Automatic Notification of Temple Recommend Expiration Date

Is there any talk in the church about automatically notifying members of when their temple recommend may be expiring? As a stake executive secretary I am trying to convince bishops and ward clerks that, for a multitude of reasons, it would be a good idea to proactively notify members of when there recommends will expire. I know MLS has the data regarding expiration dates. Couldn't we create an automatic notification trigger for recommends that will expire "next month"?

Dear [member name],
This is a reminder that your temple recommend will be expiring at the end of the month. Please take note of the available dates/times to meet with a member of the bishopric and stake presidency to renew your recommend.
Thank you.

Just a thought.

My executive secretary keeps track by looking at the expiring recommend report. The month before it expires, he calls the member and says, "We need to schedule you a recommend renewal interview." There are only a handful each month, so I don't see the need to make an "automated notification."

We add an additional step and review it in bishopric meeting so that we can determine which recommend renewals will be handled by the bishop and which will be handled by the counselors. Having an automated notification would give the member a little warning that we're looking for them, but we're still going to need to contact them to set the appointments.

And in our temple, the "automatic notification trigger" is the guy at the recommend desk at the temple who will say, "Brother Tinman. It looks like your recommend expires next month. Better get in and get it taken care of."

TinMan wrote:And in our temple, the "automatic notification trigger" is the guy at the recommend desk at the temple who will say, . . .

Our temple has instructed him to say nothing with regard to how much longer a recommend is valid. I thought it was always nice to have the reminder, but it is no more. So we need to be ever more vigilant in other ways to catch an expiring recommend in our area.

That is so interesting. it happened to the couple in front of us just last Saturday. So either it hasn't gotten to our temple yet, or it is isolated.

Makes you wonder the reasoning behind not reminding. You would think that the temple would not want many expired recommends showing up, and reminding people would reduce the number.

I'm guessing they want people to be actively paying attention and getting it renewed at their own initiative – but I think there are ways to notify people that still allow them to take initiative themselves.

sbradshaw wrote:I'm guessing they want people to be actively paying attention and getting it renewed at their own initiative – but I think there are ways to notify people that still allow them to take initiative themselves.

All this speculation... Temple Presidents have tremendous autonomy setting rules and regulations over temple operations. If it's happening at one temple and not another it's because its a preference of the Temple President.

johnshaw wrote:Temple Presidents have tremendous autonomy setting rules and regulations over temple operations. If it's happening at one temple and not another it's because its a preference of the Temple President.

Or perhaps a new temple president has had a fresh reading of his Handbook.

(Note for the record: I merely comment to comment. I have no idea at all what the Handbook for Temple Presidents says on the matter. johnshaw might be entirely correct in his speculation that it may be a temple president's preference.)

I have seen the mention of expiration dates at the recommend desk come and go several times over the last decade or three.