Membership Info, who can have?

As a ward clerk I get a lot of calls asking if I have access to Membership Info.

The question I have is that the people who call isn't the member themselves, its a ward missionary or RS Pres or whoever.

Are we permitted to give out info to these people without permission from the member themselves? I know CHQ treats these with as much confidential handling as a SSN.

What is the policy on this?

Membership information should only be given to the members themselves and the bishopric. I'm sure Alan will be here soon to correct this if needed, but in my ward only addresses and phone numbers are shared.

CzechRM wrote:Membership information should only be given to the members themselves and the bishopric. I'm sure Alan will be here soon to correct this if needed, but in my ward only addresses and phone numbers are shared.

To be more precise, Members are only allowed to have/see a copy of their Individual Ordinance Summary (IOS). Only the ward clerk and bishop (and in many cases, the assistant ward clerk over Membership) should see the actual Membership Record print out. When printing a member record, you will be presented with a dialog box that asks if you are printing this out for a bishop or ward clerk. This toggles the printing of a Membership Record or an IOS.

As for just giving out membership info verbally to someone who is not the member in question, I would think you should direct them to use the reports that are built into MLS to fulfill their calling. If they fill they have a need for extra info beyond that, then that would be an exception to be taken up with the bishop.

EDIT: For instance, perhaps someone is called to see that Temple assignments are filled from among the ward membership; there could be a list or something similar approved by the bishop that indicates who in the ward currently holds a temple recommend and can fulfill temple assignments.

My case is a Ward Missionary trying to assist a new member gaining a recommend for baptisms and asking me for the information.

kmalone wrote:My case is a Ward Missionary trying to assist a new member gaining a recommend for baptisms and asking me for the information.

Even for this situation the ward missionary or the new member should contact the bishop.

I don't know of any rules or policy on the matter. For ID theft reasons, I'd be careful about full legal name, birth date and mother's maiden name. Because of the way the Church IDs members, I'd also be careful about the membership number and confirmation date.

kmalone wrote:My case is a Ward Missionary trying to assist a new member gaining a recommend for baptisms and asking me for the information.

I'm confused. A child being baptized? Seems like the parents should know all the info. Is it a new member seeking a recommend to perform a baptism? I think that's Bishop's area. I don't know what the WML would be doing filing out those forms.

Bottom line, you need to sit down and talk with your bishop to work out an acceptable policy based on legitimate "need to know".

RussellHltn wrote:I don't know of any rules or policy on the matter. For ID theft reasons, I'd be careful about full legal name, birth date and mother's maiden name. Because of the way the Church IDs members, I'd also be careful about the membership number and confirmation date.



I'm confused. A child being baptized? Seems like the parents should know all the info. Is it a new member seeking a recommend to perform a baptism? I think that's Bishop's area. I don't know what the WML would be doing filing out those forms.

Bottom line, you need to sit down and talk with your bishop to work out an acceptable policy based on legitimate "need to know".

No its a new member of good standing wanting a temple recommend to attend the Temple to do baptisms.

kmalone wrote:No its a new member of good standing wanting a temple recommend to attend the Temple to do baptisms.

Yeah, I'm still at a loss for what the Ward Mission Leader could possibly need off of the member's record. Anything regarding forms or approval needs to go through the bishop. I mean the extent of what the Ward Mission Leader could possibly do in this situation is call the Exec. Secretary and ask for an appointment on behalf of the new member, or request the Exec. Secretary to contact the new member in order to get the appointment made.

kmalone wrote:No its a new member of good standing wanting a temple recommend to attend the Temple to do baptisms.

I've never heard of such a thing being done by the WML.

If the WML just wants to know if one year has passed, that would be one thing. You could tell him yea/nay before getting the member's hopes up.

It sounds to me like you really need to sit down with the Bishop and discuss this. Or call the stake clerk since he's in charge of ward clerk training.

RussellHltn wrote:I've never heard of such a thing being done by the WML.

If the WML just wants to know if one year has passed, that would be one thing. You could tell him yea/nay before getting the member's hopes up.

It sounds to me like you really need to sit down with the Bishop and discuss this. Or call the stake clerk since he's in charge of ward clerk training.

Yeah, kind of what I was thinking, I was going to mention this to the Bishop on Sunday.

I think the bigger issue is that most members don't view the info that critical. I get request all the time to change someone last name and I have repeated numerous times in PEC/Ward Council church policy so please don't ask me until you have spoken with the Bishop.

kmalone wrote:I think the bigger issue is that most members don't view the info that critical. I get request all the time to change someone last name and I have repeated numerous times in PEC/Ward Council church policy so please don't ask me until you have spoken with the Bishop.

The policy there is that it's the member's legal name. Lacking any paperwork, talking to the Bishop first sounds like a good plan. The Preferred Name can be most anything.

RussellHltn wrote:I've never heard of such a thing being done by the WML.

If the WML just wants to know if one year has passed, that would be one thing. You could tell him yea/nay before getting the member's hopes up.

It sounds to me like you really need to sit down with the Bishop and discuss this. Or call the stake clerk since he's in charge of ward clerk training.

Except that if the new member just wants to do baptisms for the dead, no waiting period is applicable. As long as they are over 12, they could get a limited-use recommend 2 minutes after being confirmed. It just takes an interview with the Bishop. I'm sure the Bishop would be more than happy to interview the new member and get them in the temple as soon as possible.

Digressing a little, I have given EQ and RS presidents and secretaries access to MLS to enter/edit their HT/VT districts, visits, etc. In order to do this, they need to have at least permission to view membership. This is of course with Bishop approval. Not surprisingly, he gave it.