Unit statistics from LCR don't match new Boundary and Leadership tool

I have been asked by e SP to explore potential boundary realignments? He made that decision based on unit statistics from LCR that show 2 wards with a cumulative membership >900. However, in the boundary and leadership tool (http://bl.lds.org), the combined membership is only 846. I checked the other wards in the stake and they are also showing fewer members in the boundary tool than in LCR.

Does anyone know why there is a discrepancy between the two systems?

Could one of them be counting nonmember spouses or something?

Or out of unit members?

See if the BL tool will give you names you can use to compare.

The mapping software is unable to map many homes that are new construction (within 2 years). Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a way to "assign" these homes to a unit or location on the map. I'm not sure what to do to get accurate numbers.

teuscher wrote:Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a way to "assign" these homes to a unit or location on the map.

In maps.lds.org, authorized leaders should be able to "verify" a location - placing the household on a map.

BL uses the mapped locations of the members households to calculate its numbers. Either in maps.lds.org or in BL you can locate those households in the correct location so that you can have accurate stats both before you start and as you adjust boundaries.

I asked the Ward Clerks to do the updating and it appears to be working now. While the BL tool is very nice to use, I wish that the statistics were a little more clearly documented. If someone isn't paying attention, they could submit a ward boundary proposal with many members in the "unknown" or "unmapped" categories. You can't really see these until the very end of the review process just before submission. It would be better to have those up front when initiating the process ... perhaps the unit statistics can list # of members and # of unknown and # of unmapped members in each ward when initiating the BL changes.

The reason for the difference in statistics is because LDS Tools shows the number of members *assigned* to a unit. The Boundary and Leadership Proposal system shows the number of members known to *live within* a boundary.

LDS Tools likely contains many members who may or may not actually live within a boundary. For example:
• Members with no address assigned to a ward
• Members with an incorrect address or an address with a typo or an otherwise un-mappable address (such as a P.O. Box)
• Members who live outside ward boundaries
• Members living in a new apartment or subdivision that is not yet mappable by our system

A second reason for the difference is because the boundary proposal system includes unbaptized members of record whereas MLS and LDS.org often do not count these records in statistics.

The first step in completing a boundary proposal is to assign your local leaders the task of verifying residences and activity status for members (see Residences and Activity in the left-hand navigation). If local leaders have not yet completed this task, you may see significant differences between the statistics in this system versus what’s available on LDS.org.

When you assign local leaders the task of verifying residences using this system, clerks can quickly place orange dots on member residences that are unmapped in our system. This task usually takes most wards about 20 minutes to complete.

In addition, Bishops can quickly indicate activity status for members, so you will see accurate statistics for Active Full-tithe Paying Melchizedek Priesthood Holders.