Moving membership records

I have several membership records that I have been trying to move for some time. When I try to move them, their name does not show up as an option for me to move. I have the new address but have been unable to move the records to that address. I need to find out why I can't move them and how to get them to a point where I can move them. Any ideas?

My guess is that it's a Temporary membership record of some type. Check out the linked Wiki article.

sasquatchwen wrote:I have several membership records that I have been trying to move for some time. When I try to move them, their name does not show up as an option for me to move. I have the new address but have been unable to move the records to that address. I need to find out why I can't move them and how to get them to a point where I can move them. Any ideas?

Are you moving Individual or Household records? Sometimes the household name may not be what you expect, so you may not find it in the list where you would first think it might appear. It's generally easier to pick an Individual. Then if that person is the head of household, MLS will ask you if you want to move the whole household or just the individual.

Another idea is when you are looking at the list of individuals to move out, don't just scroll through the list of names. Instead, enter the person's first name in the search box. That may enable you to find them, even if the sort order is unexpected.

So I looked into both of these suggestions but neither of them work. They are not temporary records and they still don't show up to be able to move them. For example, I am trying to move a husband who is a member and his wife who is not a member with him. He has a record number but she does not since she is a non member. Do you have any other suggestions for me?

A nonmember spouse temporary record is not movable. Temporary records only reside in the local MLS and not at the church administrative office. When a member married to a nonmember moves, the temporary record, if one was created, is not moved but removed from MLS (assumes no financial records are tied to that record number). But as you said there is no record, temporary or otherwise, for the nonmember spouse. You do not need to be concerned with moving a nonmember spouse if there is no record created.

Just for the information of some readers I will add this bit of information. There is a special record that is a membership record created at Church headquarters for nonmember family members (spouse, child, or parent). It is a linked record. If the nonmember spouse has a record number that does not contain the unit number in it, then it most likely is a linked record. For the purposes of moving a nonmember spouse linked record with a member record, only the member spouse record needs to be moved. Church headquarters will automatically move the linked record when the member record is moved.

So your only concern now is to find what happened to the member's record.

If the record exists on your MLS you should be able to find it. I am going to assume that you can locate the member by going to Membership > Individual Record and type in their name. If so, then there is either a temporary record or a member record in your MLS. If not, then the record no longer resides in your MLS and the record has already been moved. If you did not move the record out then the gaining unit requested the record from their end.

If the household only consists of the member and nonmember spouse, you should try moving the household first. If you cannot locate the household by going to Membership > Move Household Records Out, then try Membership > Move Individual Record Out. You should be able to at least locate the member husband's record when moving an individual record.

quick quote from the wiki article mentioned by RussellHltn above:

"Creating a nonmember record in MLS does not create a record at the administrative office, so if the household moves to a different ward, the nonmember record will need to be created again in the new ward."

so in other words, a nonmember record can't be moved -- does that explain why you can't see it to select from the list?