Stake Assistant Executive Secretary no longer a standard calling

We received this message in our stake MLS a few days ago:

To align with Handbook 2: Administering the Church, the position of Stake Assistant Executive Secretary will be discontinued as a standard calling in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). This change will take effect on 30 November 2015.

As a result, members who currently hold this calling will be listed in the Members without Callings report unless they are also assigned to another calling. They will also be removed from all system access privileges previously associated to this calling.

Thank you for your understanding with this change.

I'd kind of been expecting them to add an assistant executive secretary at the ward level to match the stake level, but I guess they decided to go the other way instead.

I have seen a lot of recordkeeping tasks assigned to executive secretaries which could be handled by clerks instead. There can be an infinite number of assistant clerks in a ward or stake. I think this will make the division of duties more clear, which is a good thing.

I have a hunch that someone who wanted the ward Assistant Executive Secretary added pointed out that stakes had assistants. Oops.

I'm with sbradshaw on this one, I think that assistant Exec Sec's are given responsibilities that really work better as a clerk. I remember as a stake clerk, there were a bunch of things, even clearly in the handbook clerk assignments, that were being given to the Exec Sec staff (he had 2 assistants at the time) and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why (his predecessor didn't have any, and knew when to tell the presidency it wasn't his role). This Presidency was really presidency heavy... meaning many things that should've been high council were handled by the exec sec, and exec sec / clerk stuff were pushed to assistant Exec Sec.

I really like what the church is doing with regard to positions and authorizations. Bishops/Stake Presidencies should take note that if they assign work to someone that they can't access online the data they needed, they've assigned it to the wrong person.

In an interesting turn of events, this was sent out via email ("My Calling") yesterday (December 5th):

Please disregard the email sent to you November 22, 2015 with regards to the position of Stake Assistant Executive Secretary being discontinued as a standard calling in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). The position of Stake Assistant Executive Secretary will continue as a standard calling in LCR, but will not have system access privileges previously associated with this calling.

Interesting to me that they would keep the calling, but not grant any online access.

sbradshaw wrote:Interesting to me that they would keep the calling, but not grant any online access.

Two thoughts come to mind:

• Removing the calling might have caused a bigger problem then it would solve.
• A future change to the Handbook is coming. The position is needed in some cases. But by not having rights, it insures that the assistant works under the direct supervision of the Secretary. (As in "here's a print out I need you to follow-up on.")

sbradshaw wrote:The position of Stake Assistant Executive Secretary will continue as a standard calling in LCR, but will not have system access privileges previously associated with this calling.

You're putting me on the Jedi Council but not making me a master? How is that possible?