MLS Changes to Other Callings

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
jhigbee
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MLS Changes to Other Callings

#1

Post by jhigbee »

I shot off an MLS message Sunday about this- Part of my duties as ward and stake membership clerk include updating our callings. I was quite concerned when I discovered that some rather significant changes in the formatting of Other Callings were made recently in our system. I hope someone will tell me that these were inadvertent changes made only to a limited number of units, and that they can or will be reversed soon.

I realize that the titles of various callings have been added to the list of “standard callings” (and still more are being added/changed occasionally), and that we are encouraged to use them whenever possible rather than our previous “custom callings”. But we were not aware of these changes in the Other Callings grouping (which grouping has apparently been changed to “Other Organizations”). Along with this, 7 minor sub- categories were placed within that category, while all the previous other callings in this general grouping (including the hopefully not discontinued “Out-of-Unit” callings), were thrown in a fairly random manner, into a new “Other Callings” sub-category. If this was intentional, I would respectfully suggest and ask that the “Out-of-Unit” NOT be eliminated. We have several members in our ward who faithfully serve in these such callings, included Temple Square service missionaries, Temple workers, and so forth. Throwing them all into a sub-category of Other Callings will be cumbersome for our ward and stake leadership to track as they are more easily able to do so now.
I’m hoping I have misconstrued what is really going on here.
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aebrown
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#2

Post by aebrown »

These changes were intentional with the release of MLS 3.5. From the MLS Release Notes:
MLS 3.5 Release Notes wrote:Added new organizations: Added new organizations for positions that were previously in the Other Callings organization, including several new callings that were added to MLS in July 2012. To review the new organizations and the positions assigned to them, click More in the Organizations panel, and then click Other Organizations in the Bishopric/Other panel. The ability to create custom organizations under Other Callings was removed.
The organizations listed under "Other Organizations" are displayed at the same level as the rest of the organizations in CDOL and in the Directory on LDS.org; only MLS are they down an extra level.
jhigbee
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#3

Post by jhigbee »

Even though that was not the answer I wanted to hear, thank you for the response. So is it a done-deal that we’ve lost the Out-of-Unit sub-category in other callings for good?
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aebrown
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#4

Post by aebrown »

jhigbee wrote:So is it a done-deal that we’ve lost the Out-of-Unit sub-category in other callings for good?
I have no idea if the change is irrevocable. But I'd guess that those in charge do not lightly remove existing features, so I imagine they had good reasons for the change, probably related to how callings are synced to the Directory, CDOL, LDS Tools, and who knows what else.
jhigbee
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#5

Post by jhigbee »

Thanks again for your feedback. I'll send a message to all the clerks and bishops in our stake letting them know they've got some work to do to review their calling w/r to this formatting change.
jonesrk
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#6

Post by jonesrk »

jhigbee wrote:Even though that was not the answer I wanted to hear, thank you for the response. So is it a done-deal that we’ve lost the Out-of-Unit sub-category in other callings for good?
Part of this is due to Clerk Resources. Most out of unit callings really have the actual calling entered in the other unit. In Clerk Resources those are displayed automatically from other unit. So if you enter a out of unit calling that means they end up with a 'duplicate' custom position in CDOL.
jhigbee
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#7

Post by jhigbee »

That may be true for most (but not all) of our stake callings. But the two examples I gave that apply to several members in our ward (service missionaries mostly on Temple Square, and Temple workers) do not apply to any “other unit” criteria. Do we need to just accept this loss in being able to conveniently see these Out-of-Unit callings in the name of this online standardization process?
giffordrb
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#8

Post by giffordrb »

I would recommend using Clerk Resources to see the Out of unit callings for now. Some changes need to happen on the backend in order for MLS to display these correctly like Clerk Resources currently does.
Ryan Gifford
MLS
jhigbee
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#9

Post by jhigbee »

Sorry to display my ignorance- but where do we find “Clerk Resources”. I looked under lds.org under Resources, and in this wiki site, but didn’t see it in either place.
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aebrown
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Re: MLS Changes to Other Callings

#10

Post by aebrown »

jhigbee wrote:Sorry to display my ignorance- but where do we find “Clerk Resources”. I looked under lds.org under Resources, and in this wiki site, but didn’t see it in either place.
If you are a clerk, bishopric member, or executive secretary, then you will see the option for "Clerk Resources" on the Tools/Sign In menu on LDS.org (the same place you see the options for Calendar, Directory, etc.).
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