Counting those attending broadcast in attendance numbers

[bdubb003]

In our area, we are limited to 150 members max in the building for our worship service. We also broadcast the service so those not able to join in person can stream the service. When recording attendance, should we be including those who are attending the broadcast or only those physically in the building?

[scgallafent]

I would keep track of both.

[garystroble]

In a July 17, 2020 email to clerks there is no mention of virtual attendance, and so counting such would not agree with established guidelines, instructions and the handbook, as attendance has always been defined as in person.

"Dear Leaders,
As noted in Leader and Clerk Resources, you do not need to complete and submit the Quarterly Report for the second quarter of 2020. This pattern will continue until normal Church meeting schedules are reinstated.
However, we ask you to continue to record sacrament meeting attendance in LCR whenever these meetings are held. If you divide your ward to conduct multiple meetings, record the total number attending for all meetings. If multiple meetings are held on different weeks, record the total in the week that the last meeting is held."

Handbook 33.5.1.1:
"The attendance count is the number physically present in the meeting."

As a practical matter, it is virtually (pardon the pun) impossible to know how many total persons are viewing a remote sacrament meeting.

[BrianEdwards]

I do not see this email in the Official Communications link (even when selecting "All"). Was it only sent to clerks and nobody else? We have not been recording sacrament meeting attendance as I had not been made aware of this change. I suppose it may be time to ask our clerk to share this email with us...

[garystroble]

I received the July 17 notice directly in email and I am a ward clerk. As it is addressed dear leaders assume bishops may have gotten it as well.

[sbradshaw]

According to the message posted in this thread, there's now a more specific recommendation for counting attendance:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=37826

"Beginning in October 2020 ... where practical and possible, record the number of members who participate in sacrament meeting in person or on a broadcast"

[BrianEdwards]

Thanks for that update, I see it as well on LCR today, along with the previous blurb about Quarterly Reports being auto-generated from 2019 data. Looks like things are slowly syncing up regarding this...

[waynecooke]

What we do in our Ward is that when someone signs on, in addition to their name they add the number of people watching at home, for example Cooke-2, Jones-5, etc. Seems to work for us. The ExSec sent out an email to all the Ward members with the request that they add this little bit of info to their sign-ins.