Leaders balking at sending records to Address Unknown

Something I am encountering as I conduct membership audits, is ward and branch leaders who are reluctant to send records out to Address Unknown - even after completing the nine steps the Brethren have laid out. Basically, the argument is that if they keep the record in the ward (where the member's parents often are) they aren't getting home taught, but if they send the records out the members still aren't getting home taught. (in many of these cases the families won't give addresses to the bishops/clerks.)

I know Salt Lake/St. George has access to resources that the local leaders don't. Can anyone think of a good counter-argument here? I don't see the point of these records inflating the denominators on the quarterly report and I think Salt Lake should at least have a chance to look for them.

jwtaber wrote:Basically, the argument is that if they keep the record in the ward (where the member's parents often are) they aren't getting home taught, but if they send the records out the members still aren't getting home taught. (in many of these cases the families won't give addresses to the bishops/clerks.)

My response to those particular comments would be that if the ward keeps the records, the member will never be home taught, but if the records are sent, it is possible that the member may be located by other means, and then contacted, even if the families are not willing to help with the salvation of their children.

The leaders in the area where the members are currently living will never know they are there if the record is never sent there. Leaders cannot help the members if they don't know who they are.

Gary_Miller wrote:The leaders in the area where the members are currently living will never know they are there if the record is never sent there. Leaders cannot help the members if they don't know who they are.

I'm well aware of that. I just need to find a nice way to tell the local leaders that this applies even if the members involved haven't moved that far but the ward doesn't have an exact address.

Just show them the Handbook where it says the record is to be moved if the member is going to be gone more than three months. Make sure you show them the part that says all exceptions must be approved by the First Presidency.

I'll keep that in mind. It was a major step today for some of them to admit it's an issue.

To some extent, I can understand the reluctance. It means they've given up. If they keep some information handy, they can forward it if the family decides to cooperate.

One point I'd make is that if they are living outside of the ward boundaries, then there's nothing they can do but to send the records. One concern I'd have is that with a number of "moved, but no forwarding address" types, it makes it harder to concentrate on the people who ARE still living in the ward boundaries.

jwtaber wrote:I'll keep that in mind. It was a major step today for some of them to admit it's an issue.

If they still don't want to do it after you show the the instructions. You could type up the request letter to the First Presidency and give it to the to sign and forward on.

Some of the leaders involved said they will talk with the stake president. I've already sent the stake president lajackson's (#2) response from this thread. At this point I will give it a couple more months (some of these have been issues for years) and then bring it up again. I've gotten these particular leaders to at least take a step forward. I just wish they'd take the next step, but I feel I should be patient with them as well.