Can we stop printing so much?

I don't know of all the details that happen when membership record gets updated and all of that.

I just know we print a lot of updates for membership records and there seems to be a lot of white space on those papers.
Even more recently we get things that just say something like "Temple information has changed" something generic like that, but won't even say what changed or who.
I wasted a piece of paper for that?
In our ward we don't keep any ordinance records in any book. So we get a new member or an update record. It prints the little summary and the updated ordinance record for the membership clerk and the bishop. (at least 4 pages)
Our membership clerk is kind older and keeps everything that is printed (even summary papers that I don't think we need to keep). The bishop looks at them, might keep the summary paper around on his desk for a while but normal shreds everything.

I don't know if there a way to combine the summary record so all changes go on one page. Or some option to only print summary records. And can we do better on the generic print outs?
I just don't like wasting the Lords money on so much paper.

I always use the print preview to make sure it's not important, then I say No to the print dialog box. Luckily as things move to Leader and Clerk Resources these print popups are going away. I'm sure printouts were a lot more useful back in the day before you could have instant access to membership information online and in LDS Tools.

In addition to previewing each MLS request to print a record update I print the document to PDF if there is a need to save it for future review. Those PDF files are saved in a USB thumb drive and locked in the filing cabinet. It is purged of all PDF documents over one year old that are of no further use just before the annual membership audit. We have never found a need to make a paper printout of these record update print requests.

I agree, it is overwhelming how much we print. I have started to use cutepdf which will allow you to save the document in pdf format on the computer. Even with this work around, we don't need to print something for every phone number that changes.

As a new ward clerk, I don't mind printing all the transaction reports, but I really see no need to print either IOS or full membership records. I have looked for a setting to toggle off the printing of those items, but found nothing. Paper is cheap, but toner is not.
Over the past 24 hours, I have used LCR to reformat every address in the ward, and I fear that MLS will try to reprint every membership record in the ward after the next Send/Receive.
I am tempted to change the default printer to CutePDF on the clerk's computer, but that is sure to mess everyone up, especially the finance clerk.

drepouille wrote:I have used LCR to reformat every address in the ward, and I fear that MLS will try to reprint every membership record in the ward after the next Send/Receive.

You might want to beat everyone else to the computer and run the send/receive and click "no" on all of the address updates.

Yeah, I am in the clerk's office now, and just finished clicking Cancel about 100 times.
Wow.

drepouille wrote:just finished clicking Cancel about 100 times.

That is actually easier than defaulting to the CutePDF printer, because then you have to accept the file name and click print every time. And delete all the files.

I think you made the right decision.

I agree with the premise of this thread. I've clicked 'no' or 'cancel' more times than I can count.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way. I guess I wish there a was a way to know what was going to be printed BEFORE we click print or print preview. Even better if it showed me a list of the queue stuff to print and I select a check box of stuff I want to print. I did a send and receive and it was saying I had stuff updated, I just told it to print, it asked if I wanted to print one for the membership, I don't know what it is, so I click yes for 3 or 4 items. Come to find out a just a bunch of Temple Recommend updates. WHY? Ended up shredding all 6 or 8 pages.

The Print to PDF is a good idea, just on the finance side we need to print those items. Just have to keep changing the printer back and forth.

tubaloth wrote:Even better if it showed me a list of the queue stuff to print and I select a check box of stuff I want to print.

You can kind of do this with Windows' built-in print queue. Just keep the printing paused, and at the end of the day go to the list, delete the things you don't need, and resume so it all prints; then, pause again.