Tech Forum

idjeeper2 wrote:Your suggestion to get the records updated is spot-on. It's really unfair to saddle the new unit with all of one's undone housekeeping. One other suggestion I have is to make a backup of MLS prior to the move and one after. The former stake may have a need to recreate the old unit to handle leftover finance issues, etc. I know we left our computer functional for several months (it may still be) with only myself, the Stake Clerk, and the Stake Tech guy having logon capability.

About a year ago, my stake reshuffled four wards and a branch into six wards. My biggest headaches in overseeing the records transfers were missing addresses, and out-of-date addresses. (Relief Society secretaries were most helpful on providing current information - why couldn't they have kept the ward clerks current?) Make sure you have a complete street address, with apartment number, and with apartment complex or dormitory information if applicable.

jwtaber wrote:(Relief Society secretaries were most helpful on providing current information - why couldn't they have kept the ward clerks current?)

They probably did. [grin]

Coming back to my original post a little late in the game. Thanks all for your input here. I still hope that CHQ will NOT make an automatic transfer of our YSA people in mass. It makes no sense to do so for several cases- missionaries in the field, those serving in the military, those inactive young people whose marriages haven’t been recorded yet (although only one out of our ward’s 40 YSAs), 18-yr-old kids who MLS can’t recognize are still in high school (which will be pretty much a mute point after June), etc. etc. But IF it’s decided that by some date, CHQ will automatically move all 18 to 30 single members’ records into their geographic YSA wards, then we’ll just have to "pull back" those who the bishops want retained in our home wards. But one of the main things I was looking for is what kind of guidelines bishops will be given to encourage their YSA people to support having their records moved into the YSA wards. My hunch is that the vast majority of inactive YSA people will be moved to their geographic YSA ward (one way or another), since those wards will generally be more effective at reactivating them.

Much speculation until we get more specific direction. But I agree the focus of us ward and stake membership clerks at this point to is to get the records of our YSA people as up-to-date as possible, including getting those moved to the wards where they’re actually living wherever possible.

I think you've hit on most of the reasons it works better to leave the transfers at the local level. My experience was that the YSA units sell themselves to a large extent. Each year, our RS and EQ presidencies visited the Laurels and Priests in the home wards. They built excitement for the seniors so they really wanted to come to the branch. Now that they are a ward, it's a little more complicated as they combined the YSAs from three stakes. Still very doable though.

When Elders Christensen and Ringwold came to organize the stake, they told the YSAs they had two choices - stay in their home ward or go to the YSA Ward serving their geographic area. The student YSA wards were discontinued. There was no pressure to choose one or the other, just that they had to choose. We had a lot of previously inactive people that came to the meeting and started attending the ward just to see what it was like. This experience is apparently common where ever this format has been done, so it is a good missionary tool. We were also told that it would be implemented in Pocatello (happened a couple of weeks ago), Rexburg, Moscow, and Hawaii. The way they talked, I didn't expect they would implement in Salt Lake this soon, but I'm not surprised.

jhigbee wrote:I still hope that CHQ will NOT make an automatic transfer of our YSA people in mass. . . .

IF it’s decided that by some date, CHQ will automatically move all 18 to 30 single members’ records into their geographic YSA wards, then we’ll just have to "pull back" those who the bishops want retained in our home wards.

I do not believe there is any intention to automatically transfer any records from a conventional ward to one of the new YSA wards. As you have said, that transfer should happen manually when a single member makes the decision to start attending a YSA ward.

I think the only automatic transfer being considered is that records currently in a discontinued YSA or single student ward will be transferred to the newly assigned geographic YSA ward. I do not think there is any intention to automatically transfer any other records of single members to the new YSA wards.

Records of single members in a discontinued ward are already there because the member opted to attend a singles ward. It makes sense to move them to the new singles ward, rather than back to a traditional ward where they would most likely just be transferred back out to the new YSA ward.

It’s a little surprising there hasn’t been more discussion here about this significant YSA records transfer along the Wasatch Front. Our Bishop had spoken with 3 YSA members from our ward last week who were ready to have their records transferred to our new YSA ward in Centerville. So I sent them off Saturday evening, and received word from our neighbor & YSA bishopric counselor that he received them Sunday morning ready to put them to work. Then we met together Sunday morning with the bishopric and went over the remaining 35 YSA members on our list to develop an action plan on discussing their wishes. This process seems to be that it will probably NOT be most effective to identify and transfer all the YSA records from a home ward in one fell-swoop; rather to give the bishoprics time to meet with the YSA members (and their parents when possible) to discuss them.
In talking with our YSA counselor and with our Quorum of the Seventy ward member, there is concern that some wards might be using this as an opportunity for getting rid of the records of inactive YSA people on their roles (the counsler said a couple of wards have sent about a dozen such records at once, some w/o valid addresses). But our Seventy indicated that the “default” for YSA members records (which shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning the transfers should be automatic by any means) is that the records of inactive YSA members should remain in the home ward unless and until the Bishop has talked with the young members and they are OK with making the transfer. Otherwise, they should remain in the home ward.

jhigbee wrote:It’s a little surprising there hasn’t been more discussion here about this significant YSA records transfer along the Wasatch Front.

Just a thought, but I thinks it's mostly because no one still knows exactly what's going on. There are a lot of opinions, but very little official instruction or communication.

In my ward (which got discontinued), the only records that still remain are those belonging to single adults over 30. All YSA records were transferred out (we were a student single ward). I can't speak for conventional units, however.

Another problem that’s come up with this YSA records transfer, is how apparently someone in the Memb Dept has set some sort of protocol for automatically transferring YSA records from home wards to the new YSA wards without their being initiated on the ward level. This has happened in the past week for three cases in separate Davis County wards. In all three cases, the particular records transferred were some of the most inappropriate ones to send to the YSA wards. I’ve reported this to the Memb Dept thru MLS messaging, including my guess that the inappropriate protocol that has been set up is to transfer the YSA records from home wards that are shown as head-of-household.
So a note of warning to watch your YSA records, and be ready to pull any back that get pulled out inappropriately.