Beta: Ward Leadership Directory

One thing that I see is the relation to MLS and the beta as far the communication of callings. That will be a great improvement.

What is happening for the Relief Society callings for the Presidency? My ward MLS has a "First Counselor" calling, and an Education Counselor. The 1st Counselor carries to Beta, but the Education Counselor does not.

I though in a recent release of MLS that there was a calling standarization. What do we need to do at the ward level to correct the calling titles in the RS for it stand correct in lds.org and Beta Ward Leadership directory.

Thanks for your help!

Jared

jsnauvoo wrote: What is happening for the Relief Society callings for the Presidency? My ward MLS has a "First Counselor" calling, and an Education Counselor. The 1st Counselor carries to Beta, but the Education Counselor does not.

I would check the Education Counselor to see if it is a Custom position. The current correct name for the standard calling is First Counselor.

The easiest way to do it, from the MLS toolbar:

Organizations > Reports/Tools > Custom Positions Review

It will find all the custom positions in your ward and help you identify a corresponding standardized position.

Standardized positions carry over to the new websites. Custom positions do not.

Where is the data coming from for the beta leadership? I have changed some positions in both MLS and on the current LUWS, and some show in beta and some don't. And, yes, these are standard positions. I have a major project right now tryng to change years of using custom positions.

zaneclark wrote:Where is the data coming from for the beta leadership? I have changed some positions in both MLS and on the current LUWS, and some show in beta and some don't. And, yes, these are standard positions. I have a major project right now tryng to change years of using custom positions.

The direct answer is that the data for the beta Leadership Directory comes from CDOL. You should be able to look in CDOL and it should match the beta Leadership Directory. If you see inconsistencies, then it would be a problem with the beta, but in my experience, they match exactly.

Of course, the fact is that the vast majority of the calling information in CDOL comes from MLS. But there are delays, and have been some cases where data doesn't transmit properly from MLS to CDOL. If you see inconsistencies between MLS and CDOL, then it could be a problem with your MLS data (make sure you are using the right standard callings), the MLS software, or CDOL, or just an expected processing delay.

Alan_Brown wrote:The direct answer is that the data for the beta Leadership Directory comes from CDOL. You should be able to look in CDOL and it should match the beta Leadership Directory. If you see inconsistencies, then it would be a problem with the beta, but in my experience, they match exactly.

One thing to note though. The beta uses a specific list of positions to display. It does not display everything in CDOL. For the most part it includes the leadership positions for each organizations as well as the many of the most common positions (like instructuors) but not everything is included.

One notable exception is that the ward website administrator is not listed. In fact the Other Callings section only has 4 positions that can display in the beta but CDOL has many more (my ward has about 30 people in callings under Other Callings in CDOL but only 2 show up in the beta).

I'm not sure if the intent is for all of them to be included but the code most definitely includes an enumerated list and those are the only ones displayed.

I got my church magazines on Friday afternoon. When I got home from work I breezed through the Ensign and found an article on the Relief Society that talked about the changes in regards to Relief Society meetings. It also talks about the return to the titles of 1st and 2nd Counselors.

Thanks for your help in regards to MLS and CDOL!

jsnauvoo wrote:I though in a recent release of MLS that there was a calling standarization.

"Calling standardization" as used here is really not intended to explain anything to your ward council members or bishopric...and if I can poke a little fun at the process...

Sunday morning, 7:30AM, bishops office:
"We've "standardized" our teachers. A teacher is a teacher, except in Sunday School where he/she is an instructor, or Primary, where he/she is a worker, while our army of adviser's are still working (instructing? teaching?) in the YM and YW. Elders, you don't get a standardized teacher. Any questions?"

jsnauvoo wrote:I breezed through the Ensign and found an article on the Relief Society that talked about the changes in regards to Relief Society meetings. It also talks about the return to the titles of 1st and 2nd Counselors.

So, "conform" your RS callings to the new "standard," which at one time was the old standard before it was replaced, and you are set.

At ward council, tell the RS and bishopric: "By conforming the names of your callings to those supported by church HQ, these callings will appear in many cool, new places, making many ward jobs easier."

Hey-we all want that!

kisaac wrote:"Calling standardization" as used here is really not intended to explain anything to your ward council members or bishopric...and if I can poke a little fun at the process...

Sunday morning, 7:30AM, bishops office:
"We've "standardized" our teachers. A teacher is a teacher, except in Sunday School where he/she is an instructor, or Primary, where he/she is a worker, while our army of adviser's are still working (instructing? teaching?) in the YM and YW. Elders, you don't get a standardized teacher. Any questions?"

Thank you for posting this..... Since my quest to make as many positions as possible conform to the standard names, this is the one that has bothered me the most....I'm sure that, as in all things from SL, there is a reason behind this but I can't see it yet...

kisaac wrote:...and if I can poke a little fun at the process...

Sunday morning, 7:30AM, bishops office:
"We've "standardized" our teachers. A teacher is a teacher, except in Sunday School where he/she is an instructor, or Primary, where he/she is a worker, while our army of adviser's are still working (instructing? teaching?) in the YM and YW. Elders, you don't get a standardized teacher. Any questions?"

Someone once said it takes ten years to notice the change, and twenty to see a new course correction. Fun, eh?

Great paragraph. Thanks.

zaneclark wrote:Since my quest to make as many positions as possible conform to the standard names, this is the one that has bothered me the most....I'm sure that, as in all things from SL, there is a reason behind this but I can't see it yet...

It's the irony I enjoy here...in the attempt to make callings "standard," they seem to be anything but standard.

The programmers are in a tough spot...

They have to make the computers happy, so the data is shared...
They have to make the general presidencies and boards happy, so they keep their jobs...
And they have to deal with all of us...

In the end, The programmers will establish their labels for each calling, and my ward council will continue to call them by whatever name they choose, and the clerks and admins will be the ones that make it all work.

kisaac wrote:It's the irony I enjoy here...in the attempt to make callings "standard," they seem to be anything but standard.

The programmers are in a tough spot...

They have to make the computers happy, so the data is shared...
They have to make the general presidencies and boards happy, so they keep their jobs...
And they have to deal with all of us...

In the end, The programmers will establish their labels for each calling, and my ward council will continue to call them by whatever name they choose, and the clerks and admins will be the ones that make it all work.

I used to joke that the Church wouldn't function if it wasn't for the Relief Society. Then they called me as the clerk.

kisaac wrote:It's the irony I enjoy here...in the attempt to make callings "standard," they seem to be anything but standard.

The programmers are in a tough spot...

They have to make the computers happy, so the data is shared...
They have to make the general presidencies and boards happy, so they keep their jobs...
And they have to deal with all of us...

In the end, The programmers will establish their labels for each calling, and my ward council will continue to call them by whatever name they choose, and the clerks and admins will be the ones that make it all work.

So we (the programmers) just made those 'labels' data fields and let the admins change the text when they want. The main downside to all this is it just makes it too easy for the different presidencies to each try and set their own standard.

ryan jones wrote:So we (the programmers) just made those 'labels' data fields and let the admins change the text when they want. The main downside to all this is it just makes it too easy for the different presidencies to each try and set their own standard.

So you put the locally edited version in parenthesis next to the official name, or vice versa. You give them what they want, but keep the standard name so there's consistency. I agree, it's a tough balancing act.

and with custom fields and openness to all the members of the stake you can now show just how "custom" your ward is... which only leads to further embarassment as a clerk.

funny... i remember when i first converted three years ago in a lesson they told me the church is the same no matter where you go. funny... i've been a member of 4 wards, 3 stakes in two countries (canada, uk) and none have really functioned "the same" there's always a few little tweaks that every ward makes for themselves, some larger than others.

What lists can be printed in the Beta Directory?
The only thing I can see that can be printed is a ward membership roster.
I'm assuming that this feature is still being worked on since we're still in Beta.

Techgy wrote:What lists can be printed in the Beta Directory?
The only thing I can see that can be printed is a ward membership roster.
I'm assuming that this feature is still being worked on since we're still in Beta.

There are several reports, such as those that make up the Bishop's Action and Interview List, in the Leadship section. IIRC, that entire section is available today only to users whose LDS Account logins authenticate them as bishops and ward clerks. I optimistically assumie that will expand to include counselors, exec secretaries and assistant clerks someday, roughly tracking the access in MLS itself as MLS-like functionality migrates to the web. Of course not all the MLS membership data exists yet in central databases, notably HT/VT data.

boomerbubba wrote:There are several reports, such as those that make up the Bishop's Action and Interview List, in the Leadship section. IIRC, that entire section is available today only to users whose LDS Account logins authenticate them as bishops and ward clerks. I optimistically assumie that will expand to include counselors, exec secretaries and assistant clerks someday, roughly tracking the access in MLS itself as MLS-like functionality migrates to the web. Of course not all the MLS membership data exists yet in central databases, notably HT/VT data.

Access isn't the issue. I can view the reports. I just don't see any way of printing them aside from just printing the screen. The only "PRINT" link on the page prints only the ward membership directory.

Techgy wrote:Access isn't the issue. I can view the reports. I just don't see any way of printing them aside from just printing the screen. The only "PRINT" link on the page prints only the ward membership directory.

Are you in the the leader application or in the directory application? Access to the leader application is locked down to Bishops, Ward Clerks and Stake Presidents.

The leader application has additional reports that you would fine in MLS as boomerbubba pointed out.

boomerbubba wrote:I optimistically assumie that will expand to include counselors, exec secretaries and assistant clerks someday

Currently the are adding some of those. I don't know what the full listed is expected to be, but those all make sense to include.

ryan jones wrote:Are you in the the leader application or in the directory application? Access to the leader application is locked down to Bishops, Ward Clerks and Stake Presidents.

The leader application has additional reports that you would fine in MLS as boomerbubba pointed out.

I'm in the directory as an Asst. Stake Clerk (STS), so I have access to the reports and have editing capability.

Techgy wrote:I'm in the directory as an Asst. Stake Clerk (STS), so I have access to the reports and have editing capability.

Interesting. We're listed the same in the CDOL (I checked), but all I get is "Bad Request" when I try to log on.

Techgy wrote:I'm in the directory as an Asst. Stake Clerk (STS), so I have access to the reports and have editing capability.

Are you trying to access the leader application? As far as I know only the Stake Clerk has access to it, not the Asst. clerks. This is a different application than the ward directory.

RussellHltn wrote:Interesting. We're listed the same in the CDOL (I checked), but all I get is "Bad Request" when I try to log on.

I'm both "Stake Assistant Clerk--Technology Spc" and ""Stake Assistant Clerk--Finance", and I also get "Bad Request" when I log on to the Leader application. I'd really like to have access, both to help me in my callings, and to be able to support those who do have access.

If we are being denied access because of lack of permission, it would be a bit more helpful to indicate that, rather than the vague "Bad Request" message.

I must not be making myself clear here.
When I login to the web site of http://beta.lds.org and click on the "Directory" link, I'm offered a choice of viewing several different lists. Among them are ward leadership lists, ward membership list, stake leadership as well as links to each ward in the stake and their leadership and membership lists.

What I'm referring to is an apparent lack of printing ability for the many lists that are available to me. The only link I see for printing is a link that provides me a printed list of my home ward membership roster.

Although I would agree with Alan that access as the STS to the "leadership" area of the site would be helpful, that area is not what I'm referring to here. My issue isn't one of access. I am referring to the ability to get "printer friendly" reports.

I've attached a snapshot showing the "Print" link on the directory page. This is the only "print" command that I've found. Perhaps this feature hasn't yet been added - and I can certainly understand that - If that's the case and it's in the works, then great.

Edit: Response from Feedback System:

more print options coming soon (leadership directories, other wards, stake, photos)

Techgy wrote:I must not be making myself clear here.
When I login to the web site of http://beta.lds.org and click on the "Directory" link, I'm offered a choice of viewing several different lists. Among them are ward leadership lists, ward membership list, stake leadership as well as links to each ward in the stake and their leadership and membership lists.

What I'm referring to is an apparent lack of printing ability for the many lists that are available to me. The only link I see for printing is a link that provides me a printed list of my home ward membership roster.

I just tried and found the same thing, and that is the print link only brings up my own ward membership list, even in the stake leaders directory....
I just have to keep remembering that it IS still in beta.....

well this is all awesome - congrats to the team! Can't wait for a full roll-out.

Incidentally, on the Bishops Action list - it is showing everything correctly, except that there is a Valiant due to turn 12 soon, and requires his aaronic priesthood ordination. That information IS available on the printed action list from MLS - but he doesn't appear on this report?! Also, when I try and access the full report - it is still bringing up an error…

To answer Techgy's question about printing different lists in the Directory application (the Leader application is completely separate), currently printing is only enabled on the ward list for your home ward.

This is a really limiting solution, but we've run into some problems with the printing paradigm we started with. We are working on redesigning how printing works, at which point, you should be able to print any and all of the lists that are available to view, from the Stake Leadership Directory, to any Ward in your Stake, to a photo directory of any ward, and on and on.

jdcr256 wrote:To answer Techgy's question about printing different lists in the Directory application (the Leader application is completely separate), currently printing is only enabled on the ward list for your home ward.

This is a really limiting solution, but we've run into some problems with the printing paradigm we started with. We are working on redesigning how printing works, at which point, you should be able to print any and all of the lists that are available to view, from the Stake Leadership Directory, to any Ward in your Stake, to a photo directory of any ward, and on and on.

Thanks for the clarification. I figured that the bugs were still being worked out. Keep up the good work.

Currently serving in a singles stake. We have many, many callings unique to singles (committee chair and co-chair for FHE, Munch&Mingle, Publicity, Ward Prayer, Fellowshipping, and on and on). Most of these callings fall well outside the 'standardized callings' lists, yet are critical to the functioning of the wards and stake. Many such callings could be encapsulated into the standardized list IF that list allowed addenda or extensions (e.g., Relief Society Committee Member (Co-chair Activities)), but as it currently stands, MOST of our ward and stake callings will not display correctly online where the standardized lists are mandated.

I am requesting an option to extend the standardized callings list to include outliers, or to allow non-standard OTHER callings (anything marked as OTHER would display, regardless of what it says). Please don't misunderstand: I love every improvement being made to LDS.ORG and all its satellite sites. What an improvement we're seeing!

What do you say?

Kindest regards,
David

freewholly wrote:I am requesting an option to extend the standardized callings list to include outliers, or to allow non-standard OTHER callings (anything marked as OTHER would display, regardless of what it says).

For all those non-standard callings, just go ahead and use custom positions. There is nothing at all wrong with using custom positions -- that feature is in MLS for good reasons. You of course need to use standard callings for all those callings for which a standard MLS calling exists, but where it does not exist, feel free to create a custom position.

For a "Munch&Mingle coordinator" there is no special access to any Church websites beyond what any member has. So there is no problem with such a person having a custom calling. The bottom line is that MLS already does almost exactly what you are requesting -- just use custom callings.

I suppose the one item that you are hoping for is that the "Leadership Directory" would show all people with callings. But that is not the way it is designed, for singles wards/stakes or for normal wards/stakes. It just shows the actual standard leaders. All sorts of standard callings don't show up in the Leadership Directory, either -- it's not just the custom callings that are not listed there.

As a member of the same stake as freewholly (David), I can add some additional insight. I currently maintain a Stake Leadership Directory. Our hope is that we can move away from an offline customized solution to having flexibility in the online tools at LDS.org to provide a "Leadership Directory" online and then we can focus on training ward clerks to keep leadership callings updated.

I don't believe that we are seeking to show all people with callings, but in our YSA stake the committee leaders are standardized across all our wards and it would be most helpful if we had the flexibility to show the leaders of each standardized committee from each ward, not necessarily the committee members under them.

I respectfully disagree with some of the assertions you make however. I would think that the online directory would be more helpful to members of a ward or stake if they could find out who was in each calling, standard or custom. Perhaps the term "Leadership Directory" is too specific. In a family ward, it would be helpful to know who will my child's Primary teacher be or who my teenager's Scoutmaster and Young Women's leader would be without having to ask around or ask the clerk for the information. For example in our stake, committee chairman (elders) and co-chairs (sisters) are considered leadership within the wards and participate in most ward councils I've attended.

I can think of a few potential options to provide the flexibility while maintaining some order:

1. Work towards standard callings lists for specialized units.
2. Allow for a customized list of standard callings managed by each stake/ward. This would allow Priesthood leadership to determine what is considered "Leadership" within their unit.

As another example, we don't have Primary, YM, YW leaders in our YSA stake. If flexibility were added, our stake or ward leadership could hide those unused organizations and de-clutter the online tool.

Just some of my thoughts and two cents...