Finding Contact Information for past Bishop

I was recently called as the membership clerk. The bishop has asked that I provide contact information for the previous bishop when a member moves into the ward. Having served as a councilor recently for 3 years I understand why this ward (and stake) practice is in place.

There used to be a CD that was provided to each ward with this information but I understand that it has been discontinued - in August 2007 - and the expectation is that information is now obtained using the meeting house locator on LDS.org. Problem is that it only lists one phone which could be the hall phone and I'm looking for the number for the residence or business of the bishop. This type of contact is also listed in the CHI as an option when interviewing for temple recommend renewals in the ward for the first time or within the first year. By direction the bishop conducts this interview in our stake.

In any case the information that used to be available on the CD does not appear to be available if it is not obtained from the recent move in. Any suggestions?

ktoger2 wrote:I was recently called as the membership clerk. The bishop has asked that I provide contact information for the previous bishop when a member moves into the ward. Having served as a councilor recently for 3 years I understand why this ward (and stake) practice is in place.

There used to be a CD that was provided to each ward with this information but I understand that it has been discontinued - in August 2007 - and the expectation is that information is now obtained using the meeting house locator on LDS.org. Problem is that it only lists one phone which could be the hall phone and I'm looking for the number for the residence or business of the bishop. This type of contact is also listed in the CHI as an option when interviewing for temple recommend renewals in the ward for the first time or within the first year. By direction the bishop conducts this interview in our stake.

In any case the information that used to be available on the CD does not appear to be available if it is not obtained from the recent move in. Any suggestions?

In my experience, the phone number listed for the bishop in the new meetinghouse locator is always the home phone of the bishop. Now I'll admit that my experience is not broad enough to be statistically significant, but I'm curious why you said it "could be the hall phone." Is that from experience or simply conjecture?

I also would not dismiss the COI CD as a source of information. It tells when the bishop was called, so if the bishop was called in 2004 or later, there's a pretty good chance that he is still the bishop. Obviously as time goes on, this will get to be more and more out of date, so this is not a long-term solution, but it could be helpful in many cases, and if you happen to reach a bishop who has been released, he can probably point you to the new bishop.

Finally, there is the online Directory of Leaders, but unfortunately the bishop is the only person at the ward level that can access it under current policy.

Alan_Brown wrote:In my experience, the phone number listed for the bishop in the new meetinghouse locator is always the home phone of the bishop.

We are finding that the primary phone at the locator site is the bishop's office phone and the alternate phone number at the locator site is the bishop's home phone.

lajackson wrote:We are finding that the primary phone at the locator site is the bishop's office phone and the alternate phone number at the locator site is the bishop's home phone.

That is what we are experiencing with ours also.

Thanks. With the help here, I was able to figure out how to use the map function in meeting house locator to find the Bishops home phone, which is the alternate number - and to point the bishop to the site where he can find it if I am unable to do so http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2238 .