Shelf Life for a non-activated recommend

My stake presidency is new, and trying to keep ahead of temple recommend activations. As the clerk, I'm finding that some members were interviewed by their bishopric member many months ago, but have not come in for an interview with the stake presidency. This raises the question: is there an inferred "shelf life" for the bishopric interview?

Some seem to think that the members with "stale" bishopric interviews should be re-interviewed after maybe 3 months. Others say that because there is no clear guideline in the handbook, the bishopric interview has "no expiration date." Which is correct?

mtbaker wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:11 pm is there an inferred "shelf life" for the bishopric interview?

Not really. Whether the stake presidency wishes to send the member back to the bishop after a few months is up to them. I almost never felt that was necessary, because the bishop(ric) had sent them on their way expecting the recommend to be valid for two years.

When I ran into this issue, at the very least I always asked why the member had waited so long to schedule their second interview. And I was extra careful with their responses to the recommend questions as I visited with them.

If their previous recommend had expired in the meantime, I also used it as an opportunity to remind them about the importance of holding a current recommend as our leaders have suggested from time to time.

If there was a shelf life, I'd expect it to be enforced by LCR.

I don't know how it works now, but when the bar-coded TRs were introduced, the system would pop up a warning if the TR was issued by the bishopric more than three months before the activation date at the stake level.

A related question pertains to a TR for a living ordinance (endowment or sealing). How many months can a member hold a TR for his/her own endowment -- before the stake interview, and then before the actual endowment?

drepouille wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:27 pm How many months can a member hold a TR for his/her own endowment -- before the stake interview, and then before the actual endowment?

I believe that the answer is the same, but I would be a little more concerned in this situation, since I would presume that the member would be highly motivated to receive their own ordinances. As a bishop, I usually would not issue a recommend until just a few weeks before the member planned to attend the temple, leaving enough time for the stake president to interview without too much rush.

I remember the 90-day flag in the former system. Somewhere between 60-90 days is where I would start being concerned that something might be happening that would need consideration or the referral by a counselor to the stake president himself.

Kudos for helping the Stake keep track of temple recommend activations! After discussion with your Stake President about his feelings about what an appropriate delay time might be, he might also approve you reaching out to the Bishopric member who gave the first interview, asking if the Bishopric can reach out to the member. This would not only offload a portion of the load from the Stake, but also have a local contact with the member, who can then either encourage them to make a Stake appointment asap, or follow-up if any interim issues have arisen.