Tech Forum

I received 20 old membership records that I previously had done the research on and sent them to the unknown file in SL. I know that the First Presidency announced an effort to reach and rescue for these families and individuals (October 29, 2012 letter). I also know that it was announced in the June 21, 2013 that we would be receiving up to 20 membership records previously moved out of the Ward. What I don't understand is what else they want us to do. We made a concerted effort this past year involving Priesthood and Relief Society to get our membership records up to date. So nothing has really changed. The Bishop told me to go ahead and move these back to SL which I did. What is diconcerting is that these move ins where done just before the quarterly report was due which now is inflated by 20 members that we know are not here which makes a difference in our percentages from 1% to 3% in some cases. That doesn't sound like a lot but we are a small Ward and we would prefer not to look worse that we really are. Finally, as everyone knows, this ties back into the amount of Budget we receive.

How does one send them back to SLC? We also got 20. Some we know are not here, others we are investigating.

Please see the letter from the First Presidency, this isn't something that should be a surprise to wards and branches.

bgant wrote:I also know that it was announced in the June 21, 2013 that we would be receiving up to 20 membership records previously moved out of the Ward. What I don't understand is what else they want us to do.

They are asking that we follow the eight steps in the June 21 notice and then send the records back. The notice says that they will not return them again.

If you followed the first nine steps before sending the records the first time, this should be the last time you need to deal with these records.

bgant wrote:What is diconcerting is that these move ins where done just before the quarterly report was due which now is inflated by 20 members that we know are not here which makes a difference in our percentages from 1% to 3% in some cases. That doesn't sound like a lot but we are a small Ward and we would prefer not to look worse that we really are.

Since the records were sent after the end of the 2nd quarter they should have no effect on the total number of members for the 2nd quarter report.

bgant wrote: Finally, as everyone knows, this ties back into the amount of Budget we receive.

The total number of members in a unit has no effect on the amount of Budget you receive. With the exception of the primary and YSA the Budget allowance is base strictly on attendance numbers only.

Gary_Miller wrote:

bgant wrote: Finally, as everyone knows, this ties back into the amount of Budget we receive.

The total number of members in a unit has no effect on the amount of Budget you receive. With the exception of the primary and YSA the Budget allowance is base strictly on attendance numbers only.

And those last two items you mentioned do show that having extra members on the records will have a slight effect on the budget allowance. But it could be higher or lower, depending on whether there are YSAs or children aged 8-11 among the records moved in.

• Having extra records will lower the percentage of sacrament meeting attendance, which will have the effect of lowering the YSA component of the budget allowance. But if extra records are for YSAs, then that would have the effect of increasing the budget allowance.
• Similarly, if extra records are for Primary-aged children, then that will have the effect of lowering the Primary attendance percentage. But if some extra records are for children aged 8-11, then it could have the effect of increasing the budget allowance.

But in any case, the idea of sending the records out to the wards is for them to act reasonably promptly in determining if the members are actually in the ward, or where they should be sent. Certainly it could be the case that some extra records are in the ward right at the end of the quarter, but as I explained above, it's not obvious whether that would increase or decrease the budget allowance.

Our goal is to get the records turned around as quickly as possible all the records were assigned to one of the quorums except two. Out of the two one of the Bishopric members knew the family as they were one of his patients in his practice, which has been sent to the new ward which is in our stake. The other had no address so the clerks took that to investigate the best they can.

I agree that the effect on Budget will be minimul but why even make that an issue? Just send the old membership records to the Wards after the quarter so that they can work on them or send them back or whatever before the next quarter.

bgant wrote:I agree that the effect on Budget will be minimul but why even make that an issue? Just send the old membership records to the Wards after the quarter so that they can work on them or send them back or whatever before the next quarter.

I thought that is what CHQ did. At least for my ward we did not receive these records until after July 1st.

Check your quarterly report. All 20 of mine were included in the quarterly report totals. You can drill down on each data point in the quarterly report to check. The easiest is the total number in the Ward. It will bring up all the names and just check it against the list of 20 that was sent back to you.