Stake High Councilor LDS Tools Access

[gustavo.mtzgtz]

Hello, I'm a member of the Stake High Council, and I was assigned to a ward. When I was training the ward clerk, it was so difficult because I can't see any of the access he has. There is any way we can have access to the same tools? (Eg. Action and interview list, quarterly report)

[russellhltn]

According to Handbook 1: 13.4.2, the ward clerk is trained by the bishopric and stake clerks.

The access by the HC is limited because they don't have responsibilities for individual members.

In training the clerk, it would probably be best to sit down with him and ask/train him how to pull those reports under his login using the ward computer.

[skiddlyarcus]

The question about high councilor access has been a recurring question in stake meetings.

I noticed in the most recent handbook a change that appears to be reflected in the handbook but has not yet made it to permissions in LCR or Tools apps.
HB 29.3.8 bullet #2 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... e_number22) states clearly that LCR reports are available to the leaders and the fact that it is called out specifically in the stake council meeting section would indicate that reports such as member progress and should be made available to high councilors.

Is there any discussion within technical teams on updates to LCR and apps to bring permissions into alignment with the current handbook?
Along the same path, the stake clerk has responsibility to train ward clerks, but many basic functions such as attendance forms are not available to the stake clerk. The lack of access makes training very difficult - we end needing to have ward clerks train each other in many functions. This is especially difficult when non-technical ward clerks need assistance from the stake clerk.

[davesudweeks]

Is there any discussion within technical teams on updates to LCR and apps to bring permissions into alignment with the current handbook?

The answer to this question will likely never be given to this user-to-user mutual help forum (my opinion only). The programmers operate per the direction of the church councils. It is possible the change to match the handbook is in the works and not complete yet (I believe the number of developers is quite small) - they pretty much never provide timelines of changes in progress. It is also possible there is a difference in interpretation of the wording of the handbook. Just because the high council uses a specific report that the individual high councilors don't have direct access to doesn't mean the stake clerk cannot provide the report to them.

The official direct way to get your question or suggestion before those who direct the developer's priorities is to use the feedback link at the bottom of most church web pages. Your stake president can also raise the access question as a concern in his coordinating council.

[skiddlyarcus]

Thanks @davesudweeks - The coordinating council feedback is already in progress. This question came up during our High Council Meeting and the Stake Adult Leadership committee meeting this morning. So the feedback in the forum is an afterthought - I posted the feedback after seeing that other stakes are having similar questions.
I necro-posted on this thread to see if additional stakes would post feedback that would provide additional support of this direction to pass along in the next coordinating council meeting.

So if any of you serve on the high council or in stake adult leadership meetings, I'm interested in feedback about increasing the data access permissions in LCR and tools and if that data would help you minister in your callings. I'll bet that the necessary data is currently being provided out-of-band via online file sharing sites and other less-secure methods rather than directly to the people who need access to the data.

[drepouille]

Are high councilors considered to be leaders?
Are stake clerks involved with recording attendance?

[russellhltn]

I necro-posted on this thread to see if additional stakes would post feedback that would provide additional support of this direction to pass along in the next coordinating council meeting.

Please keep in mind that the church is not a democracy. Encouraging additional feedback will have limited to no value.

[russellhltn]

Are high councilors considered to be leaders?

The very next section (29.3.9) "Stake Adult Leadership Committee Meeting" does not include the high council.

I'm noticing a significant difference between the Ward Council and Stake Council.
For ward council (7.4), it says "All members of the ward council have a general responsibility for the well-being of ward members. These ward officers also have a specific responsibility to watch over and strengthen each member in their organization." There is no such language for the high council (5.5)

For the stake council, it only says "The stake presidency plans and conducts high council meetings. These meetings may include", council members may" ... "Counsel together". I'm not seeing any assignment of individual responsibility. Also "The high council does not meet as a group unless a member of the stake presidency is there to preside." (5.5)

So, I'm seeing room for an alternative interpretation where the high council may discuss those reports in their meetings, but not necessarily have personal access to them. We'll have to wait and see.

I suspect the recent edit of the manual dropped a number of changes on the developers and it will take time to go though them.

[lajackson]

Is there any discussion within technical teams on updates to LCR and apps to bring permissions into alignment with the current handbook?

This will almost always happen automatically. That said, I know of only one case where the development team knew about a change before it was published to the world. And in that case, I think they only got a two-day head start and had to work through General Conference weekend (and for several weeks afterward) to get the changes implemented.

[russellhltn]

Someone else reports the access table indicates that they should have access. That would certainly change my analysis above.