Stake financial clerk training

I am a recently called assistant stake financial clerk. I am having a very hard time getting adequate online training for my new calling. Is there anywhere on LDS.org that I can receive in depth training about doing the stake finances? I have found the numerous but very basic and general "training for clerks." Thank you.

ashely wrote:I am a recently called assistant stake financial clerk. I am having a very hard time getting adequate online training for my new calling. Is there anywhere on LDS.org that I can receive in depth training about doing the stake finances? I have found the numerous but very basic and general "training for clerks." Thank you.

The primary sources for training are:

• The Handbooks, particularly Handbook 1, Section 14 and parts of Section 13.
• The Help Center, particularly the Finance section. I don't know if that's what you meant by "training for clerks" but I've found it to be very valuable.
• Your stake clerk and stake financial clerk.
• If you have any particular questions (not specific to your stake's issues), there are plenty of experienced clerks on this forum who are willing to help.

I have been the ward clerk for about two years. Finding information about specific tasks is daunting and even frustrating. The web site is confusing and sends you off on so many wild goose chases. The forum is a nice resource, but often different answers are given.

The Church rightfully takes record keeping seriously. Yet new, or even old, clerks never get any training per say. Why not develop an on-line manual for membership, finances, etc? Clerks could get messages when the manual is revised. I am willing to assist in this venture. Let's create a real and current resource for ward and stake clerks!

I take my calling seriously and want to give the Lord my best!

Joseph Smyly
Tridell Utah Ward

jejsmyly wrote:I have been the ward clerk for about two years. Finding information about specific tasks is daunting and even frustrating. The web site is confusing and sends you off on so many wild goose chases. The forum is a nice resource, but often different answers are given.

There are some things that are fixed - such as quarterly reports. But there's a large area that depends on how local leaders decide to do things. No standard, no manual. Training is supposed to come from the stake clerk, so that should include area and stake practices in their training.

jejsmyly wrote:The Church rightfully takes record keeping seriously. Yet new, or even old, clerks never get any training per say. Why not develop an on-line manual for membership, finances, etc? Clerks could get messages when the manual is revised. I am willing to assist in this venture. Let's create a real and current resource for ward and stake clerks!

Isn't that trying to re-invent the wiki?

A Wiki is no different than an user forum. Although helpful, user forums and Wikis often post inaccurate information. Clerks should have a ready resource on how to do the nuts and bolts of their jobs.

If stake clerks are providing training, where do they get their information? The training for my current calling consisted of about 20 minutes from the newly released clerk. I have previously been a ward clerk and executive secretary. That 20 minutes is the sum my training for all of these callings.

I do not see a large area in record keeping that should be left open to local leader interpretation. This is how errors creep into the system. This is how mistakes are made. Clerks should not be left to interpretation by local traditions.

I have seen first hand the impact of inaccurate or missing records. Just recently a young sister in our ward went inactive right after it was discovered that her baptism was never recorded. We eventually got her baptism straightened out, but she is now in a different city and going down a decidedly different path.

All I am saying is there is a problem. The problem is that clerks do not receive adequate training and do not have the resources to help them effectively do their callings. It is a problem that can be fixed. But first we need to acknowledge that there is a problem.

jejsmyly wrote:All I am saying is there is a problem. The problem is that clerks do not receive adequate training and do not have the resources to help them effectively do their callings. It is a problem that can be fixed. But first we need to acknowledge that there is a problem.

Although the training materials could always be improved, there are quite a few resources, which I listed earlier. Besides the handbooks, there are dozens of articles in the Help Center, and many training videos.

To make this discussion more concrete, could you give an example of something you need to know for your calling for which you are unable to find the training you need? By discussing specifics, we could figure out whether the problem is that training materials are missing, or that they are difficult to find.

A few things to keep in mind. This forum is primary user-to-user assistance. A type of mentoring. Your prior message suggested we work together to build training resources - that's exactly what the wiki is: user created content.

If you were hoping for an official church created training site, they already have one in the Help Center. Given specific input , they'll probably add articles and resources there.

So at this point, I'm not exactly sure what you're advocating for.

russellhltn wrote:A few things to keep in mind. This forum is primary user-to-user assistance. A type of mentoring. Your prior message suggested we work together to build training resources - that's exactly what the wiki is: user created content.

If you were hoping for an official church created training site, they already have one in the Help Center. Given specific input , they'll probably add articles and resources there.

So at this point, I'm not exactly sure what you're advocating for.

Just as a note and a touch of curiosity, there has been talk of the wiki on multiple occasions, in this thread a few others. However, as I've ventured over to the link for the Wiki, I've found that the section for Ward Clerks... no longer points to what is referenced to as a wiki. It now points to the Help Center, which if I'm not mistaken, is not created by community users, rather is put forth from the Church. Are there plans to revise the structure and navigation of this Help Center? I appreciate that it's not user created (as mentioned previously, this helps to avoid errors), but what if something is not there or is not clear?

Personally I find the navigation confusing. Some way to make it a bit more fluid I think would help a lot. If there was some more structure to it, I believe it would be a place where most if not all of these training questions would be resolved.