Recording ordinance for member of another ward

I've been asked to pull the membership record of a young man that is attending a single adult ward so that I can record his ordination to Elder. He is not attending our ward and will not resume attending this ward with his parents but will continue attending the single adult ward. I have been told to pull the membership record, record the ordinance then send the membership record back to the single adult ward.

It seems to be an irregular way to maintain membership records if a clerk updates ordinances for members of other wards, even if the parents attend here. If the clerk in the single adult ward is slow to update records why should I as a clerk in a different ward be getting involved?

Are there any policy items I can refer to in support of my position that this should not be happening?

I think the correct answer to that question depends upon (1) the person making the request, and (2) which stake presided over the ordination.

If #1 and #2 are in different stakes, I would be more comfortable knowing that some dialog occurred between all the affected stakes.

If #1 and #2 are in the same stake I would likely go ahead and take care of the request.

Darris Williams wrote:If the clerk in the single adult ward is slow to update records why should I as a clerk in a different ward be getting involved?

If the Single Adult ward in question is part of your stake, there may be extenuating circumstances that you are not aware of, and likely don't need to know about. This type of change to a membership record cannot be done at the stake level within MLS, thus it must be done at a ward level somewhere. Even so, that stake clerk should be working with that ward clerk to handle the situation, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Personally, I would do it if the stake that presided over the ordination supplies a completed, signed ordination form. This form can be found by navigating from the MLS 3.0 menu bar to Reports/Forms > Ordinance Record Forms > Melchizedek Priesthood Ordination Record.

But I am not aware of anything official to provide guidance either way.

Any other thoughts?

jbh001 wrote:If the Single Adult ward in question is part of your stake, there may be extenuating circumstances that you are not aware of, and likely don't need to know about.

Short of having a completely dysfunctional membership clerk/system, I can't think of what that would be. Hopefully whatever it is is being taken care of.

Darris Williams wrote:I've been asked to pull the membership record of a young man that is attending a single adult ward so that I can record his ordination to Elder. He is not attending our ward and will not resume attending this ward with his parents but will continue attending the single adult ward. I have been told to pull the membership record, record the ordinance then send the membership record back to the single adult ward.

...Are there any policy items I can refer to in support of my position that this should not be happening?

I don't know of a policy to refer you to, but I've been both a ward and stake clerk in a YSA stake and have never heard of this. I have contacted wards that have performed the ordinance to get the information I needed to fill in all the ordination information (full name, bday, membership number of person performing the ordinance), but that can be done with a phone call. Requiring that unit to pull the record, record the ordinance, and send it back just sounds like a lazy clerk to me.

For more official wording, see this Wiki article: Recording ordinances. Main point - it is the responsibility of the ward clerk to record it on the membership record. It is the stake's responsibility to make sure this happens.

I have a somewhat similar situation to the original poster. A young man in our ward was ordained as an Elder this summer. Then, he moved to Provo to attend BYU before leaving on his mission. A few weeks ago, his records were moved out of our ward down to his BYU ward. This week, I received the paperwork from the Stake on his ordination. Fortunately, I keep all the paperwork generated by records change, so I know what ward he is attending while at BYU. Should I forward the ordination form to them, or should I keep it and record the ordinance when he returns to our ward? The second option doesn't seem right to me, but I'm also not sure about forwarding the ordination form either. Any ideas?

If you know what ward he belongs to, I would contact that ward and provide them with the information. The other option you have would be to request the records back, record the information, and then send them back. Doing that, however, results in his address, contact info, and calling information to be erased. I'm assuming his parents are in your ward. Have them obtain the contact info from their son for the ward clerk in his BYU ward. Contact him and provide him the necessary info. Or have their son provide him with your contact info.

BYU draws their clerks from the surrounding stakes (they don't use students. At least most don't).