version anyway), when moving records out, if you complete the "Unit Information" section before you complete the "Address" section, MLS greys out the "Is the new address known?" radio buttons, and expects you to enter the address, and greys out the "Contact Information" portion.
This is irritating. Just because I know the unit the person has moved to does not mean I know the address.
My workaround is to fill out the Address section first (including answering no to the question), then backtracking and filling out the Unit Information Section.
Furthermore, it would be incredibly helpful to the sending and receiving units if the "Contact Information" section could be completed, even if the address is known.
Is the new address known? Why ask the question if you won't let me answer!
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HansG
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crislapi
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I think the intention is to not have us moving records out without contact info unless we have done our due diligence in getting the contact information. It is equally frustrating to be on the receiving end of a membership record move without knowing who the person is, where they live, or having any way of contacting them. I typically send these records back to the unit that sent it since they at least have means of obtaining this information.
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davesudweeks
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I second crislapi's comment about receiving records with no contact information. I would argue that if the sending unit does not have contact information, they really do NOT know the member has moved into our ward. It is also frustrating when a clerk in another ward pitches records to our ward without knowing current boundary information. We still receive Membership records forced into our ward by Clerks in other wards in the area who are unaware that the boundaries of our ward were changed about 3 years ago. At risk is when there is a flag on the member record to contact the prior bishop - if I forward the record with the flag, they will call my bishop instead of the one who knows the situation.
I would respectfully ask clerks to leave the unit information blank unless they are absolutely positive they know the CORRECT unit the member is moving to. The Church is very good at getting the record in the correct unit based on the address alone.
I would respectfully ask clerks to leave the unit information blank unless they are absolutely positive they know the CORRECT unit the member is moving to. The Church is very good at getting the record in the correct unit based on the address alone.
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HansG
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Thanks for the feedback, all of which I agree with. Some comments on the comments:
I've been the membership clerk for about three weeks now. We've had a brother on our roles who has been divorced and gone now for about three years. Through some sleuthing, I learned where he lived, but did not have a street address. I dummied in a street address in that area in the meetinghouse locater to find the ward, then I used CDOL to confirm that he "beyond" a shadow of a doubt" lived in that ward. At that point in the process, it would have been nice in MLS to fill out the Contact Information section of the screen.
The CDOL is a wonderful resource when moving records out. You can actually download KMZ files of a stake's boundaries, including individual unit boundaries within the stake, and open them in Google Earth. Using that tool eliminates a lot of the reasons for sending records to the wrong ward. . .
I've been the membership clerk for about three weeks now. We've had a brother on our roles who has been divorced and gone now for about three years. Through some sleuthing, I learned where he lived, but did not have a street address. I dummied in a street address in that area in the meetinghouse locater to find the ward, then I used CDOL to confirm that he "beyond" a shadow of a doubt" lived in that ward. At that point in the process, it would have been nice in MLS to fill out the Contact Information section of the screen.
The CDOL is a wonderful resource when moving records out. You can actually download KMZ files of a stake's boundaries, including individual unit boundaries within the stake, and open them in Google Earth. Using that tool eliminates a lot of the reasons for sending records to the wrong ward. . .
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russellhltn
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davesudweeks wrote:I would respectfully ask clerks to leave the unit information blank unless they are absolutely positive they know the CORRECT unit the member is moving to. The Church is very good at getting the record in the correct unit based on the address alone.
The only reason I can think of to send the records to a specific unit is because you believe they will go to a "specialty" ward, such as YSA or Language ward. I see no reason to specify a family ward if you've provided an address.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
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davesudweeks
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Exactly. When records come in with no contact information, I attempt to find the individual with an online search. But my time and resources are very limited so if they don't immediately pop-up, they go to Address Unkown file anyway.RussellHltn wrote:The only reason I can think of to send the records to a specific unit is because you believe they will go to a "specialty" ward, such as YSA or Language ward. I see no reason to specify a family ward if you've provided an address.
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HansG
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Wow! I'm not trying to be contentious, and I may be ignorant of the process, but when CHQ has to figure out the ward based on the address the clerk provides, it is either done by the computer or by a Church employee. If by a computer, I say that is error-prone (I've read other posts where the posters have talked about the shortcomings of the meetinghouse locator feature, and I assume the same routines would be applied with MLS member movement). If by a human, that's why they're giving us clerks all this technology and tools, so that we can take care of it at the unit level and save them many, many man-hours of tedious work. . .I see no reason to specify a family ward if you've provided an address.
What am I missing?
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russellhltn
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hansg wrote:What am I missing?
How would you know the boundaries of the other unit?
If you're talking about a neighboring unit in your stake and the family just moved across the line, then you might have a point. But if the family is moving two states away, how would you know the boundaries? Seems to me you only have what you've already considered "error-prone".
I'm pretty sure CHQ is doing it by computer. So you're only making work for yourself with no promise that you can do better.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
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HansG
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How would you know the boundaries of the other unit?
In this particular case, the area of the receiving ward is 226 square miles. He's geographically centrally located in the ward.The CDOL is a wonderful resource when moving records out. You can actually download KMZ files of a stake's boundaries, including individual unit boundaries within the stake, and open them in Google Earth. Using that tool eliminates a lot of the reasons for sending records to the wrong ward. . .
I'm still not sure that the computer is better than a reasoning clerk. . .