"Indexing Director" is NOT = "Family History Consultant"

I just received a memo stating that MLS has been updated to remove "Indexing Director" as a standard calling and incumbents have been moved to be "Family History Consultants". As a current ward clerk and a former Stake Indexing Director, I ask that this decision be reconsidered. The job description, responsibilities, and tasks of a (Ward or Stake) Indexing Director are significantly different than a (Ward or Stake) Family History Consultant. The two callings should not be confused. There are software tools on used in administering the Indexing program on FamilySearch.org that Indexing Directors have access to that are of no use to Family History Consultants. Indexing Directors are charged with managing and promoting the Historical Records Indexing projects of FamilySearch. Family History Consultants are charged with assisting members with researching their own ancestors. The two callings should not be conflated.

Where did you get the memo? I would be really surprised if this was the case. Like you mentioned, Indexing Directors have access to the Indexing reports and can send messages to indexers, and that access will become even more important as Indexing is moved online (with wards getting ward-level reports, etc.)...

I just checked Leader and Clerk Resources and my Stake Indexing Director is still listed as such, for now.

sbradshaw wrote:Where did you get the memo? I would be really surprised if this was the case. Like you mentioned, Indexing Directors have access to the Indexing reports and can send messages to indexers, and that access will become even more important as Indexing is moved online (with wards getting ward-level reports, etc.)...

The changes were announced as a message in MLS yesterday.

It's not clear if the changes will happen automatically, or if they will be done via an update (patch) to MLS, or we will have to do them manually. For me none of the changes had taken place!

There are other callings similarly being rationalised.

I believe the memo went out too soon. We have just been asked to make this change and are pointing out many of the same concerns in the first post.

When we make this kind of change (if we do it for this case still needs to be reviewed) then it is automatically received by LCR and MLS from CDOL.

Biggles wrote:It's not clear if the changes will happen automatically, or if they will be done via an update (patch) to MLS, or we will have to do them manually. For me none of the changes had taken place!

Position changes do not necessarily correspond to MLS updates or patches.

The list of positions is provided to MLS by CDOL and does not correspond with an MLS release. If MLS receives an update file from CDOL with new position information, those changes are effective as soon as the file is processed. Although the changes are often correlated because MLS (or LCR) is adding functionality related to a calling, the two events are not required to be linked.

jonesrk covered the rest of the details.

For reference, here is the complete MLS message that was sent:

MLS SUPPORT 24 May 2015
To more closely align to the Church Handbook of Instructions, changes will be made to the following calling titles:

• |Mission Leader| has been changed to |Ward Mission Leader|
• |Assistant Ward Mission Leader| has been added
• |Family History Leader| has been removed. All members in this calling have been moved to |Family History Consultant|.
• |Indexing Director| has been removed. All members in this calling have been moved to |Family History Consultant|.
• |Indexing Assistant Director| has been removed. All members in this calling have been moved to |Family History Consultant|.
• |Chorister| has been removed. All members in this calling have been moved to |Ward Music Director|.
• |Nursery Leader - Pre-Nursery| has been removed. All members in this calling have been moved to |Nursery Leader|.
• |Primary Activity Days Assistant Leader| has been removed. All members in this calling have been moved to |Primary Activity Days Leader|.

Please share these changes with your ward council.

One of the concerns about these proposed changes in my stake is the removal of "Family History Leader." Most of the wards in my stake have a Family History Leader called to represent Family History on the ward council, because in YSA stakes we don't have a High Priests Group Leader.

Here is a passage in Handbook 2, 5.4.3, that supports this:

If a ward does not have a high priests group leader, the elders quorum president or another assigned Melchizedek Priesthood holder fills this role.

sbradshaw wrote:One of the concerns about these proposed changes in my stake is the removal of "Family History Leader." Most of the wards in my stake have a Family History Leader called to represent Family History on the ward council, because in YSA stakes we don't have a High Priests Group Leader.

Here is a passage in Handbook 2, 5.4.3, that supports this:

If a ward does not have a high priests group leader, the elders quorum president or another assigned Melchizedek Priesthood holder fills this role.

I'm not able to edit my original post, but here's a description of the family history leaders' important responsibilities (again, a Melchizedek priesthood holder is called to this position when there is no high priest group leader):
https://www.lds.org/callings/temple-and ... e?lang=eng

so now did they bring in excecutive temple family history consultant? to replace a call in my stake or ward?

christopherheiser wrote:so now did they bring in excecutive temple family history consultant? to replace a call in my stake or ward?

There are now three ward temple and family history consultant callings:
– Ward Temple and Family History Consultant
– Ward Temple and Family History Consultant—Lead
– Ward Temple and Family History Consultant—Indexing

All three positions can have one or multiple people assigned to them. Each of the positions has access to the "Family History Activity Report" on Leader and Clerk Resources.