Finding Lost Members Report

How do you add names to the Finding Lost Members report? It should be simple, but I can't figure it out...

I believe they are added automatically when the clerk moves them to "address unknown"

davesudweeks wrote: Thu Oct 27, 2022 7:51 am I believe they are added automatically when the clerk moves them to "address unknown"

I have been a membership clerk for 13 years, but maybe I am missing something..... I have never found a way to move members to "address unknown." Where is this located?

When you move a membership record out, LCR asks you if the new address is known. If you click No, you are shown a list of actions to be completed to verify you cannot find the member's location or contact information. When you verify that, the record is moved to Address Unknown.

Thank you for the help with this. I was confused, as previously when I moved out a record without an address, it disappeared somewhere in the church records department. Thanks to this forum, I now know that it goes to the Finding Lost Members report where we can still work on finding an address. I love this! When did this change?

zaneclark wrote: Thu Oct 27, 2022 12:54 pmWhen did this change?

Fairly recently - within the past 2-3 months, if I recall correctly. For awhile it was highlighted on the LCR reports page as a new report - that's when I noticed it. I'm no longer a clerk, but as EQP I can see the report as well and continue to try to work on them (I think the whole Ward Council can see the report as the responsibility lies with the Ward Council, not just the clerk).

zaneclark wrote: Thu Oct 27, 2022 12:54 pm Thank you for the help with this. I was confused, as previously when I moved out a record without an address, it disappeared somewhere in the church records department. Thanks to this forum, I now know that it goes to the Finding Lost Members report where we can still work on finding an address. I love this! When did this change?

If was rolled out to the units in stages and also seems to have a history cut-off as none are showing thus far in the report in our ward, even though a very small number were sent to address unknown in the last few years.

I've recently discovered this report, as we're working to move out some members for whom we received returned postal mail. It's good to know that the whole ward council has access to this. As a membership clerk, one matter I've found that I don't like about the Finding Lost Members report is that I can no longer see certain membership record information for the member (I suppose I can move the member back into the ward to see it). I'm dealing with some part-member families and helpful information is no longer visible: information such as the names of non-member parents of a youth, or the name of a nonmember spouse. Given the availability of the report to the ward council, I start to understand why some more confidential information isn't on the report, but not having an option for clerks to see the details can make it more challenging to find these people.

For those that weren't part of the pilot project, here is a link to a training video that explains the application and when it will be rolled out to the rest of us.

https://media2.ldscdn.org/assets/area-t ... =undefined

Thanks for sharing that link! I've seen previous efforts where training info that was provided to a pilot project, didn't always trickle down to local units when the program went "live". Hopefully this time when it reaches each local Stake (per the video, Feb 1st is the "go" date), there will be accompanying training resources, but at least I know where to find this now

BrianEdwards wrote: Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:25 pm Thanks for sharing that link! I've seen previous efforts where training info that was provided to a pilot project, didn't always trickle down to local units when the program went "live". Hopefully this time when it reaches each local Stake (per the video, Feb 1st is the "go" date), there will be accompanying training resources, but at least I know where to find this now

Feb 1 is the "go" date for the Utah Area. I'm in the elders quorum presidency and received an email from the church with a link to the video, so they are communicating it for this release. I don't know when the other Areas are planning on it.

Hi this is a good start to fixing the lost members problem. But it could have a few more steps set up to help it go more smoothly and efficiently. As a member of the RS presidency, our members list is full of people who we know no longer live here. But because it takes so many steps to have them removed with so many reaching out steps, hardly anyone gets moved. It would be so nice to have a pre-lost members list. One that the RS & EQ presidencies could add the names to it in a quicker method. This would help us organize our ministering assignments. Show us more accurate quarterly reports. Stop us from buying extra bday gifts and have extra money spent. After those members are added to this quick pre list, still in our wards files, we can then go through them without trying to hunt them down in the ward directory over and over. This would already be gathered in one spot, easy to access it. It would be nice for the ward clerk to not be the only ones adding the moved away members. We would do some some of the gathering of information to help this move more smoothly. Actual results would be seen in RS and EQ. We could have our reports operating with real information, it would be so helpful. The number of steps you have set up to move a record is going to take a long time, to the point that it’ll take years to clean up.

I also wish there was a file created to move college kids who are not going to attend our ward for the next few years, except for the occasional few during summer breaks or Christmas breaks, that would be grouped there. Where we could easily add them back into the current rotation, but have them separate when needed.

Please remember that this is a user-to-user discussion forum. Nobody here has any influence on decisions for Church software development.

ChanJones wrote: Fri Mar 10, 2023 6:05 pm I also wish there was a file created to move college kids who are not going to attend our ward for the next few years, except for the occasional few during summer breaks or Christmas breaks, that would be grouped there. Where we could easily add them back into the current rotation, but have them separate when needed.

If they're going to be attending another ward for 3 months or more their records should be moved to that ward.

Hi I'm a Ward Clerk (U.S.A Pacific NW),

The Full-Time elders gave me a list of people they found were no longer at the address listed in the Ward Directory.

I tried to get those names onto the "Finding Lost Members" list by moving them out, with a new address unknown.
However none of the first few names I tried subsequently appeared on the FLM list (after I clicked "continue"). (On screen, it did say their names would be "moved to the FLM list". However it did not appear to happen.)

So for the majority of the missionaries list I moved them out however clicked "save" to put things on hold until I see if those first few names start appearing on the FLM list.

I logged back into LCR some hours later from home and there are still no names on the FLM list. And those first few names are also no longer on our ward list, nor do they show up on the members moved out list.

Did they vanish into thin air??

MurdockM wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:54 pm ...

Did they vanish into thin air??

It's a long shot, but you might try incognito mode aka private window. If that brings the people back into view, it would be good to clear your browser's cache and delete Church-related cookies. The known cookie problem can cause symptoms about as strange as this.

MurdockM wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:54 pm I tried to get those names onto the "Finding Lost Members" list by moving them out, with a new address unknown.
However none of the first few names I tried subsequently appeared on the FLM list (after I clicked "continue"). (On screen, it did say their names would be "moved to the FLM list". However it did not appear to happen.)

So for the majority of the missionaries list I moved them out however clicked "save" to put things on hold until I see if those first few names start appearing on the FLM list.

I logged back into LCR some hours later from home and there are still no names on the FLM list. And those first few names are also no longer on our ward list, nor do they show up on the members moved out list.

Did they vanish into thin air??

I moved someone to the Finding Lost Members list recently and had the same experience. I, too, wondered if the member had vanished. I was going to call the member service center to see what happened, but didn't have time to do so that day. The next day I found that the vanished member had reappeared and was on the Finding Lost Members report. I've previously moved out others to that list and they were instantly on the list. Maybe it's the cookie problem that the previous post mentioned. Or maybe something behind the scenes changed recently (there are some processes that get updated during overnight jobs, maybe this is now one of them?). Or maybe something's just broken.

ChanJones wrote: Fri Mar 10, 2023 6:05 pm ...As a member of the RS presidency, our members list is full of people who we know no longer live here. But because it takes so many steps to have them removed with so many reaching out steps, hardly anyone gets moved....

I'm 'only' a Ward Clerk and so, it really IS a lot of steps when I have no idea who the people are or their history in the Ward. Plus I'm single and don't feel comfortable calling for example, an inactive single mother who does not know me and asking what her new address is.

MurdockM wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:27 am I'm 'only' a Ward Clerk and so, it really IS a lot of steps when I have no idea who the people are or their history in the Ward. Plus I'm single and don't feel comfortable calling for example, an inactive single mother who does not know me and asking what her new address is.

My personal opinion:

This activity is the ward council's responsibility. As the ward clerk is a member of the ward council, it would be part of your responsibility, but you don't own it - the ward council does. Much of the effort can (and I think should) be delegated to ministering brothers and sisters (every family in the ward should be assigned to be ministered to anyway). I have not found the steps to be that difficult nor especially time consuming (per member). Remember the ward is not required to find them, just required to make "a good college try" to find them. If an effort is made for each step for each family (and the effort is unsuccessful), that's good enough and move on. In my experience, the full time missionaries assigned to our ward are very happy to take on some of the steps (your mileage may vary depending on their instructions from their mission president). Especially the step about talking to the neighbors where the family lived - this gives them an excuse to have some face time with non-members and introduce themselves.

I 100% agree that you would probably not be the best person to reach out to single sisters. The RS should be doing that (in my opinion). The ward council should not overthink this but counsel on the best way to tackle the list based on their understanding of the members on the list.

MurdockM wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 2:54 pm I tried to get names onto the "Finding Lost Members" list by moving them out, with new address unknown.
However none of the names subsequently appeared on the FLM list

The names have now appeared on the FLM list (over night). So, we are off and running.

/ The discussions on this forum are really helpful, thanks everyone.

PS: I am emailing a polite, "You may already know about this program..." "...thank you for helping me...", type message to both the EQ and RS president (cc: the Bishop) with a link to the program info.

https://utah.churchofjesuschrist.org/ja ... ang=eng-ut

(I don't know how much they already know, and I want to get us all on the same page.)

"...thank you for helping me..."

I appreciate your trying to be supportive in your outreach to the EQ & RS. But I would suggest a more direct approach is appropriate. The pdf in the training link you provide is clear about the responsibilities of the clerk and the responsibilities of the EQ & RS Presidencies. As Clerk, your sole responsibility as outlined in the program, is to move records. The EQ & RS Presidencies have the responsibility to lead the effort, and other ward council members (including yourself) and the missionaries may assist.

I suppose you could phrase it as "I can help your presidencies as needed", but I would proceed differently. I would invite the EQ & RS to first counsel separately as presidencies, and then counsel together as combined EQ & RS Presidencies, and determine a proposed plan. And then invite them to present that plan in Ward Council for further discussion. Then everyone is aware and involved appropriately.

As assistant ward clerk, membership, I just moved a record to the FLM report, and LCR said "in a few minutes" the name would appear on the report. It has been a lot longer than "a few minutes". I tried clearing browser cache and deleting Church-related cookies. The report is still showing as empty. (The report had been correctly empty before I moved the one record to it.) If I remember correctly, a month or two ago when I had moved a couple of records to the FLM report, they had showed up in the report but then disappeared until a day or two later.

Does the report's behavior fit the pattern that it takes 24 hours or overnight for a name to show up in the report? That would make the "a few minutes" comment a fairly large understatement.

Or, does the report seem to have larger reliability problems than just a delay of maybe as much as 24 hours in names showing up?

rmrichesjr wrote: Sun Apr 09, 2023 6:34 pm ... I just moved a record to the FLM report, and LCR said "in a few minutes" the name would appear on the report. It has been a lot longer than "a few minutes". ...

Does the report's behavior fit the pattern that it takes 24 hours or overnight for a name to show up in the report? ...

So far, my experience has been that changes occur overnight. However "Your Mileage May Vary". (and as this gets fully rolled out church wide.)

I've also noticed that when moving a name off the FLM list and back to the Ward list, the name then appears on the new move-in list, as of the date I moved the name back. However, that too resolved overnight.

Possibly some software and timing issues they are working on while this gets fully rolled out?

Thank you for that very useful and detailed description that it appears to be an overnight thing.

Well, it's maybe not entirely overnight. Yesterday, the name I had moved to FLM at around 4-5pm PDT showed up in the FLM report at about 9:45pm PDT, a delay of only ~5-6 hours. If my timezone calculations are correct, during that time UTC and EDT had advanced to the next day, so it might be possible the updates are based on midnight in one of those zones.

rmrichesjr wrote: Mon Apr 10, 2023 6:46 pm Well, it's maybe not entirely overnight.

In the early days of MLS, some membership processes used to run every four hours. So you could enter a change before 8:00 am and it would be there shortly afterward. Enter a change before noon and it was processed by noon. But if you missed the noon batch, the change did not process until 4:00 pm.

It was a lot like the ACH system batches in the banking system work today.

The training video/website mentions an email that will be sent out to ward/branch leaders and clerks. As a ward clerk, I have not received it yet.

So is a unit not 'officially' in the program until the unit members receive that email? The program is "being rolled out" worldwide.

Our Lost Member list is active and populated with names. However, until the Ward leaders receive that official email there may not be much researching done (based on my word alone that we need to start the program)?

MurdockM wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2023 1:44 pm ... However, until the Ward leaders receive that official email there may not be much researching done (based on my word alone that we need to start the program)?

I sent my bishop a link to the broadcast with mention of the time in the video where it says the program is approved worldwide.

MurdockM wrote: Sat Apr 15, 2023 1:44 pm Our Lost Member list is active and populated with names.

I would take that to mean it is rolled out and active in your ward. For questions on training, you should reach out to your stake clerk. In my experience, the church usually rolls training out through the stakes and it is possible your stake has not yet pushed the training out to the wards (or maybe it hasn't even been pushed to your stake yet).

If I were the ward clerk, I would inform the ward council of this tool and the expectations of them to work on the list. The clerk has partial responsibility as a member of the ward council, but he is not responsible alone...

It's now January 2024, and I'm in a brand new RS Presidency. Is this Finding Lost Members Program still officially operating? With the same steps to use before moving a "ghost" record back to Address Unknown in SLC? Are there any new rules that have been added since, April 2023? Thank you for your help.

rdClark wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 1:14 am Is this Finding Lost Members Program still officially operating?

There has been no communication to the contrary. The LCR report and process is still active. There was no official announcement of the new procedures nor any training or documented help outside the Utah area. The only training found here was for the pilot program in Utah. Nothing else is available, over 19 months later.

rdClark wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 1:14 amWith the same steps to use before moving a "ghost" record back to Address Unknown in SLC?

The steps to follow are listed in the instructions at the top of the LCR Finding Lost Members report page. They have not changed since the new report rolled out.

rdClark wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2024 1:14 amAre there any new rules that have been added since, April 2023?

I assume you are referencing the previous posts in this thread that discussed procedures. To get a better picture of what is expected to be done and by whom then view the Utah training video and resources in the link above.

I'm an EQP in a ward using LCR. I can print a "mailing list" from "Reports > Member List", but I can't print a mailing list from within the "Reports > Finding Lost Members" option. Furthermore, the report generated does not show the "Last known address", so I'm having to spend hours manually cut-n-pasting from each person's "Member Information" link into an offline document that I can then print. It would be great if somehow there was an option in the "Members List" to choose "Lost Members" to print the mailing list. I understand these individuals are not presently counted in the ward metrics, but not having this functionality is causing several hours of tedious work...and it will have to be repeated often as this is a dynamic list.

mcclinto wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:00 am I'm an EQP in a ward using LCR. I can print a "mailing list" from "Reports > Member List", but I can't print a mailing list from within the "Reports > Finding Lost Members" option. Furthermore, the report generated does not show the "Last known address", so I'm having to spend hours manually cut-n-pasting from each person's "Member Information" link into an offline document that I can then print. It would be great if somehow there was an option in the "Members List" to choose "Lost Members" to print the mailing list. I understand these individuals are not presently counted in the ward metrics, but not having this functionality is causing several hours of tedious work...and it will have to be repeated often as this is a dynamic list.

Before doing that, I would ask the clerk to try to print a mailing list. He may have access that you don't. Also, this functionality would be a good thing to suggest in feedback from LCR. Providing your business case for the report wouldn't hurt...

When an assistant ward clerk, membership, uses the 'Print' button in the Finding Lost Members report, the page shows the name, phone number, email address and date added to the list.

rmrichesjr wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:49 pm When an assistant ward clerk, membership, uses the 'Print' button in the Finding Lost Members report, the page shows the name, phone number, email address and date added to the list.

same for Ward Clerk

kd7mha wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2024 6:00 pm

rmrichesjr wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2024 5:49 pm When an assistant ward clerk, membership, uses the 'Print' button in the Finding Lost Members report, the page shows the name, phone number, email address and date added to the list.

same for Ward Clerk

I think mcclinto would like to get a address list for mailing. I'm no longer in a role to see that but can a clerk print mailing labels from the Finding Lost Members report?

mcclinto wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:00 am I'm an EQP in a ward using LCR. I can print a "mailing list" from "Reports > Member List", but I can't print a mailing list from within the "Reports > Finding Lost Members" option.

Nobody can. That is a feature that would have to be requested through the feedback link in the footer of the page.

Before moving a member record the first time to 'address unknown' should involve mailing something to the member. Creating a mailing list when the record is in the unit, and before the first move to 'address unknown', is the best time to mail something. Note the instructions on the Finding Lost Members report gives the four steps to take before sending the record the second time to 'address unknown' and there is nothing mentioned in those steps involving mailing something to the last known address:

Please do the following before moving the records back to Church Headquarters:

1. Seek to communicate using phone, email, social media channels, or other resources available to your area/community.
2. Contact known family or friends of the member.
3. Contact the occupant of the member's last known address.
4. Obtain the Bishop's approval to return records to Church Headquarters.

Item 3 is intended to be a physical visit.

And for what it's worth, the full time missionaries assigned to our ward loved to take on steps 2 and 3 (they had permission from their mission president to assist in this effort - your mileage may vary...).

Thank you for your help. I did send an email to church headquarters, but never got a reply back. So thank you again.