YW/YSAs on the Quarterly Report

Regarding the new lines on the quarterly report for tracking the attendance of young single adults in priesthood and Relief Society meetings: in reviewing the MLS-generated list of young single adults (line 12), I find two ward members on the list who are 18-year-old high school students who currently attend YW. Should they be on the list of YSAs?

If yes, in calculating line 13 do I count the two members as attending Relief Society (even though they attend YW)?

If no, how do I remove them from the list of YSAs?

It may not help, but I'd suggest making sure they are assigned to YW and not RS.

Yes, they should be in both Young Women and Young Single Adults. The YSA organization isn't really an organization, nor is it mutually exclusive from Young Women or Relief Society. In fact, every YSA should also be a member of either YW or RS.

nutterb wrote:In fact, every YSA should also be a member of either YW or RS.

Unless they belong to PH or YM.

Although I can't say as I've heard of someone belonging to YM/YW and YSA...

nutterb wrote:Yes, they should be in both Young Women and Young Single Adults. The YSA organization isn't really an organization, nor is it mutually exclusive from Young Women or Relief Society. In fact, every YSA should also be a member of either YW or RS.

Young Men/Women are not involved with Young Single Adults. They belong either with the youth (YM/YW) or with the adults (RS/EQ and YSA). And once they make the transition, they should not go back.

Young Single Adults do belong to either the Relief Society or the elders quorum.

I have just noticed the same thing on our Quarterly report. When I click on the link to bring up the members of that group, organization, or whatever, I have a young man that is 18 and still in High School that also shows up on the YM list and not in the prospective elder's list (he hasn't been ordained an elder yet).

Normally when I click on the link for the list, the list will tell me the qualifications for that list (i.e. when I click on women it tells me they are 18 years or older, Under 18 of age and married, Not assigned the Young Women organization, and Assigned to the Relief Society). When I click on the Young Single Adults, it just tells me it is "The number of members 18 through 30 who are unmarried." There should be two more qualifications that says "Not assigned the Young men organization" and "Not assigned the Young women organization." This would disqualify those that are seniors in high school and are still attending YM/YW.

RussellHltn wrote:It may not help, but I'd suggest making sure they are assigned to YW and not RS.

Thank you for the suggestion. I checked this morning. Both are assigned to YW.

Unless someone comes up with a better answer, my personal thought is to mark them active if they are active.

pbhanney wrote:I have a young man that is 18 and still in High School that also shows up on the YM list and not in the prospective elder's list (he hasn't been ordained an elder yet).

An 18 year old male is a YM until he is ordained an Elder or becomes a prospective Elder at age 19 (but the bishop may request that he participate in the Elders Quorum).

lajackson wrote:Young Men/Women are not involved with Young Single Adults. They belong either with the youth (YM/YW) or with the adults (RS/EQ and YSA). And once they make the transition, they should not go back.

Young Single Adults do belong to either the Relief Society or the elders quorum.

I wish someone had said it to me like that a couple years ago when I was the stake YSA rep. I got into a turf war with the stake YW president about whether or not I was allowed to introduce high school seniors to the YSA program. We didn't encourage them to attend a lot of YSA activities, preferring that they finish the school year in the YW and Seminary programs, but wanted them to know a few faces before making the transition. I guess I just never really considered the technicalities and focused on the practical implementations.

Greggo wrote:An 18 year old male is a YM until he is ordained an Elder or becomes a prospective Elder at age 19 (but the bishop may request that he participate in the Elders Quorum).

This is true for Young Men. The switch is usually at elder ordination or age 19. Although, since the bishop has asked him to participate in the elders quorum, it would be appropriate to reassign him to the elders quorum in MLS.

It gets confusing for the Young Women, because the default in the administrative system is that they become members of the Relief Society at age 18. Often, though, they have not graduated from high school and still participate with the Young Women. In this case, is would be appropriate to reassign her back to the Young Women in MLS until she moves to Relief Society.

In each case, a young man moving to elders quorum before 19 and a young woman staying in Young Women after age 18, if you reassign him or her in MLS during the transition year, it is good to set a reminder to make sure they are reassigned to the proper group when they do make the transition.

Especially for the Young Women, in MLS if you reassign her to YW after age 18, she will not return to RS until you undo the assignment, or reassign her to RS.

In testing the Bishop's Action and Inteview List in MLS, which includes scheduled interviews with Young Single Adults, I have seen 18-year-old men who are not Elders.

I have not divined the complete rules affecting this selection, but I surmise that it includes the member's class assigment setting.

lajackson wrote:This is true for Young Men. The switch is usually at elder ordination or age 19. Although, since the bishop has asked him to participate in the elders quorum, it would be appropriate to reassign him to the elders quorum in MLS.

It gets confusing for the Young Women, because the default in the administrative system is that they become members of the Relief Society at age 18. Often, though, they have not graduated from high school and still participate with the Young Women. In this case, it would be appropriate to reassign her back to the Young Women in MLS until she moves to Relief Society.

In each case, a young man moving to elders quorum before 19 and a young woman staying in Young Women after age 18, if you reassign him or her in MLS during the transition year, it is good to set a reminder to make sure they are reassigned to the proper group when they do make the transition.

Especially for the Young Women, in MLS if you reassign her to YW after age 18, she will not return to RS until you undo the assignment, or reassign her to RS.

To throw another wrench into things, if a female is married before age 18, she is no longer a YW and should be included in RS. This is not the same for males, as they are still not considered a prospective elder until age 19.

I'm curious how MLS handles these "gray areas" between organizations in regards to the quarterly report. It's simple enough to make special assignments in MLS to switch people between EQ and YM / RS and YW, but how are the numbers calculated in the quarterly report? For example, would an 18 year old male still be counted as a YM if they are assigned to the EQ in MLS?

Greggo wrote:To throw another wrench into things, if a female is married before age 18, she is no longer a YW and should be included in RS.

Hopefully MLS knows they are married and wouldn't count them as a Young Single Adult.

But, IIRC, if a YW gets pregnant, she's advanced to RS. There would be no way for MLS to know this (at least for a few months) from her membership record. Only from class assignments.

Greggo wrote:I'm curious how MLS handles these "gray areas" between organizations in regards to the quarterly report. It's simple enough to make special assignments in MLS to switch people between EQ and YM / RS and YW, but how are the numbers calculated in the quarterly report? For example, would an 18 year old male still be counted as a YM if they are assigned to the EQ in MLS?

To answer your question, in my YSA ward, on my recent quarterly report it shows that we have 7 YM. As these are all student at the local university, and we obviously don't have a working priest quorum, I have had to manually switch them into our elders quorum so they are accounted for on the rolls.

HoomanTyphoon wrote:To answer your question, in my YSA ward, on my recent quarterly report it shows that we have 7 YM. As these are all student at the local university, and we obviously don't have a working priest quorum, I have had to manually switch them into our elders quorum so they are accounted for on the rolls.

That's what I thought. It wouldn't make sense that the "official" numbers could be changed by the ward.

Greggo wrote:That's what I thought. It wouldn't make sense that the "official" numbers could be changed by the ward.

Actually, the ward can change the "official" numbers in some cases at least. If you move a 19 year old young man, who would normally be considered a Prospective Elder, to the Young Men's organization then they will count as a young man on the quarterly report, not a Prospective Elder. I've had just that situation in my ward for the last year.

eblood66 wrote:Actually, the ward can change the "official" numbers in some cases at least. If you move a 19 year old young man, who would normally be considered a Prospective Elder, to the Young Men's organization then they will count as a young man on the quarterly report, not a Prospective Elder. I've had just that situation in my ward for the last year.

When you do that, what are the timing requirements? The quarterly report uses numbers from the end of the reporting quarter. Do you have to have made an organizational move prior to the end of the quarter, or can you make such a change after the end of the reporting quarter, but before you submit the report?

Alan_Brown wrote:When you do that, what are the timing requirements? The quarterly report uses numbers from the end of the reporting quarter. Do you have to have made an organizational move prior to the end of the quarter, or can you make such a change after the end of the reporting quarter, but before you submit the report?

You have to make the change before the end of the quarter. I believe that after the quarter ends MLS calculates the numbers for the previous quarter, either when you start MLS for the first time after the end of the quarter or when you do a send/receive. I thinks it's when you do a send/receive. In any case, once it calculates those numbers it doesn't matter what changes you make, the numbers don't change.

eblood66 wrote:Actually, the ward can change the "official" numbers in some cases at least. If you move a 19 year old young man, who would normally be considered a Prospective Elder, to the Young Men's organization then they will count as a young man on the quarterly report, not a Prospective Elder. I've had just that situation in my ward for the last year.

So, let me see if I have this straight.

A single non-MPH male age 18 assigned to YM -> YM on the quarterly report
A single non-MPH male age 18 assigned to Elders -> YM
A single non-MPH male age 19 assigned to YM -> YM
A single non-MPH male age 19 assigned to Elders -> YSA / Pros. Elder
A single female age 18 assigned to YW -> YSA / RS
A single female age 18 assigned to RS -> YSA / RS
A married female age 17 assigned to RS -> RS
A single female with child age 17 assigned to RS -> YW

Please correct my understanding. I suspect that I'm wrong in some areas, as I'm making several assumptions.

Greggo wrote:So, let me see if I have this straight.

1. A single non-MPH male age 18 assigned to YM -> YM on the quarterly report
2. A single non-MPH male age 18 assigned to Elders -> YM
3. A single non-MPH male age 19 assigned to YM -> YM
4. A single non-MPH male age 19 assigned to Elders -> YSA / Pros. Elder
5. A single female age 18 assigned to YW -> YSA / RS
6. A single female age 18 assigned to RS -> YSA / RS
7. A married female age 17 assigned to RS -> RS
8. A single female with child age 17 assigned to RS -> YW

Please correct my understanding. I suspect that I'm wrong in some areas, as I'm making several assumptions.

I think you're making this more complicated than is needed (which leads to some of the above being incorrect). As far as the quarterly report is concerned, I think it's much easier to simply say:

• Members of the YM, YW, Elders, and RS organizations are counted in the organization they are assigned to.
• YSA are simply unmarried 18-30
• Prospective elders are non-MPH males 18+ not in YM

With those rules, it follows that your 2nd, 5th, and 8th statements are incorrect.

Now there are various other rules that control how people are automatically moved from one organization to another, but they can be overridden by manually moving people to organizations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lajackson
Young Men/Women are not involved with Young Single Adults. They belong either with the youth (YM/YW) or with the adults (RS/EQ and YSA). And once they make the transition, they should not go back.

Young Single Adults do belong to either the Relief Society or the elders quorum.

Eighteen-year-old males and females who are still participating in Young Men or Young Women should also appear on the Young Single Adults list. Though still paricipating in Young Men or Young Women, they can also particiapte in Young Single Adult activities if approved to do so by local priesthood leaders. This follows Church policy and no steps should be taken to remove these 18-year-olds from either list and they will continue to be included in two Quarterly Report categories.

smithgw wrote:Quote:

Eighteen-year-old males and females who are still participating in Young Men or Young Women should also appear on the Young Single Adults list. Though still paricipating in Young Men or Young Women, they can also particiapte in Young Single Adult activities if approved to do so by local priesthood leaders. This follows Church policy and no steps should be taken to remove these 18-year-olds from either list and they will continue to be included in two Quarterly Report categories.

So, from an administrative reporting purpose, a Priest or Laurel actively participating in YM or YW, usually still in high school, who is also 18, would also be counted as an active Young Single Adult because, by the Handbook definition, a YSA is anyone who is age 18 and single in the Church.

He or she would not have to be attending YSA activities. And the Relief Society and elders quorum presidents would not be responsible for them until they made the transition from YM/YW to RS or EQ.

They count on the quarterly report as YSA simply because they are 18, no matter which organization YM/YW/RS or EQ they are actively attending.

Conversely, a 17-year-old who has moved to RS or EQ would count in the RS or EQ statistics, but would not be included in the YSA statistics until he or she turned 18.

Administratively, I can understand that.

smithgw wrote:Quote:

Eighteen-year-old males and females who are still participating in Young Men or Young Women should also appear on the Young Single Adults list. Though still paricipating in Young Men or Young Women, they can also particiapte in Young Single Adult activities if approved to do so by local priesthood leaders. This follows Church policy and no steps should be taken to remove these 18-year-olds from either list and they will continue to be included in two Quarterly Report categories.

For purposes of calculating line 13 on the quarterly report, do you recommend that I should, or should not, count the 18-year-olds in my ward who (1) appear on the YSA list (line 12) but who (2) attend YW rather than RS? In preparing the report (I have not yet submitted it), I opted to count them in calculating line 13.

iamrkh wrote:For purposes of calculating line 13 on the quarterly report, do you recommend that I should, or should not, count the 18-year-olds in my ward who (1) appear on the YSA list (line 12) but who (2) attend YW rather than RS? In preparing the report (I have not yet submitted it), I opted to count them in calculating line 13.

It seems clear that the definition of a YSA is very simple: an unmarried member age 18-30. That's what the Quarterly Report help says, and what Smithgw clarified.

So the only slight ambiguity is we are asked to enter the number of YSA who attend Priesthood and RS. In my opinion, the clear intent of this is to evaluate the number of YSA who attend their designated Sunday meetings. If there is an 18-year-old female who is still in the Young Women organization, she is clearly in the total number of YSA, so if she attends her Sunday YW meeting, she would be counted on line 13. I think you're doing it correctly.

Alan_Brown wrote:It seems clear that the definition of a YSA is very simple: an unmarried member age 18-30. That's what the Quarterly Report help says, and what Smithgw clarified.

Do you happen to know if that same simple definition applies to the logic of the YSA-oriented reports in the Bishop's Action and Intereview List? I recall having a hard time reconciling such simple rules with the output of those reports for our ward. I'm not at the MLS computer at the moment, so I can't cite an example.

boomerbubba wrote:Do you happen to know if that same simple definition applies to the logic of the YSA-oriented reports in the Bishop's Action and Intereview List? I recall having a hard time reconciling such simple rules with the output of those reports for our ward. I'm not at the MLS computer at the moment, so I can't cite an example.

From my quick review with the test data, it appears that even a 19-year-old male who doesn't have the MP but is assigned to an MP quorum appears on the youth interview list, and not on the YSA interview list. That does seem strange.

I'd have to play with it more to give an accurate analysis, but it does appear that you're right that the simple "unmarried 18-30" definition doesn't apply for the interview list.

So I finally got all the MPR's in for the wards in my stake and noticed the new lines for YSA reporting. I think this is great but then I noticed that for our YSA ward (in which ALL members except the bishopric) are Young Single Adults. So I expected to see the YSA numbers to be equal to at least almost equal to the Total Members number. No luck. Using fictitious numbers to illustrate, we have 200 members in the YSA ward with 150 attending but the Q4 MPR shows 75 YSA members with 60 attending. Any clue to what is going on here?

Confused in Idaho

Jeff Papke
Stake Clerk Meridian Idaho North

That's a big difference in numbers.

A few thoughts:

Make sure that everyone is at least 18. You could have some 17 year-olds that have graduated high school and are now in a stage of life that one normally associates with YSA.

Second, make sure you actually have the records and they are members and aren't "out of unit" members, or "temporary records" or some such.

If this branch serves a college or university campus area, might some of the difference result from students moving in during the school year and back home during the summer? In such a situation, measuring at two points in time could produce significantly different numbers.

iamrkh wrote:For purposes of calculating line 13 on the quarterly report, do you recommend that I should, or should not, count the 18-year-olds in my ward who (1) appear on the YSA list (line 12) but who (2) attend YW rather than RS? In preparing the report (I have not yet submitted it), I opted to count them in calculating line 13.

I counted them...If they show on the YSA list, and attended (either in their assigned YW class or in RS) I counted them as attending.

We count others in a similar fashion. Do I count serving Missionaries as YSA's that are attending? Yes. Do I count YSA's called to primary, thus unable to attend PR or RS, as attending? Yes. Do missionaries in the field or primary teachers ACTUALLY (or technically) attend a RS or PR meeting in your unit? NO. But that's not the point.

What is the real purpose for this new YSA count- the "spirit of the law?" I believe it is to make sure leaders are accounting for those in their care in this apparently susceptible age group- Are they away at school or home? Did they make the transition from YW to RS? Are they really attending a student ward or just "saying" they are? Do they really attend the YW classes or are they skipping? Sometimes the parents don't even know, but this number promises to help leaders find their YSA's.

While we here discuss the technicalities of "how" and "when" youth become YSA's, it is a discussion for ward councils on which leader is shepherding which YSA on an "individual by individual" basis. The clerks then must work out the mechanics of how each individual is counted for attendance between the Youth Leaders, the RS and PR, and the ward clerk.

kisaac wrote: We count others in a similar fashion. Do I count serving Missionaries as YSA's that are attending? Yes. Do I count YSA's called to primary, thus unable to attend PR or RS, as attending? Yes. Do missionaries in the field or primary teachers ACTUALLY (or technically) attend a RS or PR meeting in your unit? NO. But that's not the point.

While the original thread question deals with YW and YSA's in your unit, to clarify my post quoted here, I will not count as attending:
1) YSA's that are attending any other unit's meetings and not my units meetings (singles ward or student ward, etc.)
2) YSA's that are living outside my unit temporarily and not attending my units meetings. (But not on missions.)

In my experience, "second-hand" accounts of attendance in the case of YSA's often prove incorrect. A determination by leaders of both units is needed in this case to decide if the records are indeed in the right unit.