CDOL

According to our Family History coordinator in our stake, she is unable to log in to the family history center without a "code" that she is supposed to get from the Church Directory of Leadership (CDOL). I have never heard of anything like this. Has anyone else heard of this mysterious "code"? If so, how does she get it?

The only thing I can think of that is remotely close to that: the FHC computers have some software that must be configured. A pop-up window will appear and information must be entered. Until that's done, there will be no access to sites that FHCs have free access to.

One of those things that pop-up window asks for is the FHC's unit number. Note that it will be separate from any ward or stake unit number. IIRC, it will typically start with a "3" or a "4". Naturally, you can look up the unit number in the CDOL.

russellhltn wrote: IIRC, it will typically start with a "3" or a "4".

Although 3 is the most common starting digit, followed by 4, there are hundreds of FHC unit numbers that start with 1, plenty that start with 2, and 5 and 6 are used as well. So don't rely on the starting digit. Just look it up to make sure.

russellhltn wrote:Naturally, you can look up the unit number in the CDOL.

Note that only certain people have access to CDOL (clerks and unit leaders). The stake clerk definitely does. One way to reliably find the FHC unit number is to start with finding the stake in CDOL and then use the associated organizations area for the stake to find the FHC(s) associated with the stake.

The FHC in our stake center was created when the stake center was built in 2003. It has a 4##### unit number. Every time I called Family History Support, the first tier service missionaries always insisted that our FHC unit number must begin with a 3. When I repeated our unit number and they looked it up, they were always amazed.
I believe our unit number begins with a 4 because it was initially a computer-only FHC, not a film-circulating FHC. However, that was changed shortly after the FHC opened and the FM supplied us with microfilm readers and a film storage cabinet. My wife was the first director of that FHC, and she did everything she could to ensure it qualified for a Canon MS 300 film/fiche scanner.

drepouille wrote:The FHC in our stake center was created when the stake center was built in 2003.

Until about six or seven years ago, you could tell the type of unit from the unit number. But when a ward and stake were created here a week apart in 2010, they both got 7-digit unit numbers that begin with 1 that were so similar I have to look them up each time to remember which is which.

Lately, I have noticed that new stakes are getting 7-digit unit numbers beginning with 2. I don't know if that is once again a planned numbering scheme, or if they ran out of numbers beginning with 1.

In any event, CDOL will have the unit number, whatever it is. And in the case of the OP, I think that is the number the FHC needs.

lajackson wrote:

drepouille wrote: Lately, I have noticed that new stakes are getting 7-digit unit numbers beginning with 2. I don't know if that is once again a planned numbering scheme, or if they ran out of numbers beginning with 1.

CDOL now creates the unit numbers automatically and they just increase over time.