Keeping Individual Records Up to Date

If I find that a phone has been disconnected or is the wrong number would you delete it from their record to avoid confusion in the future? Also, if we find they are not at the address we have listed how do you show that on the membership list so that people do not try to stop by again? We talked in our meetings about putting "Wrong Address" in the 2nd street box of their profile. I new to this calling so please let me know what you have done for these issues. We are trying to find where everyone is at in our ward.

Thanks,
Matt

Personally, I'd blank out the old, invalid information. But be sure to keep a record if it somewhere as it maybe the starting point for a search.

tamanles wrote:If I find that a phone has been disconnected or is the wrong number would you delete it from their record to avoid confusion in the future?

Yes

tamanles wrote:Also, if we find they are not at the address we have listed how do you show that on the membership list so that people do not try to stop by again?

I would not blank out the address as it may help to find the member latter as it annotates on the membership record as the last know address.

You should try and find the correct address using the steps listed in the letters titled "Finding lost Members" Dated 29 Oct 2012 and "Additional Steps for Finding and Rescuing Lost Members" Dated 21 June 2013 and 1 Oct 2013. You can find the letters in the official communications library and all three say basically the same thing. There is a link on the main page in Clerk Resources to the letters.

The letters basically say to use the following steps before sending a record to the unknown file at CHQ.

1. Contact the occupants at the member’s last known address and ask them if they
have a forwarding address.
2. Use postal services to find a forwarding address.
3. Call any last known telephone numbers.
4. Send an email to any last known email addresses.
5. Contact known family members and relatives.
6. Contact known friends, Church members, and full-time missionaries.
7. Contact ward priesthood and auxiliary leaders.
8. Check available online social networks.

After following the above steps:
 If a forwarding address is identified, move the membership record to the new
ward or branch using MLS.
 If no address is found, forward the membership record back to the address
unknown file (these records will not be returned again to your unit).

We are working on the 9 step process for many of the members that we know have moved out but do you think in the interim time putting "Wrong Address" in the 2nd street box would be okay? The address will be deleted when it is transferred either to Salt Lake or the new address right? Thanks for your ideas it has been really helpful.

tamanles wrote:We are working on the 9 step process for many of the members that we know have moved out but do you think in the interim time putting "Wrong Address" in the 2nd street box would be okay?

I see no problem at all in doing it, if you are not using the 2nd street address for anything else.

tamanles wrote:We are working on the 9 step process for many of the members that we know have moved out but do you think in the interim time putting "Wrong Address" in the 2nd street box would be okay?

I think that would be OK for the interim in order to help you with your record keeping while trying to find the correct address.

tamanles wrote:The address will be deleted when it is transferred either to Salt Lake or the new address right?

The address is remove once you have the new address.

If the record is moved to CHQ unknown file the address is not removed it remains on the record.

If you move it to CHQ unknown file you will want to remove the "wrong address" in the 2nd street box and then record the information along with any other information you may have that would be helpful in the information box that will popup when you do the move.

Gary_Miller wrote:I would not blank out the address as it may help to find the member latter as it annotates on the membership record as the last know address.

Definitely don't do that. My stake has had a bunch of records come back from Salt Lake with no address, because they were sent there with no address.

I would prepend "LKA" (last known address) to the start of the Address 1 field to serve as a flag that there the address is no longer valid.

See Gary Mill post of Sun. Oct 27, 2013

In searching for lost member addresses, I have gathered a lot of information as to the sites searched and much information as to old addresses and information about relatives. Is there a way to provide this inforamtion to MLS or the lost member file so that future searches by someone else will not duplicate what has already been done?

I have a search form that was provided by our stake clerk which I could provide as a help and which would be easily attached to an email. The format is Microsoft Word 2000 and contains tables.

Jerry Cahan - Southworth Ward