Access to Other Stake Directories

How can I look up numbers of members outside of my own stake???

Unless you have a calling in that stake - you can't.

If you are in a Bishopric or Stake Presidency, you can use CDOL to find information about another stake's leader.

Why is access limited to one's own stake? Is there a plan to fix this so that we can contact members out side our stake?

The church has never published the contact information of members outside of one's own stake for the use by the general membership. It's likely a privacy issue.

I don't expect it to change.

I am a ward clerk and occasionally need to contact a bishop (on assignment from my bishop) or ward clerk in another stake (for records purposes). How are we to do our jobs if we don't have access to ward and stake officers outside our own stake? In a previous post, someone suggested using CDOL. What is CDOL and how do I access it?

Someone on this thread suggested using the Meetinghouse Locator to access ward officers in another stake. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had very, very limited success with the Meetinghouse Locator. I've tried to use it in the clerk's office numerous times and only once was I successful. I have high-speed DSL at home and it has been grinding away for a good five minutes. The map located the ward but the text area to the left of the map just doesn't work.

jerrywaynefoster wrote:I am a ward clerk and occasionally need to contact a bishop (on assignment from my bishop) or ward clerk in another stake (for records purposes). How are we to do our jobs if we don't have access to ward and stake officers outside our own stake? In a previous post, someone suggested using CDOL. What is CDOL and how do I access it?

CDOL stands for "Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders" and as a Ward Clerk, you should have access to it. When you log into https://lds.org using your LDSAccount credentials, it SHOULD identify you as a Ward Clerk and give you special menu items not available to the general membership. To see these items, click on [your name]/Tools at the top and look for them below the dotted line in the pull-down menu. There, you should have, "Church Directory of Organizations and Leaders" included in the list.

If you don't see these extra menu items, you will need to go into MLS and make SURE your calling was entered as a standard calling. Sometimes custom callings are used, then the church can't correctly identify your position and allow you the access you need to fulfill that calling.

I am also a ward clerk in a YSA ward and this feature would be a big help for me (aka, it would have saved me at least an hour today). The CDOL doesn't provide this service, it does give me names of church leaders very well, but beyond that, nothing.

nabosh wrote:I am also a ward clerk in a YSA ward and this feature would be a big help for me (aka, it would have saved me at least an hour today). The CDOL doesn't provide this service, it does give me names of church leaders very well, but beyond that, nothing.

Do you know if your membership record was ever added to MLS in the YSA ward as an "Out of Unit" member, as explained in Create an Out of Unit Record? If not, it might explain why you can't see anything more than the leadership.

Mikerowaved wrote:

nabosh wrote:I am also a ward clerk in a YSA ward and this feature would be a big help for me (aka, it would have saved me at least an hour today). The CDOL doesn't provide this service, it does give me names of church leaders very well, but beyond that, nothing.

Do you know if your membership record was ever added to MLS in the YSA ward as an "Out of Unit" member, as explained in Create an Out of Unit Record? If not, it might explain why you can't see anything more than the leadership.

If it wasn't, I don't think he could get into CDOL at all.

jerrywaynefoster wrote:Someone on this thread suggested using the Meetinghouse Locator to access ward officers in another stake. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had very, very limited success with the Meetinghouse Locator. <snip> The map located the ward but the text area to the left of the map just doesn't work.

nabosh wrote:The CDOL doesn't provide this service, it does give me names of church leaders very well, but beyond that, nothing.

You've both quoted half of what is a fairly painless two-step process. The maps application (at lds.org/maps) will very accurately tell you what ward any given address is in. You can then log in to cdol.lds.org and look up that ward (by name) and find contact information for the bishop and the ward clerk. The meetinghouse locator has worked very well for me.