Aaronic Priesthood Ordination Record

It's that time of year... I am a new clerk and am most accustom to baby blessings and creating records. So now that were doing Aaronic Priesthood ordinations for the 11-> 12 YOs, why do we fill out the ordination record with interview dates and signatures if we don't scan it in? Do we simply file it for a time? This is all I could find in the HB...

"18.10.3 Before a brother is interviewed to be ordained to an office in the Aaronic Priesthood, a clerk uses LCR to prepare an Aaronic Priesthood Ordination Record. The bishop or an assigned counselor conducts the interview and signs the form if all worthiness conditions are met.

After the ordination, the bishop or an assigned counselor completes the form and gives it to a clerk. He records the ordination in LCR and prepares an ordination certificate.

A person’s current legal name should be used on the ordination record and certificate."

Not an authoritative answer but just some personal observations since I have been an assistant ward clerk, membership for a few years:

The HB says to fill out the form, so that's what we do. My observations indicate the form serves three purposes:

1) It greatly reduces risk that a candidate for ordination will fall through the cracks during the process.

2) It tracks the process through interviews to make sure all steps in the process happen in the proper sequence.

3) It provides all information (plus some) for the clerk (or assistant clerk) to record the ordinance and print the certificate.

As far as I'm aware, retention time is less strictly defined than it is for financial documents. One rule of thumb I have seen is to keep forms for current year plus the previous year. If there were to be questions that indicated a need to look at the form, such questions would most likely surface in the first year after the ordination.

The completed and signed form should be kept on file until the next membership audit.

Thank you both! That helps.