mrrad wrote:Perhaps this is what happens when policies change but the people don't adapt to the changes (or didn't even realize the policies changed). Also, since old handbooks are destroyed it's difficult to know why someone wants things a certain way (maybe it was required by an old policy?) but that way is actually opposed by current policies.
I don't know that this is a question of a
change in policy so much as it is an
interpretation of policy. As far as I can remember, I think the current wording about confidentiality was the same as it was in at least the 2006 Handbook, so the question I raised was whether the stake president is authorized to know the amounts of specific members' contributions. I don't think he is, based on my reading of his responsibilities for finances in 14.2.1, and the general admonition of confidentiality in 14.5. The training that is provided about the Declaration Report says only that, after submitting it to church headquarters, the clerk needs to provide one copy of the report to the stake president and another copy to the bishop for his confidential file. It is completely silent as to whether the amounts should be included in these copies, but suppressing the amounts when printing is an option provided in MLS. Given my interpretation of the handbook, the amounts should be confidential, so I suppress them. The statistics contained at the end of the report remain the same whether the amounts are shown or not, but that way, the stake has a record of the tithing statuses declared during tithing settlement. Whether someone is a full-tithe payer does not depend on whether the report shows a payment of $10 or $10,000, and for the life of me, I can't think of any reason for the stake to need to know the specific amounts. If everyone in the ward paid directly to church headquarters, the report would look the same as the one I provide to the stake, because church headquarters doesn't push that information down to the stakes.
