Laminating temple recommend

Does anyone know if the barcode scanner at the temple would have trouble scanning if someone were to laminate their temple recommend? Has anyone done this? I've used a plastic case, but the recommend always tends to slide around such that the ink starts to rub off.

sbradshaw wrote:Does anyone know if the barcode scanner at the temple would have trouble scanning if someone were to laminate their temple recommend?

Where you live, you would probably be mistaken for a general authority. Where I live, the recommend desk would not know what to do if they saw a laminated recommend.

And you would have to decide if you would seal the bottom third of the recommend into the middle where it could not be retrieved.

Recommends are being printed at a higher quality now, and don't tend to stick to the plastic as they did during the first several rounds, especially in warm climates.

sbradshaw wrote:Does anyone know if the barcode scanner at the temple would have trouble scanning if someone were to laminate their temple recommend? Has anyone done this? I've used a plastic case, but the recommend always tends to slide around such that the ink starts to rub off.

Our stake has been laminating temple recommends for a few years now (probably 90% of the members choose to accept the offer to laminate the recommends). It works great, and people really appreciate the service:

• Every temple I've been in scans my recommend just fine (and that's probably 6 different temples). I've never received any question (or even comment) at the recommend desk.
• A recommend can now be accidentally washed in the laundry and survive unscathed.
• The stake clerk who laminates them does have to make really sure that everything was filled out correctly (all signatures, correct month and year indicated, etc.) before laminating, but of course he should be doing that anyway.
• We just cut off that third section at the bottom so that we're only sending double thickness through the laminator. It's only informational for the person, and contains no information the temple needs to see.

I'd like to know a little more about how your stake laminates the temple recommends.

Is it a hot or cold lamination? In other words, did the stake purchase a hot laminating machine or do they use the "self laminating" pouches that self seal?

What is the final size of the recommend? In other words does the lamination make the recommend larger than a standard credit card or driver license?

I'm especially interested in laminating limited use recommends issued to youth for baptisms.

Thanks!

alanmisbach wrote:Is it a hot or cold lamination? In other words, did the stake purchase a hot laminating machine or do they use the "self laminating" pouches that self seal?

Hot. The stake didn't purchase a laminating machine; a former stake presidency member donated a surplus machine from his work. It's not the greatest -- it requires two passes to get a good seal -- but the price was right. It uses pouches that are designed for business cards. The machine is similar to those you can find online for $40-$150 if you search for something like "thermal pouch laminator."

alanmisbach wrote:What is the final size of the recommend? In other words does the lamination make the recommend larger than a standard credit card or driver license?

The laminated recommend is almost exactly the same width as a standard credit card (just a bit smaller), and is about 1/8" (3-4mm) taller.

alanmisbach wrote:I'm especially interested in laminating limited use recommends issued to youth for baptisms.

The laminating machine is in the stake clerk's office, for stake use. Since limited-use recommends are issued at the ward level, they have never been laminated in our stake. No one has ever raised that issue.

Our stake is on the LCR beta for limited-use recommends now. Because of the quality of our printer and paper, the printed-out recommends don't feel as nice as the recommends from the book, so we may start offering to laminate them.

I got my own recommend laminated last time I renewed it – it's been really convenient and it looks nice.