Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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arthung
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Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

#1

Post by arthung »

One of the challenges in my ward is making sure that newly called and sustained members get set apart. I am still fairly new in my calling as a ward clerk, so I'm looking for some guidance on a couple of fronts. 1) what is the best practice to minimize the chasing people around? 2) is there a way to design a custom report in MLS to get

I find that I'm often chasing the bishopric counselors around or bugging newly called members to see if they've been set apart yet. To aid in jogging the memory of the bishopric counselors, I often generate the Members With Callings report and sort on the set apart column to get a list of people with callings that have not been set apart. I give them this list regularly and ask them if they recall setting any of these members apart recently. I don't feel that this is a very effective way to get this done.

I tried to design a custom report to get this information, but I am not able to add the "Set Apart" yes/no flag as a report criteria. I'd like to see the "Set Apart" field added as an available report criteria.

I'd appreciate any constructive input that any of you might have.

Thanks,

Bro. Art Hung
techgy
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Re: Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

#2

Post by techgy »

I suggest that you coordinate your efforts with the Ward Exec Sec who usually schedules interviews for the Bishop. A 30 minute block of time could be set aside each Sunday after the block for setaparts. Once you get into a pre-agreed schedule then it's much easy to keep things under control.
kisaac
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Re: Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

#3

Post by kisaac »

arthung wrote:I often generate the Members With Callings report and sort on the set apart column to get a list of people with callings that have not been set apart.
That's how I did it, and if I needed more customization, I used a spreadsheet for further processing. By doing this you can have your listing of just those who are not set apart, or sort by organization, or call date, etc.

There are two parts to this, as you know. One, getting them set apart, and two, getting that information recorded. Discuss the options with your bishopric. Ultimately, you need a ward solution.
Sometimes I would give out copies of the not set-apart listing to the leaders at ward council and ask for their assistance to get "their" membership set-apart. Ask the presidents: "You want those people working in your organization and working with your membership to get all the support and blessings that being set apart can offer, right?"

Perhaps for some cases, the exec sec could also make calls and "set-up" more formal appointments for those that never seem to make it to the bishops office after church.
TinMan
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Location: Bountiful, UT, USA

Re: Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

#4

Post by TinMan »

After we sustain people in Sacrament meeting, we announce that everyone that was sustained should come to the bishops office right after the block to be set apart. We get 90% of them that way. Or more. it delays processing tithing for about 15 minutes is all. At the most. Most of the time one counselor and one of the clerks or executive secretary can handle all of the setting aparts and the other one can help with tithing. I only set apart those required in the handbook to be set apart by me (and my wife of course.) My counselors do the rest.
kisaac
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Re: Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

#5

Post by kisaac »

I also printed a "callings by organization" list every time I made a release or a new call, and printed a copy of a form that asked the organization leader to check what I did. It gave me the opportunity to also highlight the ones that have no "set apart" date and my form letter asked them to contact that member and "invite" them to get set-apart. Sometimes they would add the check and tell me the individual was indeed set apart. I dug up the letter I used (word or open-office) and I'll attach it.
set-apart-and-update-memo.docx
two pages: one is a "change" memo, the other is a "membership audit"
(20.88 KiB) Downloaded 370 times
The second page of the document is a "membership audit" form we did every so often, where we asked the leaders to comb their lists and mark anything needing correction. Just include the organization roll with it. It carries more weight if your bishop pens an introduction letter and makes a statement at ward council, stressing the urgency of having correct records (and then reads Moroni 6:4!) Then pass out your lists.

PS. I noticed some typos in the attached forms. I'm sure you'll correct them before you use it!
dgmorrisjr
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Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:43 pm

Re: Clerks: setting apart best practices and reporting

#6

Post by dgmorrisjr »

We started using the asana.com web app to track all our calling and releasing activities. For each call/release we set up the appropriate set of sub-tasks. Every one in the bishopric has access to the web app and we review it regularly as a bishopric.
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