Does information on a membership record transfer?

When moving a record out many of the fields are blank, such as address, phone etc. If these fields have current data in them, does it migrate with the record to the new ward.

With the advent of the new young single wards and new 30+ single ward. The information is not changes just the attending ward.

Any insight on this?

ericwerny wrote:When moving a record out many of the fields are blank, such as address, phone etc. If these fields have current data in them, does it migrate with the record to the new ward.

With the advent of the new young single wards and new 30+ single ward. The information is not changes just the attending ward.

Any insight on this?

It depends on how the record is moved. If it is moved with the standard Move Record feature of MLS (either in or out, either household or family), then the address and phone number are blanked out when the record is moved -- unless the new information (which may be the same as the old info) is supplied as the record is moved.

If the record is moved as part of a bulk transfer using the Boundary Realignment feature, then the address and phone number are retained. I assume that when CHQ moves YSA records in bulk as part of the creation of new YSA stakes and wards, the process is similar to the MLS feature for Boundary Realignment, and the address and phone number will be retained.

I think it should be suggested that the information is retain unless it is edited.

The majority of moves occurs because the member has physically moved to a new location outside of the Ward's boundaries. With the exception of the cell phone, that would invalidate the old information.

Boundary move is there for the exceptions.

RussellHltn wrote:The majority of moves occurs because the member has physically moved to a new location outside of the Ward's boundaries. With the exception of the cell phone, that would invalidate the old information.

Boundary move is there for the exceptions.

I agree with you, but there can be many exceptions.

Along with the YSA ward moves, there are other moves such as different language units or just to move a member into the correct unit, because their current address is outside their current unit's boundaries.

I don't think the default should be to keep the current data (except for cell phones) when a move is initiated in MLS, but it would be nice to have a checkbox to retain the data if desired. This seems better/easier/less confusing than using the boundary realignment feature when the boundaries are not actually being realigned.

The clerk can always copy or rekey the address and phone data as appropriate when moving a record.

greggo wrote:I agree with you, but there can be many exceptions.

Along with the YSA ward moves, there are other moves such as different language units or just to move a member into the correct unit, because their current address is outside their current unit's boundaries.

The general rule in a majority of moves involves a change of address. Following that majority situation is what I believe was the determinant in setting the default.

greggo wrote:I don't think the default should be to keep the current data (except for cell phones) when a move is initiated in MLS, but it would be nice to have a checkbox to retain the data if desired. This seems better/easier/less confusing than using the boundary realignment feature when the boundaries are not actually being realigned.

I don't agree there should be a change in the default. Why create confusion and possibly create more work for a majority of the clerks for minority situations. But I do agree with the idea of having an option to change the default for those minority exceptions as you recommend.

We at least the issue got discussed and some ideas came out of it. I like the idea of the check box to retain the info. And I do agree with the concept of retaining the phone number.

One thing that get ignored in all these processes is man hours and how long it take to perform a function, and the use of paper to print off records so the information can be reentered into the member transfer.

And I am saying this will a smile on my face - All MLS coders at Riverton need to be called to the position of Ward Clerk to get the real time feel of the Sunday insanity.

I just love it when you in the middle of tithing entry and a ward leader will come in and ask for a report, and you tell them sorry you'll have to wait. You see the "I want it now" mentality spring forth, and you're waiting for them to start stamping there feet because you tell them to come back in about an hour. I know many of you have experienced this one at least once in your life Life as a clerk --- IS AN ADVENTURE!!

ericwerny wrote: I just love it when you in the middle of tithing entry and a ward leader will come in and ask for a report, and you tell them sorry you'll have to wait. You see the "I want it now" mentality spring forth, and you're waiting for them to start stamping there feet because you tell them to come back in about an hour.

Actually it is possible with MLS. The real question is should you be interrupted. Depending on the leader and the need, then it is worth doing. For example, for our bishop I would almost always do it. For many others, I would make a note of what they want and print it for them after.

Within MLS you can click on the 'MLS' tab at the top and navigate to any report you want. When you are done with that report, you can go back to the deposit tab and continue the deposit. You can also get there via the menus at the top, and jump back with the tabs at any time. I have used this sometimes myself while entering donations to look up information to help enter a donation correctly.

ericwerny wrote: I like the idea of the check box to retain the info. And I do agree with the concept of retaining the phone number.

Since so many members have cell phones and keep them when they move, I think the ability to keep the phone number is a good one.

greggo wrote:I agree with you, but there can be many exceptions.

Along with the YSA ward moves, there are other moves such as different language units or just to move a member into the correct unit, because their current address is outside their current unit's boundaries.

I don't think the default should be to keep the current data (except for cell phones) when a move is initiated in MLS, but it would be nice to have a checkbox to retain the data if desired. This seems better/easier/less confusing than using the boundary realignment feature when the boundaries are not actually being realigned.

greggo, are you and Greggo-p40 one and the same? If so, you made similar comments here a couple of years ago.

ericwerny wrote:We at least the issue got discussed and some ideas came out of it. I like the idea of the check box to retain the info. And I do agree with the concept of retaining the phone number.

One thing that get ignored in all these processes is man hours and how long it take to perform a function, and the use of paper to print off records so the information can be reentered into the member transfer.

I suggested this checkbox idea a couple of years ago in the same thread I linked to above. Hopefully this new discussion of the topic will lead to this feature being included in a future MLS release.

When I moved all of the members of our YSA branch to the new YSA Ward and Stake, I used the boundary realignment function. As I recall, you can either select specific records to move or select all records. All of our records were moved to the new ward intact. AFIK, if I had information in a record, the new ward received it. At least that was the case for my three kids that were included in the move. One possible hitch that might be there is when you move someone who is not a Head of Household - not sure if the household phone would follow them.

If you're using the Move Records Out function, I'm pretty sure you need to type in the address and phone info. If the ward the record is going to is known and those blocks are filled in, I think you can send a record to them without filling in location information but the new ward won't know where they live. In which case the "retain info" capability would be nice.

ericwerny wrote:I just love it when you in the middle of tithing entry and a ward leader will come in and ask for a report, and you tell them sorry you'll have to wait. You see the "I want it now" mentality spring forth, and you're waiting for them to start stamping there feet because you tell them to come back in about an hour. I know many of you have experienced this one at least once in your life Life as a clerk --- IS AN ADVENTURE!!

Back in the days of MIS and FIS as separate programs, we would keep both running and Alt + Tab between them.

jwtaber wrote:Back in the days of MIS and FIS as separate programs, we would keep both running and Alt + Tab between them.

If you were lucky enough to have a Windows machine. In that era we moved Windows machines to the FHC where DOS machines were very limiting.

ericwerny wrote:I just love it when you in the middle of tithing entry and a ward leader will come in and ask for a report, and you tell them sorry you'll have to wait.

May I suggest you keep the Clerk office locked during tithing entry. Tithing is confidential and only Bishopric members and Clerks should have access to the Clerk's office during these times. Politely tell them you will get their report as soon as you can but they must leave the office during recording of Tithing Deposits.

davesudweeks wrote:May I suggest you keep the Clerk office locked during tithing entry. Tithing is confidential and only Bishopric members and Clerks should have access to the Clerk's office during these times. Politely tell them you will get their report as soon as you can but they must leave the office during recording of Tithing Deposits.

Works great unless it's the bishop or a counselor asking.

idjeeper2 wrote:Works great unless it's the bishop or a counselor asking.

Have him stay and help you count. [grin]

Or nicely ask if the report will wait for a few minutes until the deposit is complete. They, of all people, should understand what is going on and be willing to work with you.

Not to worry, they're easy to work with. Hence the wink. In general, our auxiliaries are so anxious to get home that they are rarely a problem.

lajackson wrote:Have him stay and help you count. [grin]

Or nicely ask if the report will wait for a few minutes until the deposit is complete. They, of all people, should understand what is going on and be willing to work with you.

We have it better than that. Both Counselors stay and open/count while the Finance Clerk runs the computer. Our Stake is extremely picky that when the training says 2 people opening and counting, one opening and one running the computer does not comply so we started doing it this way. This means we can't start doing tithing until after the "immediate after church stuff" is complete. Since we don't have any Sunday meetings before or after church, we don't have to wait long and it gives the Auxiliaries time to get a report or two if needed before they leave.

I made our second YSA records transfer this week. The first time I noted (as all of you I’m sure realize) that you can’t use the Boundary Realignment (BR) function to pick out individual young people to transfer who are in a household (that function is only set up to transfer the entire household). It in fact gives a stern warning at the bottom that it is ONLY to be used for boundary realignment, which seems inappropriately stern when there’s no other decent option for transferring multiple YSA records to the new singles wards. So in that YSA multiple-transfer, I went thru the laborious process of not only repeating each of their addresses and phone numbers (as Jeeper2 has previously posted), but also I had to key in the name and unit number for the new YSA ward in our area for each one (although one really doesn’t have to enter the Stake info, even though hit asks for it).

So after reviewing this thread of posts, for my second YSA multiple-transfer, I decided to still try the BR function by first pulling out each of the YSA people to be transferred, and make them their own head-of-household (HoH), which unfortunately still means you have to re-enter their address and phone info. But it still enabled me to use the BR function to move them at once to the YSA ward. Since I could do this all at the same sitting (even though I first hit “Send” for the HoH changes), this wasn’t too bad of a process.
Note: In using the BR function, you DO in fact have to key in the complete unit info for both the YSA ward and stake; but that’s still more convenient than the individual records transfer process I described for my first multiple-transfer.

But I still 2nd the motion that it would sure be nice with these YSA transfers if either 1) the BR function could be modified (possibly by a bypass of the default as has been discussed here) to pick out YSA individuals from their households, thereby keeping their address and phone info (yes, including cell phones as you noted Bro. Jackson), or 2) (preferable) another function be added all together to make these multiple-YSA transfers while retaining all of their contact info (which would decrease the opportunity for errors when clerks have to re-enter all the info again). It would be nice if one of these options could be made rather quickly, as there are still a lot of YSA multiple-records transfers to be made in Salt Lake Davis and Utah counties over the next month or so.

jhigbee wrote:It would be nice if one of these options could be made rather quickly, as there are still a lot of YSA multiple-records transfers to be made in Salt Lake Davis and Utah counties over the next month or so.

Your suggestions are good, but there's no way MLS could go through an entire cycle of requirements gathering, implementation, beta testing, and deployment that quickly. We'll just have to do the best we can with MLS the way it is (unless by some chance these changes are already in the works, which I doubt).