New System for Temple Recommends?

[lajackson]

This will be an interesting change. In an earlier life in a stake calling, I did over 300 temple recommend interviews a year. I never did one near a computer or a printer. I either took the yellow copy home to activate the recommend that evening, or I gave the copy to the stake clerk if I saw him and knew he would get to the stake offices to activate the recommend before the member planned to go to the temple. (I think most of the time he took them home and activated them just as I did.)

Exciting times.

[russellhltn]

Seems like either way, the members shouldn't expect to get their recommend on-the-spot like they used to. It's going to be a major hassle to print at the end of each interview. But doing it en mass means that you'll need to somehow get the paper in the member's hands later. That's probably easiest for the ward since they should be seeing the member the following week.

[jonalbright]

Would it be possible to just email the member the PDF copy with the digital signature?

That way the member could print and sign it on their own. Works especially well for virtual interviews.

May also be convenient if the member is traveling and forgot the recommend at home. Would be able to print it at hotel or residence where they are staying.

[danielward76]

As a presidency we discussed the option of PDF copies as well. We will be testing it out to see how it works. A printed recommend can be easily copied, so what is the harm in letting a member print the recommend if they prefer that option. Otherwise we will be having the Wards print the final recommend to distribute.

[russellhltn]

A printed recommend can be easily copied, so what is the harm in letting a member print the recommend if they prefer that option.

The security of a printed recommend depends on someone being able to get ahold of it, get to a copy machine, and return it before it's missed. (And many copy machine tends to mess up the barcode. It looks fine, but can be tricky to read.)

The security of a PDF depends on the security of the email box as well as the file system on the computer they're using.

Any mention of security needs to ask "secure from whom?". Both have exposure to a roommate or family member, but the latter tends to offer more opportunity to more people. Especially on shared computers.

[klarkwalker]

We received the notifications that our stake would be participating in this new process, but after reading the instructions on where the "Unit Recommend Printing Preferences page" link is suppose to be (LCR --> Membership --> Temple Recommends section), we find the link to be nonexistent for both myself (stake clerk) and the stake presidency. The instructions do state that "Note: This option is only available to stake and mission presidencies" of which, as mentioned in an earlier post, I am technically not a member of. However, the official communication has "Before December 13, 2021, the stake or mission president directs the clerk to go to the Unit Recommend Printing Preferences page..." Assuming "the clerk" is the stake clerk, I supposedly should have access to that page.

Is anyone else seeing this same issue? Are we just not looking in the right place? If we're not to be involved in the initial December 13th changeover, then I'm not understanding why we would have received the notifications.

[barkeraj]

The security of a printed recommend depends on someone being able to get ahold of it, get to a copy machine, and return it before it's missed. (And many copy machine tends to mess up the barcode. It looks fine, but can be tricky to read.)

Isn't this really just get a hold of it, take a picture with the 12+ megapixel camera in their pocket, and print it later at their convenience? I would still tend to think getting onto a computer (even shared) getting into email, searching, finding, printing (maybe forwarding to self? but then covering tracks) would be more time consuming than taking a pic of a paper one.

So the letter said the 13th which is a Monday, and I'm not seeing any updates yet for this Sunday... do we presume it actually gets turned on on Monday and we have that week to figure it out before the "rush" on Sunday?

[klarkwalker]

So the letter said the 13th which is a Monday, and I'm not seeing any updates yet for this Sunday... do we presume it actually gets turned on on Monday and we have that week to figure it out before the "rush" on Sunday?

Maybe they intended the "Before December 13, 2021..." date to be on the 12th? That wouldn't necessarily surprise me.

[harperrg]

Is anyone else seeing this same issue? Are we just not looking in the right place? If we're not to be involved in the initial December 13th changeover, then I'm not understanding why we would have received the notifications.

Same here. We got all the same communication and can't find where we would enable it.

[klarkwalker]

Same here. We got all the same communication and can't find where we would enable it.

Just heard from the Global Service Department:
"Although the letter you received does say that this preference must be set before Dec 13th, the system has not been enabled yet. This ability should be enabled no later than Dec 13th."