Policy on Wireless Printers

In light of the new policy/requirements for completing and printing Limited Use Temple Recommends:
- Bishops in our stake have requested wireless printers so that multiple recommend interviews can be conducted simultaneously without interrupting other processes in the clerks office at the same time.
- The FM Group cannot presently offer wireless printers for clerk offices.
- One Bishop is planning to purchase and install a wireless printer in the clerk's office.
- What is the current policy on wireless printers in the clerk's office and the reasoning behind it? Is it about to change?

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Alan L. Williams
Stake Technology Specialist | Ward Financial Clerk
Mesa Ward | Pueblo Colorado Stake
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Just a thought, rather than going to the expense of purchasing additional printers, the instructions state that the recommends can be printed out before any interviews have taken place. Printing the recommends activates them, but they aren't valid until signed both by the Bishop and the member. Therefore no additional equipment required!

I like that idea! I have not seen the instructions. Do you have a link I can go to so that I can quote the instructions?

I found the communication with the instructions:
https://letters.lds.org/document/pdf?it ... nline=true

I'd also suggest reading the last paragraph of Handbook 1: 14.7.2 . While it mentions "computers", it could be interpreted to include computer printers.

Independent of temple recommends we do have a lot of people that want to print via wifi. What would you recommend? In the past one of the wards had purchased their own wifi router and connected the printer to that, but I don't really like rogue wifi networks. Otherwise does someone need to donate a wifi printer?

"Want" and "supported" are two different things. I have yet to see any indication that the church is supporting members printing things from BYOD.

One concern I'd have about allowing members to print to the clerk computer is that would foster a "culture" of waltzing into the clerks office to grab the print-out. When there might be sensitive information on the printer or in plain sight. The other problem is how do you control usage? By the time anyone else knows about it, it's already printed/printing.

That said, I think the last printer I got from FM had a network connection on it. But you'd have to wait for your current printer to die. The alternative is some kind of print server. I know I used to see some that worked with USB, but I don't know how well they'd work with mobile devices.

russellhltn wrote:One concern I'd have about allowing members to print to the clerk computer is that would foster a "culture" of waltzing into the clerks office to grab the print-out. When there might be sensitive information on the printer or in plain sight.

Or some poor clerk trying to print a batch of checks...

Mikerowaved wrote:Or some poor clerk trying to print a batch of checks...

That's not going to end well.

Thanks, good points. This was intended mainly for leaders to be able to print during meetings such as PEC, but I guess it could get out of control. But that never appeared to be an issue for the wards that tried it.

I wonder if wireless printing could be enabled only for certain hours (for example, during morning meetings)?

We purchased two printers, one for the Bishops office and one for the Clerks. I locked them down so that only those who have the pin can print to them. The FM Group was not happy about it, but we were told that an upgrade for our current printer (not wireless) was a good year out. The Bishop also wanted to be able to print talks or other helps for people he was interviewing. So far it has been a very good investment for our Bishopric and Clerks. We were also able to get a higher capacity printer at a lower cost per page than the one provided by FM. Purchased through our Ward Staples account.

BEWilson wrote:We purchased two printers, ... . The FM Group was not happy about it ...

I can understand why since "The local FM group is responsible for procuring computers, monitors, and printers." (emphasis added) The FM budget cycle begins in the spring in the year before an expenditure is made. So if a printer was to be replaced in 2017 it would have been included in the FM budget submitted in April 2016. Unit budget funds are not supposed to be used to purchase computers, monitors, and printers. An exception is for computers used for meetinghouse broadcast purposes.

Because the printers were not purchased through the FM budget, the support for these printers is solely the responsibility of the unit purchasing them.