Tech Forum Archive

Weekly Sacrament attendance App

17 postsstarted by cchang 4,686 viewsoriginal topic

cchang
Member
#1
Is there an iPhone app that is good for keeping a weekly log of the Sacrament attendance? I use to have the LDS Clerk Tools app that did this but it has been removed since I upgraded my iPhone. How have others been logging their weekly Sacrament attendance?
lajackson
Community Moderators
#2
We write the number on a calendar in the clerk's office.
drepouille
Senior Member
#3
We use a generic Tap Counter app.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
Mottzzz
New Member
#4
I just put the count in a note in my phone. There was an app for this?
chriswoodut
Member
#5
We use a general app for counting things. I use ThingCounter I think in android. Then, we enter the info in a google doc spreadsheet. We then graph attendance over the past 3 years and can see trends. We calculate averages by month/quarter/year. It's more of an FYI for the Bishop. Our ward is aging and families are becoming empty-nesters with kids moving out to college and adult life and you can see the slow decrease in attendance simply from an aging ward with almost no move-ins with kids.
davesudweeks
Senior Member
#6
We use *gasp* a pencil and a slip of scratch paper or the back of the ward bulletin. Then we write the number in the space on the sacrament meeting minutes the assistant clerk-membership records, which is filed in a binder in the clerks office. It would be easy to graph, but none of the past 4 bishops I have served as clerk for have desired it.
chriswoodut
Member
#7
davesudweeks wrote:We use *gasp* a pencil and a slip of scratch paper or the back of the ward bulletin. Then we write the number in the space on the sacrament meeting minutes the assistant clerk-membership records, which is filed in a binder in the clerks office. It would be easy to graph, but none of the past 4 bishops I have served as clerk for have desired it.
Admittedly I'm probably the only person that looks at the graphs. I created them simply because I already had the data and it's super easy to do. The collection of the data and trend on the chart did cause the question about "why" the changes. Then in ward council they reviewed the list of those attending/not attending and a discussion of who could be ministered to.
Mottzzz
New Member
#8
So, here's a tangent...
Are we supposed to be taking sacrament attendance counts every Sunday? I've only been doing it every three months for quarterly report. I figured if it doesn't have to go in a report, then why bother? I guess unless just as an FYI for the bishop, or something.
drepouille
Senior Member
#9
Some bishops and stake presidents ask for more reports than are required by the Handbooks and other official guidance. Long ago, we had monthly reports. When the Church changed to quarterly reports, some stake presidents continued to ask the local units for monthly reports, even though the software had been changed to make monthly data collection quite difficult. I think the most important question is whether all the metrics are actually used by leaders to do anything significant.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
chriswoodut
Member
#10
To tangent a little further (I'm going to use tangent as a verb, yep)....

I think the quarterly report needs changing with the introduction of 2 hour church. We are tracking the same attendance in YM/YW/Priesthood/RS but those events now only happen twice a month. If we're only tracking and reporting one month a quarter, it's pretty easy for a person to miss those 2 weeks and be counted as 'not attending' even if they were there the other two weeks of the month.
drepouille
Senior Member
#11
That's why I have adopted the stance of "physical attendance in meetings means nothing". We should be measuring activity level, not attendance, as those two factors are not necessarily related.

For example, your ward may have 50 young men. How many of those young men do the YM presidency consider to be "active" members?
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
davesudweeks
Senior Member
#12
Mottzzz wrote:So, here's a tangent...
Are we supposed to be taking sacrament attendance counts every Sunday? I've only been doing it every three months for quarterly report. I figured if it doesn't have to go in a report, then why bother? I guess unless just as an FYI for the bishop, or something.
Technically, we only need to collect average sacrament attendance for the last month of each quarter. Knowing myself, I record it every week because I would forget to do it the last month of the quarter if I didn't do it every week...

There is a whole other possible discussion about what is more useful and how it could be used, but that would be for another thread. This thread was about an app to collect the information and my post was simply the "app" we use, which is a pen and paper.
confuzedmale
New Member
#13
Another tangent: do you count those that are home bound but you take sacrament to?
eblood66
Senior Member
#14
confuzedmale wrote:Another tangent: do you count those that are home bound but you take sacrament to?
The report instructs to count each individual who attended sacrament meeting. The bishop and stake president are responsible for determining how to interpret policy but the statement is pretty straightforward.
redruss91
New Member
#15
The church actually just came out with an official notice regarding this:
A policy change has been made for the way sacrament meeting attendance is recorded and reported. Beginning on January 1, 2020, ward and branch clerks will begin counting sacrament meeting attendance each week and will record it electronically using Church record-keeping tools.

When recording sacrament meeting attendance, clerks will continue to count all individuals who attend. This includes nonmembers and members who may be visiting. Members of the ward or branch who attend a different sacrament meeting are counted in the meeting they attend.

To assist ward and branch clerks, new features have been added to Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR) and Member Tools. Bishopric and branch presidency members, clerks, and assistant clerks have access to them by clicking or tapping on Sacrament Meeting Attendance under the Reports menu.

For the quarterly report, the average sacrament meeting attendance (Line 7) will be calculated automatically based on the attendance recorded each week in the new features. The average will no longer be based on attendance during the last month of the quarter only, but will include all weeks within the quarter. Attendance updates may only be made to the current quarter and the previous quarter.
So as of January 1st, you will be able to do this straight from the LDS Tools app.
KOKOETESMART
New Member
#16
70
30 may 2021
rmrichesjr
Community Moderators
#17
Please do not report attendance here. This is just a discussion forum.