Assistant Ward Executive Secretary can't view lds.org/leader

We have an assistant executive secretary in our ward, but he can't log in to lds.org/leader... he get's the "unauthorized" error.

I did some research and I found on CDOL that he is set up in MLS as an "Assistant Executive Secretary" which is a custom calling.

That seems to be the problem: his calling is a custom calling.

However, there is not a standard calling for "Assistant Executive Secretary".

Attached is the list (screen shot from mls, zipped)

What is the recommended way to give the assistant executive secretary access? Should we change his calling to be Ward Executive Secretary?

Thanks!
--
Nathan

nathangg wrote:Should we change his calling to be Ward Executive Secretary?

I think you need to carefully examine the current tasks of the Executive Secretary and the Assistant and see if those are appropriate tittles for what they are doing. I think you also need to check with the stake since IIRC any calling at that level goes through them.

Note that "Assistant Clerk" is one position that appears to have access (although I'm not sure how much.)

RussellHltn wrote:I think you need to carefully examine the current tasks of the Executive Secretary and the Assistant and see if those are appropriate tittles for what they are doing. I think you also need to check with the stake since IIRC any calling at that level goes through them.

Thanks for the quick reply! I guess I was just going off of what the official help says:

Members with the following callings have access to Leader and Clerk Resources: stake presidents, district presidents, bishops, branch presidents, and their corresponding first counselors, second counselors, executive secretaries, assistant executive secretaries, clerks, assistant membership clerks, and assistant clerks.

However, even though it says "assistant executive secretaries", I think your advice is sound and we will consider the duties the bishop wants to have the assistant do versus the regular exec. secretary.

And yes, the assistant exec. secretary was called via the stake.

Thanks!

Perhaps in the meantime the help documentation should be changed? Since there doesn't seem to be a standard calling for "Assistant Executive Secretary"? Not sure what to do about that...

The Wiki is clearer on that point. I suppose one might question if there is such a thing as "Assistant Executive Secretary" at he ward level. It's not in MLS. Is it mentioned in the Handbook?

RussellHltn wrote:The Wiki is clearer on that point. I suppose one might question if there is such a thing as "Assistant Executive Secretary" at he ward level. It's not in MLS. Is it mentioned in the Handbook?

The wording in the Leader and Clerk Resources help uses abbreviated wording that lumps stake and ward leaders in the same sentence. It does not say that all these callings exist at both ward and stake levels; it just refers to "their corresponding...." As you mentioned, the wiki reference does make it very clear that "Assistant Executive Secretary" exists only at the stake level.

In any case, there is no "Assistant Executive Secretary" mentioned in the Handbook at the ward level, and no such standard calling exists in MLS. The functions of "Ward Assistant Clerk" are broad enough that he could function as an assistant to the "Ward Executive Secretary".

aebrown wrote:The wording in the Leader and Clerk Resources help uses abbreviated wording that lumps stake and ward leaders in the same sentence. It does not say that all these callings exist at both ward and stake levels; it just refers to "their corresponding...." As you mentioned, the wiki reference does make it very clear that "Assistant Executive Secretary" exists only at the stake level.

I edited the wiki a few weeks back to clarify that point. The original text by Tom Johnson (a technical writer for the church) was the same as in the official help (which he also wrote). Interestingly the official help is also a wiki and it appears that LDS Account credentials can be used to login and edit. However, I'm not sure how the church feels about community edits to the official help.

aebrown wrote:In any case, there is no "Assistant Executive Secretary" mentioned in the Handbook at the ward level, and no such standard calling exists in MLS.

I can't find any reference to an "Assistant Executive Secretary" on the stake level either but there is a standard position in MLS. Am I just missing something? Or was there a stake level position mentioned in the old handbook (which was in effect when the MLS position was added)?

RussellHltn wrote:The Wiki is clearer on that point. I suppose one might question if there is such a thing as "Assistant Executive Secretary" at he ward level. It's not in MLS. Is it mentioned in the Handbook?

Wow! I learn something new every day it seems... For the past 2.5 years I've been in wards where there has always been an "Assistant Executive Secretary" at the ward level... I guess I made the wrong assumption that this was a standard calling, when in fact it is not standard calling.

Oops!

I can totally see how the wiki has clarified this issue: the "Assistant Executive Secretary" calling is a stake calling (and thus the custom calling of "Assistant Exec. Sec." at the ward level will NOT have access to lds.org/leader.)

Thank you thank you thank you!

aebrown wrote:In any case, there is no "Assistant Executive Secretary" mentioned in the Handbook at the ward level, and no such standard calling exists in MLS. The functions of "Ward Assistant Clerk" are broad enough that he could function as an assistant to the "Ward Executive Secretary".

Where are you finding the functions of the "Ward Assistant Clerk"? I'm searching for it in the handbook, but just not finding it (probably a case of poor search terms )

nathangg wrote:Where are you finding the functions of the "Ward Assistant Clerk"? I'm searching for it in the handbook, but just not finding it (probably a case of poor search terms )

It's in Handbook 1, section 13.4.3. It gives some specific possible tasks, but basically says he can help the ward clerk, whose responsibilities are in section 13.4.2. Those sections also mention other handbook sections that describe responsibilities.

I'm a Stake Asst. Exec. Secretary and have limited access to the 'Leader and Clerk Resources'. My biggest issue is I don't have access to the emailing groups 'Members' and 'Ward Leaders'. This makes it impossible for me to email broadcast the stake membership as I've been assigned to do without going to the 'Classic' website.

As a stake assistant executive secretary, can you export email addresses for the whole stake from MLS?

If you can get a CSV of all the email addresses in the stake, then you can do the following:

1. Get a CSV of membership that includes the following:
   1. Household Email (Column A)
   2. Head of House Individual Email (Column B)
   3. Spouse Individual email (Column C)
2. open the CSV
3. copy the contents of column B and paste it into the last row of Column A
4. copy the contents of column C and paste it into the last row of column A
5. You should now have one column of thousands of email addresses
6. Use excel to "Remove Duplicates"
7. Delete any extra data in Columns B and C (the row headers probably)
8. Save to CSV
9. Open in notepad
10. Paste the list into the "BCC" field of your email client (it works in gmail)

Anyhow, I'm not sure if that can be done, but I'd try that.

If you want to also take into account people's privacy settings, then you can go ward by ward and "Export Households" from lds.org/directory. The more wards you have, the longer it will be, but the process is the same.

Are there better ways to do this instead of manually doing it?

nathangg wrote:If you want to also take into account people's privacy settings, then you can go ward by ward and "Export Households" from lds.org/directory. The more wards you have, the longer it will be, but the process is the same.

The only problem with this particular suggestion is that no one (and I mean no one -- not even the stake president) can export data from the new Directory on lds.org for any ward except his or her own ward.

aebrown wrote:The only problem with this particular suggestion is that no one (and I mean no one -- not even the stake president) can export data from the new Directory on lds.org for any ward except his or her own ward.

I guess I never knew since I don't have a stake calling... sorry about suggesting something that isn't even possible.

Thanks for the suggestion. There are a couple of issues with extracting a stake email list, it doesn't take long for the list to get out dated and most internet email accounts limit the number of email addresses to a 100 or less. This can be painful if email broadcasts to the stake are sent out on any regular bases.

rhsherman wrote:Thanks for the suggestion. There are a couple of issues with extracting a stake email list, it doesn't take long for the list to get out dated and most internet email accounts limit the number of email addresses to a 100 or less. This can be painful if email broadcasts to the stake are sent out on any regular bases.

Yeah, that is kind of big issue you'll run into. (Although I've regularly sent emails to our entire ward with about 308 email addresses in the BCC field from a gmail account)

Perhaps it would be better to send an email to each ward and have them pass the information along (don't most wards or auxiliaries have email lists of their members? I know in our ward the RS has an email list, along with the HPG and EQ).

Thanks~!

aebrown wrote:

nathangg wrote:If you want to also take into account people's privacy settings, then you can go ward by ward and "Export Households" from lds.org/directory. The more wards you have, the longer it will be, but the process is the same.

The only problem with this particular suggestion is that no one (and I mean no one -- not even the stake president) can export data from the new Directory on lds.org for any ward except his or her own ward.

... and very shortly after I made this statement, it is now no longer true. See this post.

nathangg wrote:Wow! I learn something new every day it seems... For the past 2.5 years I've been in wards where there has always been an "Assistant Executive Secretary" at the ward level... I guess I made the wrong assumption that this was a standard calling, when in fact it is not standard calling.

Oops!

I can totally see how the wiki has clarified this issue: the "Assistant Executive Secretary" calling is a stake calling (and thus the custom calling of "Assistant Exec. Sec." at the ward level will NOT have access to lds.org/leader.)

Thank you thank you thank you!

I ran into this situation with our ward's Assistant Executive Secretary. I changed his position to Ward Assistant Clerk, a standardized calling. A small issue with this is we have to manually change his calling when it's time for Ward Conference and we want his calling to be correctly read via the "Officers Sustained" list.

So, a suggestion is to add "Assistant Executive Secretary" to the list of standard callings and to the list of callings that can access the Leader and Clerk resources info in lds.org.

Or, maybe anyone that is in the "Bishopric" calling list is automatically able to access the Leader and Clerk resources in lds.org?

A small issue with this is we have to manually change his calling when it's time for Ward Conference and we want his calling to be correctly read via the "Officers Sustained" list.

Hmm... I'm not sure you want to do this. Rather, last time I printed out the "Officers Sustained List" "Assistant Ward Executive Secretary" is not on the list, and there is a disclaimer when you print it out that says, "[A member of the stake presidency] should present only the officers listed on this form."

When our bishopric read that disclaimer, we made sure not to add the Assistant Ward Executive Secretary.

Thanks. He is considered an assistant ward clerk, so there is no problem in reading in his calling as an assistant ward clerk. "Assistant Ward Executive Secretary" showed up on all previous Officers Sustained forms, so just because it is not an MLS standard calling, seems to not prevent reading this calling in. Sure would make it simpler if it was a standard calling.

What is funny is that since he is set up in MLS as an "assistant ward clerk" and not an "assistant executive secretary", when he called a sister new to our ward to have her give a talk, she looked him up online to see his calling and thought she was safe in calling him back, since he was not listed as an executive secretary. She gave a great talk.

saeaastewart wrote:"Assistant Ward Executive Secretary" showed up on all previous Officers Sustained forms

This is interesting. I have been reading the List of Officers Sustained for over seven years and never remember seeing it. And I have been preparing Lists for nearly 30 years before that. I think it is interesting that the List order is Ward Clerk, Ward Executive Secretary, and then back to Assistant Ward Clerks, but I have never seen assistant executive secretaries. (Maybe you have a special list.)

saeaastewart wrote:What is funny is that since he is set up in MLS as an "assistant ward clerk" and not an "assistant executive secretary", when he called a sister new to our ward to have her give a talk, she looked him up online to see his calling and thought she was safe in calling him back, since he was not listed as an executive secretary. She gave a great talk.

Works every time. [grin]