New Unit (Split Units) - Procedural Questions

Our stake has been approved to split two of our Wards into three Wards. The split will occur in a few weeks, and I'm working through some of the procedural issues surrounding the split. Your help is appreciated.

1 - For the newly created Ward, I assume that all callings will need to be filled according to the normal procedure, namely the Bishop will oversee the calling and sustaining of all Ward callings, and the Stake will oversee the calling and sustaining of all Stake callings, correct? In other words, callings simply aren't "transferred" with the person as they move into the new Ward.

2 - How do we move members? I assume that the existing Wards will simply push out the members who are no longer in their boundaries through MLS?

3 - Budget. Will SLC provide a budget for the new unit for the balance of the year? Or should I have each of the existing units write a check to the new unit to cover until Q1 disbursements? Is it proper to assume that the new unit will receive a Q1 disbursement as a normal unit would?

4 - Any pitfalls any of you experienced during this process that I should be looking out for?

I appreciate any guidance from those who have been down this road before.

caj36 wrote:1 - For the newly created Ward, I assume that all callings will need to be filled according to the normal procedure, namely the Bishop will oversee the calling and sustaining of all Ward callings, and the Stake will oversee the calling and sustaining of all Stake callings, correct? In other words, callings simply aren't "transferred" with the person as they move into the new Ward.

Yes and yes.

caj36 wrote:2 - How do we move members? I assume that the existing Wards will simply push out the members who are no longer in their boundaries through MLS?

Yes. They use the boundary realignment to mass transfer without changing contract information.

caj36 wrote:3 - Budget. Will SLC provide a budget for the new unit for the balance of the year? Or should I have each of the existing units write a check to the new unit to cover until Q1 disbursements? Is it proper to assume that the new unit will receive a Q1 disbursement as a normal unit would?

I believe the funds will come from the two ward for both start-up and Q1. Since Q1 is based on Q3, it won't go to normal until Q2.

Watch for Ward Missionary Accounts... the most common method of payment is for families to be paying into their current wards, but a ward missionary account doesn't transfer with the membership records. This must be specifically arranged with the Missionary Finance Department. I have typically sent a message to Finance from MLS with the Ward missionary (name) the ward name and unit # to transfer the account, what effective date you want the move. Also, keep i mind, the missionary dept usually takes the money out the first week of the month, so don't get caught having a couple of missionaries moved, but the expense still went out against the other ward. If other members of the ward were donating, that will need to be coordinated as well.

I also have my clerks run a pdf print-out of their donations for the year and send them to the new clerk so they can be distributed.... Last year SLC promised to send those from CHQ, but ended up not doing it... I wonder if they will this year (send a statement for a member who moved units in the previous year)

You'll want to watch CDOL, Calendar, Directory, old LUWS and make sure the new ward is being brought up in all the tools. Budget will be tricky.. you'll need to provide money from the 2 previous wards, until the January dispursement, so make sure you update your % in the Stake Budget area so that they get the disbursement you'll looking for.

Make sure you have a new computer ordered and Get MLS up and running (obvious) - have a good checklist, there are several you can search for on this list about what to do when a new bishop is called...

Look through previous posts for a What do I do when I get a new Bishop.. those lists will be handy as well.. (Signature cards, stationary order, stake adding the Bishop, checking CDOL before ordering stationary, etc...)

JohnShaw wrote:until the January dispursement

I can't see how January will be "normal" when it's based on Q3 numbers. But the ward wasn't created until Q4.

Depending on when the ward actually starts meeting, even the April disbursement might be affected.

RussellHltn wrote:Depending on when the ward actually starts meeting, even the April disbursement might be affected.

The question is when the quarterly report will be filled out. If the new ward is formed before the end of December, then they will be submitting a Q4 quarterly report. That report will determine the 2012 Q2 budget allocation. If the split doesn't happen until after January 1, then the first quarterly report will be submitted in April for Q1, and there won't be a regular budget allocation until Q3.

Until a regular budget allocation appears, the stake will have to direct the other wards involved in the split to share their budget allocation (which, after all, was based on numbers that included some of the members in the newly-formed ward).

I've sanitized my document for a general audience this is the checklist I've used... I always provide the list of members moving from one location to another etc... you can see

aebrown... yep, you're right.... I was thinking about a recent boundary change, but one that didn't have a new ward creation

caj36 wrote:1 - For the newly created Ward, I assume that all callings will need to be filled according to the normal procedure, namely the Bishop will oversee the calling and sustaining of all Ward callings, and the Stake will oversee the calling and sustaining of all Stake callings, correct? In other words, callings simply aren't "transferred" with the person as they move into the new Ward.

You are automatically released from your calling when your records leave your unit. In a new ward, no callings exist until the bishop makes them. In the old wards (original 2), the current bishops will need to fill in the gaps caused by some of the members moving to the new unit. Callings must still be made in accordance with the chart of callings found in Handbook 2 chapter 19 (pp 159-166). The online format is not great. This makes much more sense if you actually look in the handbook.

caj36 wrote:3 - Budget. Will SLC provide a budget for the new unit for the balance of the year? Or should I have each of the existing units write a check to the new unit to cover until Q1 disbursements? Is it proper to assume that the new unit will receive a Q1 disbursement as a normal unit would?

Not to beat this to death, but there are no start-up funds supplied by headquarters. Money follows members, and the original 2 units are to send appropriate amounts of their budget to the new unit. If I were the stake clerk, I would set all three unit's disbursement to $0 and manually distribute the funds until the automated process catches up. The next disbursement (January) will be based on the numbers reported in September. April's will be based on December, etc. The new unit will not receive an automated disbursement until three months after they have submitted their first quarterly report.

caj36 wrote:4 - Any pitfalls any of you experienced during this process that I should be looking out for?

It takes a couple weeks for the new unit to be set up in all the various systems the church uses. Once it appears in the CDOL, you will want to verify that tithing envelopes and slips have been ordered as well as temple recommend books and any additional stationery your bishop wants (letterhead, business envelopes, windowed envelopes). Some items are supposed to be ordered automatically, but sometimes it's good to follow up.

The stake will want to make sure the unit appears in their MLS (System Options > Units) and set a desired abbreviation for the unit. If they make a habit of doing unit-to-unit MLS messaging, they will need to add the new unit to their contact list.

You will want to make sure you have supplies for your 2012 curriculum. The original 2 units might just split what was purchased with you, but might not. Make sure you have teachers manuals, member study guides, and Pd & RS manuals.

You will need to make sure you have a clerk's office, access to MLS (either sharing a computer w/ another unit or your own) and a printer. You will need check stock, an endorsement stamp, deposit bags and deposit slips. Again, these should all be sent automatically once the unit is set up but follow up doesn't hurt. You also need to be sure you know what bank to make your deposits at. It is NOT necessarily the same one you have always gone to before. The deposit slips will tell you the bank your account is with. If you get a new office, it will come with little if any office supplies. You'll need to get hanging folders, manila folders, and possibly a hanging rack to put in the drawers. Here FM supplies a file cabinet, computer, printer, chairs and 10-key. Everything else must be obtained by the unit.

Work with your FM group to make sure you have fobs and keys for all the leaders to access the building.

If you are sharing the building and have overlapping Sunday schedules, someone is going to have to start working soon on who will use what rooms when. Will YM/YW need the building a different night of the week? Are there storage cabinets in the building that the new unit can use?

aebrown wrote:The question is when the quarterly report will be filled out. If the new ward is formed before the end of December, then they will be submitting a Q4 quarterly report. That report will determine the 2012 Q2 budget allocation.

Understood. But what will the numbers be like if, for example, the new ward first meets on the 3rd Sunday of December?

RussellHltn wrote:Understood. But what will the numbers be like if, for example, the new ward first meets on the 3rd Sunday of December?

They'll be just fine. The quarterly report reports average sacrament meeting attendance, so that will be quite reasonable. For the YM/YW/Primary numbers, the report is based on how many attended anytime in the reporting month. I would think that this reporting would include individuals who attended anytime in that month in either the old ward or the new ward, so those numbers should be the same as in any other reporting month for those individuals who are now in the new ward.

Even if the numbers don't include the attendance in the previous ward, most people attend or don't attend, so it would be a small number of people who would happen to have attended earlier in the month but not later in the month. There's a particular challenge for December 25 this year, since YM/YW/Primary won't be held, so that increases the chance of anomalies, but I still think the new ward should coordinate with the old wards to get attendance for each individual through the whole reporting month -- that's the only way to get truly accurate numbers.

I think it would be nice if this change was delayed until after Tithing Settlement. If not, there will be some additional headaches to sort out both during Tithing Settlement and while the clerks are preparing the reports. (The reports might be a challenge anyway if the changes occur before the end of January, but even worse if the changes happen before January 1st.). But I can't tell from the original post just how the timing will work out.

Callings won't automatically transfer to a new ward, but existing callings could remain the same for the individuals who stay in the same ward they were in, right? The last time our ward boundaries changed (two-and-a-half years ago) the Bishop of "Ward A" was moved into the new, "Ward B." So he was necessarily released from being Bishop of Ward A just before we were asked to sustain him as Bishop of Ward B. Meanwhile, the High Priest Group Leader of Ward A remained in Ward A, so there was no need to call/sustain him into a calling that he already had... as far as I know.

I try to understand this by momentarily ignoring the fact that there are boundary changes causing the adjustments. If a ward gets a new Bishopric it can cause some other callings to shift but, in general, doesn't affect very much of the ward organization. If a bunch of families moved out of a ward within a short period then you'd only need to re-arrange the callings to respond to the vacancies. Your boundary change is really just a combination of getting new people in the Bishopric and having a bunch of families move in-or-out at the same time. And, in a new ward, everybody needs to be newly called to serve because there was no ward organization to begin with.

aebrown wrote:They'll be just fine. The quarterly report reports average sacrament meeting attendance, so that will be quite reasonable.

Maybe for the new ward, but it will be higher for the two old wards. They'll be some money for people who left.

This is very helpful. Thank you all for your input. The change is happening after the first of the year, as I didn't want the stress of figuring out Tithing Settlement in the middle of this. I will certainly have more questions as we work through this.

caj36 wrote:The change is happening after the first of the year,

Well, that solves a lot of problems. The January disbursement will need special handing, but the April will be just fine. No worries about reports since everything should be settled.

RussellHltn wrote:Maybe for the new ward, but it will be higher for the two old wards. They'll be some money for people who left.

If a split happens in the middle of a reporting month, then the wards that continue to exist will get a bump in terms of the sacrament meeting component. But the other components of the budget allocation should be reasonable, since they only report on the YM/YW/Primary members who actually are on the records as of the last day of the reporting month.

Of course, this thread was talking only about the new ward until you raised this new issue, but it would be an interesting little anomaly. In any case, this is only hypothetical, since we now know that the split discussed in this thread won't happen until January, which is not a month we submit quarterly reports on.

aebrown wrote:Of course, this thread was talking only about the new ward until you raised this new issue, but it would be an interesting little anomaly.

Oh, it would become an issue as soon as someone in the new ward figured out the old wards were getting "extra". Especially when the new ward is encountering expenses in "setting up office". But in this case, it has indeed become hypothetical.

Follow up question, this might make things more complicated. We are announcing the new Wards and setting apart the new Bishoprics at a joint meeting in the middle of December (before everyone leaves town for the holidays), but aren't having the new Wards meet together until the New Year. How does this impact Tithing Settlement? Once the new Bishops have been set apart, is it improper to have the old Bishops finish up Tithing Settlement? Thoughts?

caj36 wrote: We are announcing the new Wards and setting apart the new Bishoprics at a joint meeting in the middle of December (before everyone leaves town for the holidays), but aren't having the new Wards meet together until the New Year. How does this impact Tithing Settlement? Once the new Bishops have been set apart, is it improper to have the old Bishops finish up Tithing Settlement?

[This is not a proper suggestion. See the edit following this paragraph.]
Your stake president will probably instruct the current bishops to complete tithing settlement and to continue to collect donations until the end of the year. This situation is a little unusual, but that would be the best way to do it.

[Edit November 14, 2013. My suggestion is not a good one. The day the bishop is released and a new bishop sustained, the outgoing bishop is no longer the bishop. He and his counselors (unless they are in the new bishopric) no longer accept contributions, and he has no authority to conduct tithing settlement. Once sustained and set apart, the new bishopric receives contributions and the new bishop conducts any further tithing settlement interviews that need to be conducted. The new bishop should use the information from the interviews the outgoing bishop conducted to prepare the tithing settlement reports.]

RussellHltn wrote:The January disbursement will need special handing, but the April will be just fine. No worries about reports since everything should be settled.

Actually, the first time the new ward will complete a quarterly report will be at the end of 1Q 2012, or March. The stake will then receive an automatic budget allowance for the 3rd quarter, beginning in July.

I would suggest that the stake zero out the automatic distribution of budget allowance to the current two wards (and the new ward when it appears) for the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2012, and then calculate and cut a check to each of the three wards for those two quarters.

The stake could then set the automatic distribution back into place in time for the 3rd quarter, because all three wards will have completed their new quarterly reports at the end of the 1st quarter that will drive the 3rd quarter allocation.

caj36 wrote:Follow up question, this might make things more complicated. We are announcing the new Wards and setting apart the new Bishoprics at a joint meeting in the middle of December (before everyone leaves town for the holidays), but aren't having the new Wards meet together until the New Year. How does this impact Tithing Settlement? Once the new Bishops have been set apart, is it improper to have the old Bishops finish up Tithing Settlement? Thoughts?

The key is not when the wards meet together, but when the membership records are transferred. If the records are transferred before the end of the year, then the new bishop is responsible for tithing settlement. There's really no way around that -- only the ward that officially has the membership records is capable of submitting tithing declarations for the members. It's not a question of what is proper -- it's just not possible to have the former ward submit tithing declarations for people who moved out of their ward.

So if you want to delay all of that, the only way that can work is to delay transferring the membership records until some time in 2012. That may raise other problems with finishing processing the bishop change, but that would affect only one family, not the whole ward.

aebrown wrote:The key is not when the wards meet together, but when the membership records are transferred. If the records are transferred before the end of the year, then the new bishop is responsible for tithing settlement.

The logical work-around, then, is to have the original 2 units finish tithing settlement before the middle of December.

I seem to recall that the names of anyone who donated during the year appear on the tithing declaration report, so it seems it would be possible for the declaration to be made through the original units. Especially now with CUBS and the fact that donor records are linked to membership records.

I don't know if there are official guidelines about how soon you can announce that there will be a change (not what the change is, just the fact that there will be a change) in boundaries or bishoprics. In our stake, they never say anything until one week before they actually tell us what the change is. So is it okay to announce to the members "You need to sign up and complete your tithing settlement before December 18th because that's when we're announcing a boundary change"? You have 30 days, by the way.

As far as when the membership records are moved, I guess that depends on the timing of when the new unit is set up "in the system" at HQ. In our case (in 2009) the new boundaries and Bishoprics were announced on a Sunday and then, by about Thursday, the new ward officially had its own web site at LDS.org without any leaders or members. The new ward had its own computer set up about that time. (The Stake already received the computer before the Bishopric was announced.) Memberships from two existing wards were sent to the new ward. One ward's members were received by Friday and the others were received before the end of the day Saturday. On Sunday (one week after the new boundaries and Bishoprics were announced) everything was in place on MLS. Now, I suppose the process could have been delayed if people on the Stake level (especially clerks) had dragged their feet. And I think clerks from the existing wards had to click something about a boundary change in MLS (but I can't remember what it is because I didn't do that step and it is done so infrequently). In our case, everyone wanted this process to happen as quickly as possible and it did.

The one thing that turned out clunky was processing donations at first in the new ward. We still didn't have our own set of deposit slips and a few other details seemed sketchy one week after the boundary changes were announced. By the end of that month we'd done two or three batches but they didn't appear correctly in our Finance Statement. By the end of the next month everything looked okay and the donations from the first month were correct on the statement. But when we made the switch to CUBS last year a couple of items from that first month our ward existed were changed by HQ and it introduced a discrepancy, which was only recently fixed.

EDIT:

I just thought of another issue (problem). There is always someone who will want to make a final Tithing donation at the last minute (the evening of December 31st, perhaps, which happened a few times in our ward). Whoever receives such a donation and whoever processes such a donation needs to be clear about it. This might be a problem with new bishops and/or new clerks. If I had a vote, I'd still vote for your boundary and bishopric changes to happen after December 31st (including the announcement of those changes). People are just very busy at the end of the year even without having to figure out callings and other logistics. But in January everyone is ready for change (and ready to dig in and do the work necessary for new things).

Another problem we had was that an existing ward was moving to a different building as part of the boundary change. So a lot of physical "stuff" had to either move or be replaced. For example, we had a trailer full of camping equipment for the scouts. Replacing that turned into a problem. When the existing ward moved, the existing Primary presidency took everything from the Primary closet to the new building, including baptism clothing (which nobody realized until the last minute before a baptism). Because the old ward had to set up a new office, I think they got a bunch of "start up funds" that might have been better used for the new ward (which was in dire need of a scout trailer, the contents of a Primary closet, basketballs, etc.). There was even some confusion about distributing copies of the handbooks (because some Bishopric members remained in their callings or had the same callings in new Bishoprics). At any rate, that whole process could have been handled much better if the problems had been anticipated better. And I suppose it would have been easier if the wards had remained in the same building, but there was no way to avoid that. In the end, there may have been some lingering "hard feelings" about who took what and whether it was fair.

A few more thoughts:

I was the ward finance clerk when we had our last boundary change (in 2009) I found out that there would be a change one week before the specifics of the change were announced to everyone. I didn't know if I would still be the finance clerk and I didn't know if I would be in the same ward (or meet in the same building) one week later. So I used that week to double-check all of our financial records and fix any problems. I made sure it was organized well enough that I could hand it all over to someone else (and I pretended like I wasn't even going to meet that person) and it would all be clear to someone else. As it turned out, I did hand it all to someone else and it was all moved to another building. And I was pleased with what I was able to offer.

I also took the time to make hard copies or "PDF print outs" of anything that might be useful to keep in either the new or old ward's locked drawer. I approached it thinking "What if I never get to use this particular computer again? What is on here (and not just in MLS) that is important to have backed up?" I suppose I copied a lot more than I needed to but I also kept it organized so that I could easily destroy what wasn't needed (or, in other words, delete the files… because I didn't use much paper).

It might be nice to give the clerks a "heads up" so that they can make these kinds of preparations now rather than waiting until, say, the week before Christmas to get organized. Also, this time of year is a good time to demand receipts from people who need to be reimbursed. (People understand the need to take care of this stuff before the end of the year.) But it would be especially useful to get this out of the way before ward boundaries are changed.

Another thing that was awkward was the transition of electronic keys to the building. Since "Ward A" was moving to another building, all the keys from "Ward A" were de-activated mid-week following the announcement of boundary/bishopric changes. Those who stayed in the building (many of whom would still have callings in the brand new "Ward B") weren't able to get into the building until the following Sunday when they got their new keys. I know this didn't affect many members but I had legitimate reasons to get into the building before Sunday and my key didn't work anymore. I wish the people programming the locks would have allowed the old keys to remain active until that next Sunday (when people would receive new keys) rather than in the middle of the week.