Updating out of unit membership information

Hi
I am a relatively new ward clerk and I have been searching for an answer for this membership issue. One of the families in my ward has given me a list of their children and all of their current addresses and membership information. I have been unable to find any direction on what to do with aquired membership information outside of your home ward. I also thought of contacting the ward clerks in the wards they are located in but I am unable to find leadership information in wards outside of my own stake. Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

blueoxe wrote:I am a relatively new ward clerk and I have been searching for an answer for this membership issue. One of the families in my ward has given me a list of their children and all of their current addresses and membership information. I have been unable to find any direction on what to do with aquired membership information outside of your home ward. I also thought of contacting the ward clerks in the wards they are located in but I am unable to find leadership information in wards outside of my own stake. Any help would be appreciated.

As you surmised, that information can only be updated in the wards where these children's membership records currently reside.

You can look up leadership information for other wards using CDOL, assuming you know the ward names. If you don't know the ward names, you can find those by inputting each address in LDS Maps and seeing the assigned ward for that address.

Assuming the children's records are already located in the ward where the addresses are on the list, you can do as aebrown suggested and look them up in LDS Maps to see what ward the address is in and contact the clerk using CDOL so he can update their information.

However, if that clerk comes back and says they don't have the records for that person, then here's what I would do: Request the records and move them in to your ward, and then move them to the appropriate ward based on the address on your list. Personally I would do this in LDS.org as apposed to doing it in MLS because it's quicker and easier.

jasonfitt wrote:However, if that clerk comes back and says they don't have the records for that person, then here's what I would do: Request the records and move them in to your ward, and then move them to the appropriate ward based on the address on your list. Personally I would do this in LDS.org as apposed to doing it in MLS because it's quicker and easier.

If I were in that situation, I would simply recommend to the ward clerk for that address that he request the records.

• It's his responsibility, not yours, since the records belong in his ward.
• There's just one record move, not two.
• There's also less room for error in a pull request than one pull and one push.
• Finally, the record of the prior ward on the membership record would be accurate, rather than listing your ward, where the member didn't actually live.

I believe aebrown's suggestion would be the best if every clerk would follow through and request the records. My experience has been about 50% successful (even with clerks in my own ward or stake when I gave the information to them personally).

I was successful in a couple of instances in sending the children's information to Membership Support through MLS Mail stating that the parents provided updated address information for their grown children.

In each case, I received a thankful response back that they sent the record to the correct ward. I only had individual children in my case, not a big group, so it might be best to put each child in a separate e-mail so they can act on it and close it individually.

davesudweeks wrote:I was successful in a couple of instances in sending the children's information to Membership Support through MLS Mail stating that the parents provided updated address information for their grown children.

I think that might be the better solution. Keep in mind that the child's record could be in a singles ward and not the expected geographical ward. By taking steps to move them into the "right" ward, it could upset things that are just fine.

At least CHQ can see if the contact information is current and leave it alone if it is.

I realize the parents are trying to be helpful, but if done wrong it can cause a number of problems.

aebrown wrote:

jasonfitt wrote:However, if that clerk comes back and says they don't have the records for that person, then here's what I would do: Request the records and move them in to your ward, and then move them to the appropriate ward based on the address on your list. Personally I would do this in LDS.org as apposed to doing it in MLS because it's quicker and easier.

If I were in that situation, I would simply recommend to the ward clerk for that address that he request the records.

• It's his responsibility, not yours, since the records belong in his ward.
• There's just one record move, not two.
• There's also less room for error in a pull request than one pull and one push.
• Finally, the record of the prior ward on the membership record would be accurate, rather than listing your ward, where the member didn't actually live.

Very good points that I did not think of. I agree that it would be best to have the clerk of the ward where the address is to request the records.