Expanded Access to Leader and Clerk Resources

While investigating this post about the Digital Area Book, I made an amazing discovery: Apparently organization presidents now have access to Leader and Clerk Resources. I know this has been in the works, but didn't know it was now available (or for how long it's been available).

My wife is an organization president and she is able to see a lot of ward data now when she logs in. I don't know yet if it's just the president, or the whole presidency. I know many people have been anxiously awaiting this--and it looks like it's here!

Soft release? If so, very good news.
(Anybody know what the previous version was?)

I've emailed our ward council members to try it and see what comes up.

Yes, this was a soft release for the Primary President role only. Expanded access to auxiliary presidencies will be available in beta soon.

Please do not make a big deal of this now. This was done for our internal testing purposes to validate some assumptions.

We are planning to expand access to ward council members, their presidencies and secretaries. Our first beta group begins on 9 July 2014, with the second group starting a couple of weeks after. Hopefully, if all goes well, it will release globally at the end of August.

We'd be happy to include those who want to participate in the 2nd group or later beta testing. If you're interested, follow the directions found here.

Thanks.
Rick
Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR) Product Manager

PartridgeRM wrote:Please do not make a big deal of this now. This was done for our internal testing purposes to validate some assumptions.

Too late for one ward council in Oregon, but I don't think they'll be spreading the message too far.

Thank you all for this work. It has already allowed me to spend more time with my family and less at the church building at odd hours on the clerk computer.

One question: If we already participated in the Beta last year, do we need to sign up again or are we automatically on the list?

You are already on the list! Nice job!!!

PartridgeRM wrote:Please do not make a big deal of this now. This was done for our internal testing purposes to validate some assumptions.

We are planning to expand access to ward council members, their presidencies and secretaries. Our first beta group begins on 9 July 2014, with the second group starting a couple of weeks after. Hopefully, if all goes well, it will release globally at the end of August.

We'd be happy to include those who want to participate in the 2nd group or later beta testing. If you're interested, follow the directions found here.

Thanks.
Rick
Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR) Product Manager

Can you give us an idea of what they will be able to see or do? Will this access extend to the stake leaders and the high council?

At this time, the Priesthood Executive Council has not approved access for stake quorum and auxiliary leaders.

Here's a screenshot of the updated Access Table that provides an individual information about what roles may see.

Would this release include access to the Send A Message functionality for Ward presidencies? If so this will be very valuable to our ward.

PartridgeRM wrote:We are planning to expand access to ward council members, their presidencies and secretaries. Our first beta group begins on 9 July 2014, with the second group starting a couple of weeks after. Hopefully, if all goes well, it will release globally at the end of August.

An MLS message was sent out on 18 July 2014 confirming this schedule of the release of expanded access planned for "late August 2014."

There's also a tantalizing tidbit about the ability to update callings and administer HT/VT coming in "late Fall of 2014."

Just to clarify, from what the earlier posts state, the global launch of the LCR has been postponed until late August 2014? I am the EQ Secretary for my ward and my bishop has tasked me with learning the LCR to teach to the other leaders. I have been running into road blocks, but based on the posts in this forum, this now makes sense.

jcaseybest wrote:Just to clarify, from what the earlier posts state, the global launch of the LCR has been postponed until late August 2014? I am the EQ Secretary for my ward and my bishop has tasked me with learning the LCR to teach to the other leaders. I have been running into road blocks, but based on the posts in this forum, this now makes sense.

LCR has been available for quite some time. What's happening in late August 2014 is just an update that expands access to more people and adds some features. I would certainly not describe it as a "global launch." And as far as I know, that's not a postponement -- that's the first concrete date we've heard for this particular update.

But I suppose from your perspective as an EQ secretary, it might feel like a "global launch," since this is the first version you'll have any access to.

So then my question is how can I gain access to LCR. When I attempt to access it now I get access denied. Is there something in MLS that my clerk needs to check off to grant me access?

jcaseybest wrote:So then my question is how can I gain access to LCR. When I attempt to access it now I get access denied. Is there something in MLS that my clerk needs to check off to grant me access?

LCR is currently only available to bishoprics, clerks, executive secretaries and equivalent positions at the stake level. It has been available to these callings for at least a couple years. Until LCR is updated to allow access to additional callings (which, as has be indicated, is probably coming in late August), there is nothing you or clerk can do to get you access. If your bishop and stake president want to call you as an assistant clerk that would provide access.

Note that the access that will be provided to callings other than those listed above will not include everything that a clerk or bishopric member can do. We don't know what specifically will be available but there is sensitive information and operations (like requesting records and moving them out) which will remain limited.

eblood66 wrote:Note that the access that will be provided to callings other than those listed above will not include everything that a clerk or bishopric member can do. We don't know what specifically will be available ...

See this post earlier in this thread for the access table for the ward council and presidencies.

jcaseybest wrote:So then my question is how can I gain access to LCR. When I attempt to access it now I get access denied. Is there something in MLS that my clerk needs to check off to grant me access?

Currently, your calling as EQ Secretary doesn't grant you any access. You either have to wait or get a calling that does give you access. Note that callings that do grant you access (such as assistant ward clerk) requires going though the stake, so it's not as simple as asking to be entered with another calling. As such, I think your assignment from the Bishop was a bit premature.

Assuming that your calling is entered correctly in MLS as a Standard Position, you'll automatically get access when it becomes available to your calling.

Looks like we have a concrete date.

From the release notes (https://www.lds.org/help/support/clerk- ... s?lang=eng):

Release 2.6 and 2.7
Date Released: 27 Aug 2014

New or Enhanced Functionality

Added access to LCR for ward council members and their counselors and secretaries. High priest group leaderships and elders quorum, Relief Society, Young Men, Young Women, Sunday School, and Primary presidencies as well as ward mission leaders now have access.
...

There's a lot more there, but this is what's relevant to the topic.

I'm assuming this expanded access will be available on the LDS tools app? Will Ward Council members need to update thru the App Store?

I am sure that LDS tools will be updated to allow this functionality, but LCR and LDS tools are 2 different projects. From what I have seen, this added functionality will be in future versions for LDS tools.

dfchamplain wrote:I am sure that LDS tools will be updated to allow this functionality, but LCR and LDS tools are 2 different projects. From what I have seen, this added functionality will be in future versions for LDS tools.

That might be true, but it's certainly conceivable that no update is required. If LDS Tools simply is asking the backend services if the logged-in person has access, then once someone has access, they'll see new things appear on LDS Tools. If it works that way, it would be exactly the same as when a clerk is newly called -- new capabilities appear on LDS Tools with no update needed.

We'll just have to wait and see (or hear from someone on the LDS Tools project who actually knows).

My initial reaction was "no" it won't be on LDS Tools, but aebrown brings up an interesting point about how it could work. My understanding of the initial features available to the ward council is that that it's primarily reports, so it might work.

There's more coming in the future for ward council members. Some of that may not lend itself to LDS Tools like new reports might.

For reference, here's the Leader and Clerk Resources 2.7 beta access table:

When does it go into effect for 1st counselor the leader and clerk resources?????

It just did according to the release notes:

Release 2.6 and 2.7
Date Released: 27 Aug 2014

New or Enhanced Functionality
Added access to LCR for ward council members and their counselors and secretaries. High priest group leaderships and elders quorum, Relief Society, Young Men, Young Women, Sunday School, and Primary presidencies as well as ward mission leaders now have access.
Added information about the unit to which a member has moved to the Members Moved Out Report.
Added the ability for a clerk to move a membership record to another unit without changing the member’s address. This may occur when a member chooses to attend a YSA ward but does not change addresses.
Added the option to search for members by their membership record number (MRN) in addition to their name.
Reduced the row height for class rolls in order to produce fewer pages when printing.
Added the option of printing all organizations at once when printing organization rolls. Each roll will have headings and page numbers when multiple pages are included.
Added the ability within the Member List to view the ordained high priests without including the list of prospective elders.
Added the ability for Area Seventies to see the Welfare Resources links.
In the Help menu, renamed the Lessons link to Getting Started.
Moved the Not Accountable status on the Member Profile from the Individual tab to the Ordinances tab.

chris_hazeldine wrote:It just did according to the release notes:

Release 2.6 and 2.7
Date Released: 27 Aug 2014

Not true -- the new expanded access has not yet been released. The current version is still 2.5.13.

Those release notes have been posted for about a month (so that they would be available for beta testers). The "Date Released" should really be labeled something like "Proposed tentative release date." And even if the release date is today, there's no reason to assume that it would be available at 12:01am. It could just as easily be released at 11:59pm and still be on that date.

Over this side of the world it is 25mins away from the 28th

The page shows as updated yesterday so maybe the proposed release date is still what is being worked on. Guess we will find out tomorrow.

There are some last-minute issues being resolved.

chris_hazeldine wrote:Over this side of the world it is 25mins away from the 28th

All dates listed should be considered CHQ (Utah) Time.

russellhltn wrote:

chris_hazeldine wrote:Over this side of the world it is 25mins away from the 28th

All dates listed should be considered CHQ (Utah) Time.

In this case, we can certainly put away our stopwatches. The release is delayed by "a few days".

Thank you for the info.......

Why are 2.6 and 2.7 together? Any ideas?

In short, 2.6 and 2.7 were combined into one release. You will see the version number 2.6x in the meta tag but the official version number of 2.7 will display at the bottom of the screen for this next release.

aebrown wrote:The release is delayed by "a few days".

I guess "few" means "1" in this case -- the new version with expanded access was released earlier today. See the announcement at Ward Council Members and Presidencies Now Have Access to LCR.

I just tried to Take a Tour under the Help menu as suggested to learn more about ward council access, but was told my screen (iPad) was not large enough.....I guess I will have to wait until I return home next week....

If you rotate your iPad to the side, you should be able to see the available tours. We haven't developed tours for smaller screen sizes yet.

Thank you! That worked! Just like life, it's all about how you view things....

Kind of cracks me up. STS's are often called upon to help train leaders to use these new tools available to them, yet they appear to be excluded from the access list.

Mikerowaved wrote:Kind of cracks me up. STS's are often called upon to help train leaders to use these new tools available to them, yet they appear to be excluded from the access list.

Not sure if it's true in this case, but in others, a generic assistant stake clerk does have access.

russellhltn wrote:

Mikerowaved wrote:Kind of cracks me up. STS's are often called upon to help train leaders to use these new tools available to them, yet they appear to be excluded from the access list.

Not sure if it's true in this case, but in others, a generic assistant stake clerk does have access.

Yes, long ago I asked our stake clerk if he could list me as both STS and stake assistant clerk and he agreed. It's been a real blessing to be able to get hands-on experience when helping others. I just think it's sad that they get left out of these access lists so frequently.

I sent out an email to several people to tell them about the new access for ward councils, and my subject line was "Exciting News!" My daughter replied that my definition of exciting was different than hers... Well, this IS exciting news! I am excited to help our ward auxiliaries make use of this to help them in their callings..... Many thanks to all those in the church tech dept who made this possible...

I notice that stake auxiliary leaders do not have access, so they can't see the various reports, and they can't train their ward/branch counterparts on what resources are available to them.

What about for stake auxiliaries?

drepouille wrote:I notice that stake auxiliary leaders do not have access, so they can't see the various reports, and they can't train their ward/branch counterparts on what resources are available to them.

kevindurr wrote:What about for stake auxiliaries?

It could be that the decision makers on this are taking a firm position on handbook roles. Ward auxiliary leaders have responsibilities for dealing with individuals within their ward, so they need access to lists of members, rolls, etc.

Stake auxiliary leaders have an entirely different role. According to HB2, section 15.4.1, stake auxiliary presidencies "do not fulfill assignments that should be fulfilled on the ward ... level." They "instruct and support ward auxiliary presidencies." They have no responsibilities for individuals, except "As members of [the stake] council, they participate in efforts to build faith and strengthen individuals and families in the stake."

It's certainly a great point that it's difficult for stake auxiliaries to fulfill their responsibility to "instruct and support" when they have no access to LCR themselves, but I can also understand how a strict reading of the handbook could lead to the conclusion that stake auxiliary leaders have no reason to access membership lists. Or it could be that giving access to stake auxiliary leaders is planned, but it required yet another set of permissions, which the developers haven't had time (or been given this as a priority) to implement yet.

Perhaps Stake Leaders should be given access to test data.
That way they can learn the system so they can train the
ward leaders, but real data isn't shared unnecessarily.

Along the same idea, Stake Leaders could have access to statistical data so they know the status of the wards, but not the individual data which would tempt them run the ward.

Expanded Access for the stake auxiliary presidencies? Sure, I'm for it in a limited way, at least. Perhaps for the reporting tools?

Our stake leaders always request the reports that they ARE allowed to see, but have no access to currently, except through the stake MLS. They request Home teaching and Visiting Teaching reports from each ward, the Key indicators reports from the wards, and the stake quarterly report. Each of these "ward" level reports have sections that deal EXACTLY with the stewardship of the stake auxiliary presidencies as they "instruct and support ward auxiliary presidencies." For them to be able to log on and see it when they need it would be a great help to them.

Do they need more membership information than is in the directory? Perhaps not more "private" information, but to build a list of stake YM or YW would be a great help to them and they wouldn't need to search out a stake clerk.

Just want to add my voice to the discussion. Stake Council members should be able to see the same non-confidential info as Ward Council. Stake Young Men President should be able to get a list of all YM in the stake, Stake Young Women should be able to get a list of all the YW in the stake, etc etc. They get them anyway from us. They should be able to retrieve them at their convenience, sitting in a Presidency meeting for example, and thus they can help hasten the work in a more timely manner.

The position of Primary Secretary has dropped from our listings. How do I add that back