Multiple Primary Secretaries with LCR access

Our ward has a huge primary and we need two primary secretaries. One has LCR access, the other doesn't. Is there a way for both of them to have it? Clone the standard calling or something?

Thanks!

None of those are options. You may want to read General Handbook 12.3.2 - 12.3.6 to make sure you're organized correctly. I don't see any options for splitting the Primary, (although you can split classes).

I read through those sections, and you're right, there is no mention of splitting the primary. The responsibilities listed for the secretary in section 12.3.3 are carried out by two women in our ward. There is s much for them to do, it requires both of them every Sunday.
What would you suggest as a path forward? You mentioned that none of what I said is an option, do you know of any other options?

In a small unit, the Primary president may be the only called leader in Primary. ... If the unit is large enough, additional callings might be filled in this order: counselors, music leader, teachers and nursery leaders, secretary, and activity leaders.

Clearly, for a smaller unit, it's quite possible that the primary leadership would be just the president and counselors. In the absence of a secretary, the workload would have to be divided up among the 3 of them. As such, it seems to me that it wouldn't be out of order for the counselors to take on some of the duties listed for the secretary. There does seem to be an overlap between the secretary's duties and the responsibilities outlined for the president and counselors.

There are Activity Leaders, but I don't think they have any special access. Much of the work is going to have to be done by the Presidency & Secretary.

You might ask the clerk if there are other callings listed in the system that we're not seeing in the Handbook.

The only other option I can think of, if the ward is large enough it might be time to divide the ward, or at least change the boundaries. That would be something that would have to be looked into by the stake.

Speaking of the stake, you do have the stake primary leaders to talk with. See if there's a way to simplify some of the tasks. Perhaps some of the traditions are making some tasks more elaborate then necessary.

mew1033 wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 12:17 am Our ward has a huge primary and we need two primary secretaries. One has LCR access, the other doesn't. Is there a way for both of them to have it? Clone the standard calling or something?

Your ward clerk has probably already tried to load two secretaries in LCR. LCR probably did not allow it. That would be the only way both secretaries would have access. (The clerk should try if he has not already done so.)

The only workaround will be for a counselor or the Primary president to help or for the secretary to do all of the online work with assistance from the other secretary. There may be a way for the presidency to change the work division so that the secretarial work would be more of an assistant and secretary relationship, rather than a junior/senior secretary/secretary split.

To suggest a change to LCR you have two options. Send Feedback through the web page. Or have your bishop ask the stake president to take the matter to his area seventy at the coordinating council and send the recommendation up the chain that way.

It does seem like your particular situation has both secretaries "sharing" the LCR workload (attendance and not sure what else) on an every-Sunday basis. Perhaps one secretary is over "junior primary" and the other over "senior primary", or some other division of labor. In that case it does seem proper to focus the secretary's efforts on tasks only she can do (LCR), and have the other "custom calling" secretary perform the additional tasks from GBH 12.3.3 that the Primary Presidency (perhaps in consultation with the Bishop) feels are necessary. Remember, not everything listed in the Handbook is always a requirement, and every ward/branch organization has times where local needs require focus on a subset of responsibilities listed in the Handbook. You can't always do it all!

Was there ever a good resolution to this in your Ward? We are having the same issues for Primary and I haven’t found a good answer.

We have this same issue. We created a custom calling "Assistant Primary Secretary" but it's all for show as it has no access to the LCR tools/reports the assistant secretary needs. Was planning to talk with the Stake Clerk but it sounds like this is a bigger issue than the Stake resolving it. If anyone has suggestions would love to hear them. Thanks

kgenessy wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 11:54 am We have this same issue. We created a custom calling "Assistant Primary Secretary" but it's all for show as it has no access to the LCR tools/reports the assistant secretary needs. Was planning to talk with the Stake Clerk but it sounds like this is a bigger issue than the Stake resolving it. If anyone has suggestions would love to hear them. Thanks

LCR access set via the standard list of callings. You will either need to give them a standard calling that has LCR access, or work out a better way of getting the reports you need.

Right but most other auxiliaries allow for more than one secretary with LCR access. Unfortunately there is no better way aside from having someone else print out all these reports for the secretary each week. (Which is a worse way). Only other way would be adding her as some kind of assistant clerk but that’s not wise to give more access to someone that doesn’t need that. Appreciate the response though. Our stake clerk had no idea what todo either unfortunately.

You can't add her as an assistant clerk, those are male only positions.

kgenessy wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2024 9:37 pm Right but most other auxiliaries allow for more than one secretary with LCR access.

Looking at the handbook, I don't see assistant secretaries for YW, Primary, or Sunday School.

I'd look over the list of callings and see how the work can be split up to work within what's available. Looking over the access table, I see Ministering Secretary that has some rights. Likewise, there's a Service Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator that has rights to the member list and ministering assignments.

If the RS is really that large that it can't be handled within the structure provided, you can split the RS into two.

Thank you. I've only been here a handful of weeks so appreciate the feedback. Can you explain the "table" you are referring too? Is there a list of what callings can access what within LCR? Thanks

kgenessy wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2024 4:39 pm Thank you. I've only been here a handful of weeks so appreciate the feedback. Can you explain the "table" you are referring too? Is there a list of what callings can access what within LCR? Thanks

The table referenced is the Feature Access by Calling tool found at LCR > Help > Feature Access by Calling.

Thanks so much JD!