Can youth secretaries record attendance in Member Tools?

I'm trying to help the young women class secretaries take attendance, and I was wondering if they have access to do so in the Member Tools app (or on the website).

Is that something they have permission to do, or do only adult leaders have that permission?

As I understand, youth don't have access. They will need to take attendance and pass the information to their adult leaders or the clerk to record in LCR.

OK, thank you!

This is something that is clearly needed. I don't understand why youth organization secretaries do not have electronic access to fulfill their callings. It is strange that youth leaders can electronically take attendance where clerks would need to print papers to have the secretaries do it.

One might wonder what the responsibilities are for the adult Young Women Secretary, especially pertaining to taking attendance.

When I was Young Men Secretary way back in 1977, my only job was to take attendance.

Only the bishopric on the young men side has access, also something that should be taken off their plate.

johnshaw wrote:Only the bishopric on the young men side has access, also something that should be taken off their plate.

The YM quorum secretaries could take roll manually as has been done for many years and then hand those to the clerk to record. It doesn't have to be done by the bishopric. When I served as clerk, I would have done it gladly - it only takes a few minutes.

davesudweeks wrote:

johnshaw wrote:Only the bishopric on the young men side has access, also something that should be taken off their plate.

The YM quorum secretaries could take roll manually as has been done for many years and then hand those to the clerk to record. It doesn't have to be done by the bishopric. When I served as clerk, I would have done it gladly - it only takes a few minutes.

It's not that it can be done manually still it's the silliness of making an online tool available AND making it available only in a way that continues to require the manual process be done. It seems a WASTED effort of tithing resources if a development project was created, QA'd, etc.. to only have it continue to be a manual process.

johnshaw wrote:It's not that it can be done manually still it's the silliness of making an online tool available AND making it available only in a way that continues to require the manual process be done. It seems a WASTED effort of tithing resources if a development project was created, QA'd, etc.. to only have it continue to be a manual process.

I'm suspecting the underlying issue is privacy laws as it applies to "online information", and who is allowed to see the information if there's privacy settings (either opt-out or the legal default of opt-out).

I'd guess that either legal was brought into the project late, or the church has something in mind where that requires attendance at the individual level and not just the compiled numbers. I'm leaning toward the latter because they've effectively made its use mandatory by not allowing the old method of entering number for the quarterly report.

That's probably a good explanation. I just don't like automating or moving something online only partially. Or only for adults or whatever. This was rolled out in my ward and adults looked dumb in front of kids when the adults found out the kids didn't have access. I've watched things like that happen time and again. The Bishop creates some magical calling they think will 'help' but the leader they've called has no way to do that calling without including another adult (often that adult is the one that we were trying to unburden) because it's a non-standard calling that you can't give it access for

So now we have adults who can take attendance on their phones during the meeting and record the data thinking nothing of it later, but youth that must track things with a piece of paper, since it's a piece of paper now they need a pen, how many adults now carry around a pen/pencil vs 10 years ago vs 20 years ago

All these silly little things take time and effort away from gospel learning, every other week now there will be a 5 minute discussion in AP quorums about where a pen is or pencil and can I go to the library to get one. The YW will be better, but still probably will have that conversation often. Its the friction of those events I'm thinking of multiplied by thousands every other week.

Oh well... it's been my windmill for years

johnshaw wrote:This was rolled out in my ward and adults looked dumb in front of kids when the adults found out the kids didn't have access.

As if the kids needed any help from the church to do that.

The underlying problem there is the thinking "because I can do it, you can do it". When dealing with the church systems, that will frequently backfire. Leaders just don't realize they have special access and not even other leaders may have the same ability.

johnshaw wrote:I've watched things like that happen time and again. The Bishop creates some magical calling they think will 'help' but the leader they've called has no way to do that calling ... because it's a non-standard calling that you can't give it access for

Yet more faulty thinking by leadership. I wish I knew the answer to getting that though to them.

johnshaw wrote:but youth that must track things with a piece of paper, since it's a piece of paper now they need a pen, how many adults now carry around a pen/pencil vs 10 years ago vs 20 years ago

Inconvenient, yes. But before that it was all paper and still needed to be done. The failure to prepare sounds like a teachable moment and a good life lesson.

So I'm not buying into that line of thinking while still acknowledging the frustration that comes from the broken promise of being able to do it on-line. Oddly, it seems a number of units are not adopting Gospel Living because not all the kids have capable phones. I have to wonder what would happen if was all on-line and the secretary didn't have a phone.

Oddly, it seems a number of units are not adopting Gospel Living because not all the kids have capable phones

This is our local philosophy, where we see if new functionality is applicable to us, and if not, we simply continue as before (as long as that's approved). In a weird way, it helps us to almost "forget" that Gospel Living is out there, since if we were to try and make it work for us, we'd likely produce frustration and distract ourselves and our time from other things.
We definitely do need to be careful not to completely disregard new things like online attendance, since often if we spend a bit of time we can find a good way to take advantage of at least some, if not all, of what's new. It seems like it's always a case of identifying what's most important to your local unit/organization, and then accepting the benefits/challenges the Church systems provide. And speaking up via Feedback is always encouraged.

I have another question along these lines. We have called one Adult Advisor and several Adult Specialists in each of our YW and YM classes. In training these individuals, we have given specific YM/YW specialists the responsibility to assist the youth quorum and class secretaries to taking roll, helping with communication, and also keeping a history. Sounds like the youth don't have a way to do this electronically (at the moment), but also if your calling is a "specialist" these adult leaders are also not able to access attendance rolls nor add events in the planning calendars. I am a member of our ward bishopric, and we are unclear if this is some sort of permissions we need to set up? If so, can someone provide direction/comments on how to do this? Thanks very much for your help!

mherbst wrote:I am a member of our ward bishopric, and we are unclear if this is some sort of permissions we need to set up?

No. There is nothing you can do about it. Either they have it as part of their calling, or they don't.

You'll have to conform your plans with what LCR allows.