Head of House and Spouse

Am I correct in my understanding that there is no way to get Custom Reports to print out the names of both the father and the mother of a child? The "Head of House and Spouse" field sounds like it should do the trick but it doesn't; for children it only lists the head of house. (And the "Spouse of Head of House" field is blank for them.)

Hi there, I just checked this functionality and you are right, there is no way to get the names for both father and mother of a child from any custom report. "Head of House and Spouse" is only actually showing the "Head of House" and "Spouse of Head of House" is indeed blank (looks like a bug to me). However the Head of House doesn't always correspond to the parents of the child. What I would recommend is manually going to each child's record and clicking on the "Family" tab, which may or may not have information of the child's parents (and if they are members what unit they are attending) and then writing up that information yourself in a document to then print out. It will be a bit of a pain but that is the only way I know how.

Regards,
Craig Philip (Ward Clerk)

philipcraigscott1 wrote:However the Head of House doesn't always correspond to the parents of the child.

True, but it raises the question of what's really needed - the child's parents*, or the parents of the household the child is in?

I'd think in most situations, the latter would be sufficient. The parents recorded on the child's record may not be in the ward and you may not have contact information.

It sounds like the report is possible, but there's a bug. I'd report it using the feedback link in LCR, or on the main page if you can't find it.

(*The parent's recorded on the child's record may not be biological, but reflect legal adoption.)

russellhltn wrote:It sounds like the report is possible, but there's a bug. I'd report it using the feedback link in LCR, or on the main page if you can't find it.

Not quite, the report requested the child's parents (*or who legally adopted the child) but there is no option to select that, only Head of Household related fields.
But there is a bug with the Head of House Hold Spouse Name (it is always blank).

I will go report that issue now (and request we also be able to also select the names of parent too )

Thanks for the suggestion Russell.

philipcraigscott1 wrote:Not quite, the report requested the child's parents (*or who legally adopted the child)

I'm curious about what this report is being used for. You're more likely to get a feature added if you can show the proper need - such as a local government requirement.

russellhltn wrote:

philipcraigscott1 wrote:Not quite, the report requested the child's parents (*or who legally adopted the child)

I'm curious about what this report is being used for. You're more likely to get a feature added if you can show the proper need - such as a local government requirement.

I came up with 2 Scenarios

1. To check if the Father and Mother information of members have been entered/associated into the system correctly.
2. To identify the parents of youth who need to sign off on an upcoming Youth Camp

If the family structure is complicated and both parents and youth are not active in the church it can be difficult to know who to get permission from (relying on the head of household does not necessarily reflect the legal guardian of the children).

philipcraigscott1 wrote:To check if the Father and Mother information of members have been entered/associated into the system correctly.

I'd think reviewing the IOS would accomplish that. That already an established policy.

philipcraigscott1 wrote:If the family structure is complicated and both parents and youth are not active in the church it can be difficult to know who to get permission from (relying on the head of household does not necessarily reflect the legal guardian of the children).

Perhaps, but this seems to be something that could cause a lot of problems. The parents may no longer be a part of the child's life - perhaps by divorce or maybe even restraining order. Furthermore, unless the parent is in the ward, you won't have any contact information for them.

I'd think a better plan would be to identify which of the parents are the legal parents so you'd know who to approach for permission. But that's assuming there might be some question about a non-parent "parents" legal ability to give consent. I'm not finding any guidance on that in the Handbook.

You can submit the idea via the feedback link in LCR, but features needed to go beyond Handbook guidance are unlikely to happen.

I note that the church-provided permission form only has a blank for one parent/guardian, so it is unnecessary to get both.

russellhltn wrote:I'd think reviewing the IOS would accomplish that. That already an established policy.

Generally yes, unless they are not active in the church. The instances that come to mind are from old record keeping in MLS or they weren't provided/recorded when a convert was baptised. I guess it could be useful if a less active member and an active father/mother in a different ward be linked so if required to try and reach the parents for whatever reason

russellhltn wrote:Furthermore, unless the parent is in the ward, you won't have any contact information for them

If the parents are members (and are linked) you can find out which unit they are in and then try and get in touch with the Bishop there.

russellhltn wrote:I'd think a better plan would be to identify which of the parents are the legal parents so you'd know who to approach for permission

Yes you are right there

Thanks very much for your input and insight on this topic.