Unfilled calling report

Is there a report in LDS.org that will show only the calling that are not filled?

Not yet.

All members should have a calling, but outside of a few mandatory callings, I don't think there is a requirement to fill all callings. As such, I'm not sure as there are any plans to create that report.

clarkhall wrote:Is there a report in LDS.org that will show only the calling that are not filled?

The Callings by Organization report available in Clerk Resources on LDS.org has all that information. It sounds like you'd like the ability to apply a filter to show only the unfilled callings, but it's quite easy to visually scan the list (or use your browser's Find feature) to see each instance where the Name column contains "Calling Vacant".

Okay

I just thought it would be helpful to see the vacant calling. Our ward just had over 100 people changed to another ward.

This standard callings list may be useful to you:
https://tech.lds.org/wiki/File:MLS_Stan ... llings.pdf

You can compare it against your list of callings that are filled.

Can you create a list of vacant callings in MLS or are there just workarounds to get the same data?

Any update on this report (ie callings without members / vacant callings / etc.)? It is not very efficient to run a callings by organization to find these. I have also tried creating a custom report, but it does not seem possible because the callings are tied to members and if there is no member, the calling is not displayed. Thanks!

lorinlowe wrote:Any update on this report (ie callings without members / vacant callings / etc.)? It is not very efficient to run a callings by organization to find these. I have also tried creating a custom report, but it does not seem possible because the callings are tied to members and if there is no member, the calling is not displayed. Thanks!

Although a couple of forum users have discussed this possibility here, I haven't heard that anyone has ever made a formal request for such a feature, and I certainly haven't heard that it is in any development plans. If you'd like to make such a request, I'd recommend that you use the Feedback link in Leader and Clerk Resources.

Thanks. I will make the feature request.

lorinlowe wrote:Thanks. I will make the feature request.

Do that, and welcome to the forum, lorinlowe. But don't wait for implementation....

Go to LCR and pull your “callings by organization” report
Select <print> icon (near top, right side) and report opens in Adobe Reader
(Old school: Print this report, use yellow highlighter on all “Calling vacant” fields. Done!)

Still reading? Ok!
From Adobe Reader menu, choose <Copy/Copy File to Clipboard>
Open up Openoffice Spreadsheet
Paste your report data in cell a:1 <edit/Paste> (note: there are no good delimiters to parse your data- don't waste time here)
You now should have one column of data, in many rows, including all your callings, both vacant and filled

Filter your data to show only vacant callings: with cell a:1 still selected: <Data/filter/standard filter>
In the “filter criteria” box that opens,

• 1) accept the default it gives for “field name”
  2) Change the “condition” box to <contains>
  3) Type in "vacant" (no quotation marks!)in the “value” box

Done! And you don't need to waste paper and the highlighter. It really only takes a few minutes if you understand the process. MLS used to make this easier...

Ah. That works in a pinch. Thank you. To get it to work in Excel, I needed to paste if first in a Notepad like program and then copy and paste to Excel to get it to put the data in rows (otherwise it makes it all one cell). Thanks!

lorinlowe wrote:To get it to work in Excel, I needed to paste if first in a Notepad like program and then copy and paste to Excel to get it to put the data in rows (otherwise it makes it all one cell).

I think if you right-click on Excel, you have a choice of what kind of paste to do. I think if you select "text", it will eliminate the need to use Notepad.

Thanks. Tried that, but did not work for my latest version of Excel.

lorinlowe wrote:Thanks. Tried that, but did not work for my latest version of Excel.

This ought to work for you in Excel. I just took at look at what you get when you copy the text from the report and there are tabs between the fields. That makes it super-easy for Excel to deal with. If you can't paste into Excel, you should be able to paste into a text editor, such as Notepad, save the file, and import it to Excel without a lot of effort.

Which version of Excel are you using? Maybe someone with that version can help you. I just tested it on Excel (Mac) 2008 and I can copy from the report and paste into Excel without any intermediate steps.

mevans wrote:

lorinlowe wrote:Thanks. Tried that, but did not work for my latest version of Excel.

This ought to work for you in Excel. I just took at look at what you get when you copy the text from the report and there are tabs between the fields. That makes it super-easy for Excel to deal with....
I just tested it on Excel (Mac) 2008 and I can copy from the report and paste into Excel without any intermediate steps.

Yes, eliminate the step to print to Adobe PDF (thanks mevans!)..Just copy from the LCR report and Paste into excel (I use excel 2013, IBM compatible desktop.) This probably was your issue, lorinlowe: The adobe PDF step "strips out" the tab between your data, so excel didn't know which data to put in a new cell, so it put the whole string or data in one cell. Copying from LCR directly retains the <tab> between the data columns (position <tab> name <tab> sustained <tab> etc.) as mevans pointed out, so excel knew which columns to import (parse) the data into. It does make a cleaner and quicker report.

Once pasted into excel (carefully choose the formatting choices,) clean up data columns you don't need, and do your filtering to make excel display only the "unfilled" jobs. Cutting and pasting using delimiters is a good technique to understand, and I used the exact technique to answer this post for another list to excel:
Exporting Organization Chart for Import to Excel

Use your knowledge!
Understanding the concept of delimiters and data exchange will often change your answer to your leaders questions about LDS.org from "there is no button that allows that" to "Sure, we can do that."


Many programs, including MLS, use this same technique to transfer data across programs, using a delimiting character, to save a file that other programs will import correctly (excel, database, etc.) MLS offers the "save to file" on some screens (like custom reports,) which saves data from the report in a Comma Separated Values Text file (CSV file.) Open these up with excel (openoffice) and choose the correct delimiter characters to format the file correctly.

Note: These options for copying and saving to a file (and even copying to the clipboard) seem to be diminishing on MLS, probably due to data security issues, but a programmer would have to explain this more....This may explain also why an export option isn't given in LCR. Always use your data in compliance with the church data policies!