Tech Forum

kisaac wrote:A"dummy" list to hold sisters that you are not teaching can circumvent a "check and balances" process in MLS.

It depends on your method of operations, but I would disagree. Some wards may have a fairly large number of "no contacts". While I would agree that the list needs to be reviewed periodically, if the list is large enough, it won't scrutinized in detail monthly. Therefore, a sister that has fallen though the cracks will end up "hiding" in a large list that may only get looked over every few months.

Off the top of my head, I'm unaware of any policy on this issue, so I think ultimately it's up to how the ward wants to handle it.

The best suggestion I can come up with is to shuffle things around so these special districts have special numbers - like 1 is DNC and 2 is move outs. That way they won't appear in the middle of "normal" districts.

Administrative note:

The Scoutmaster question and response have been moved to a new thread.

These two lists of sisters are basically "unassigned." They are "assigned" to the RS president as holding tanks. When a current RS companionship is printed, these two lists (assigned to district 1) are understood to be the DNC list and moved, but unsure where list. This gives the RS presidency more organization within the "unassigned" sisters list.

I tried to create a separate district for each of these lists, but found that districts can't be named anything other than "Disrtict 1" 2,3,4,5, etc.

I also found that I was able to go in the back door and create a non-member record with a title lilke "Do Not Contact" or "Moved," but when I went to add that title in as a visiting teacher, MLS would not assign a non-member to be a VT.

So, I was outsmarted on all fronts by MLS.

In our ward, at least, the RS is much more organized than the priesthood quorums and so maybe we have found a helpful idea for future MLS releases - at least where the RS is concerned. I wonder if MLS programmers would consider creating an assignment section for these catagories of sisters - priesthood too.

The reason the RS has a DNC list is to not offend the member who has requested no contact. With changes in the RS presidency, info doesn't get passed on and contacts can invariably be made to these sisters and negative experiences result.

Ozzy wrote:I wonder if MLS programmers would consider creating an assignment section for these catagories of sisters - priesthood too.

This is not likely to happen - at least not as suggested. There has been an MLS messageabout not adjusting or coding membership records to show it as DO NOT CONTACT.

Ozzy wrote:The reason the RS has a DNC list is to not offend the member who has requested no contact. With changes in the RS presidency, info doesn't get passed on and contacts can invariably be made to these sisters and negative experiences result.

My cautions about coding somebody "Do Not Contact:" And Here is my Do Not Contact experience.

In a past ward that had very few young men, the fathers or YM leaders would accompany the YM on fast offering collections. We usually didn't pay on fast sunday because of the timing of my paycheck. My wife explained this to the YM and his father one sunday, and they never stopped by again.

Because they also delivered the ward newsletter, we noticed that it never arrived. I asked the clerks one sunday why the YM stopped coming. He looked up some lists, and then said that I had requested "Do Not Contact." Of course, we had not, we had merely said that we don't pay by the fast offering envelope on fast sunday. Apparently the father had reported that we didn't need contacting in an effort to help the short-handed YM on fast Sunday, but the clerk notated it as we didn't want contact without any further explanation. And nobody called to clarify because now they thought we wanted "No Contact," and we were active this whole time!

There lies the problem with coding a record with "Do Not Contact." It's not descriptive enough to help anyone decide what contact might actually be appropriate, and the label might be too harsh. Some truly wish "no contact," but others might be really saying, "I'm not withdrawing from the neighborhood and would still like to be friends, and may even let certain ward members visits, just don't talk to me about CHURCH things..,"

Ozzy wrote:So, I was outsmarted on all fronts by MLS.

As exponentially outnumbered as they are, you have to give the MLS development team credit for staying a step ahead of most of us.

They should accept that comment with great credit, I think. [grin]

Ozzy wrote:The reason the RS has a DNC list is to not offend the member who has requested no contact. With changes in the RS presidency, info doesn't get passed on and contacts can invariably be made to these sisters and negative experiences result.

It has been pointed out already some good reasons why a DNC list is not a good idea. From my point of view, unless a member requested to have their name removed from the records of the church, it is a good thing if the DNC info doesn't get passed on after leadership changes.

It's up to local leaders to prayerfully decide how to handle those who ask for no contact but don't request their name removed. I always let them know that, unless their name is removed, they will invariably still receive contact sooner or later.