Finding Lost Members Report:

[tonynocchi]

Other than the bishopric, ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, assistant ward clerk - membership, EQ President, and RS President, who can see the Finding Lost Members report. It is not listed in the "Reports" section of the "Feature Access by Calling".

[jdlessley]

I am not certain, but since it is a ward council responsibility, led by the EQ and RS presidents, then I would expect organization presidents and the ward mission leader would also have access.

[tonynocchi]

I am not certain, but since it is a ward council responsibility, led by the EQ and RS presidents, then I would expect organization presidents and the ward mission leader would also have access.

That's a safe assumption, but those are all very busy people. I'd like to recommend we call someone in our ward to a position that can focus on going through the FLM list and do the steps necessary to resolve those members. We've got 26 people on our FLM list right now and I'm about to add about 30 more. I know this is led the RS/EQ presidencies but my wife is the RS president and in our ward that's a full-time job for her and her counselors and they haven't even really dug into the FLM list.

[davesudweeks]

I'd like to recommend we call someone in our ward to a position that can focus on going through the FLM list and do the steps necessary to resolve those members.

In my prior experience a few years ago, we were able to do most of the steps using Ministering brothers and sisters and our full time missionaries (with the Mission President's permission). The steps are not onerous, in my opinion.

If you call someone for this, you will likely have to create a custom calling that won't have access to the list so someone will have to take responsibility to provide the information to that individual. If you do create a custom calling, you should follow church policies regarding limiting access to personal private information when providing details to this person. Following church policy could hamper their efforts in that calling and require more intervention by those you are trying to offload the work from anyway. It may not be worth the effort to try to have another person called to do the work the Ward Council is responsible for.

But this is just my opinion.

[jdlessley]

While the responsibility lies with the RS and EQ presidencies they do not have to personally do the outreach. Since finding lost members is part of the ministering effort, then one time assignments to do the outreach for a specific member/household can be made. The steps to perform can be given along with the member/household name, last known address, and contact information at the time the assignment is given. There will be times when the privacy settings would prevent anyone except ward leaders to do the outreach.

[tonynocchi]

I'd like to recommend we call someone in our ward to a position that can focus on going through the FLM list and do the steps necessary to resolve those members.

In my prior experience a few years ago, we were able to do most of the steps using Ministering brothers and sisters and our full time missionaries (with the Mission President's permission). The steps are not onerous, in my opinion.

If you call someone for this, you will likely have to create a custom calling that won't have access to the list so someone will have to take responsibility to provide the information to that individual. If you do create a custom calling, you should follow church policies regarding limiting access to personal private information when providing details to this person. Following church policy could hamper their efforts in that calling and require more intervention by those you are trying to offload the work from anyway. It may not be worth the effort to try to have another person called to do the work the Ward Council is responsible for.

But this is just my opinion.

We are using the full-time missionaries to find people that need to be put on the FLM list. We've been at this for a few months and while I agree that we should be able to do this with the ministering brothers and sisters the fact is, it's not happening unless I (the ward clerk), the RS presidency or the EQ presidency do it ourselves and we have a lot of other things going on too. I'm not looking to create a custom calling because I know they will not have access to it. I'm trying to work within the already established callings to see where we could flex someone who might have more time and drive to get this done.

[tonynocchi]

While the responsibility lies with the RS and EQ presidencies they do not have to personally do the outreach. Since finding lost members is part of the ministering effort, then one time assignments to do the outreach for a specific member/household can be made. The steps to perform can be given along with the member/household name, last known address, and contact information at the time the assignment is given. There will be times when the privacy settings would prevent anyone except ward leaders to do the outreach.

The EQ/RS presidencies don't have to personally do the outreach but if they are some of the only members who can see the FLM list, then they are the ones that are going to have do most if not all of the coordinating and be heavily involved in the process when they are already stretched thin with more immediate matters. There's a reason our FLM list now has 54 names on it and is turning into a monster and it's not because our ward council isn't spending a lot of time doing church work, it's because they have jobs/families, spend a lot of time addressing immediate needs, and this is something that just constantly gets put on the backburner.

[BrianEdwards]

The EQ/RS presidencies don't have to personally do the outreach but if they are some of the only members who can see the FLM list, then they are the ones that are going to have do most if not all of the coordinating and be heavily involved in the process when they are already stretched thin with more immediate matters. There's a reason our FLM list now has 54 names on it and is turning into a monster and it's not because our ward council isn't spending a lot of time doing church work, it's because they have jobs/families, spend a lot of time addressing immediate needs, and this is something that just constantly gets put on the backburner.

I'm appreciative of the desire to make an effort to resolve those members whose records are "lost". Each Bishop will have different priorities, but I personally don't see having a large FLM list as a "problem". Yes, every name represents somebody who made a baptismal covenant, and deserves to be remembered and ministered to. But every unit has limited resources (except my YSA student ward where they invented callings, but that's another story ), and we all need to prayerfully select priorities.

If the FLM list is determined to be a priority, then I'd think the leaders should feel comfortable with leaving some of the other (equally important) items as a secondary importance. If the other more immediate matters are determined to be more important, then I'd personally want to have any members who get custom callings, to be assigned to support those immediate matters, since the current leaders are stretched thin.

Again, every Bishop has unique inspiration for what's needed, so if there's a desire to do work with FLM list while also addressing the other matters, then you'll just have to do the best with how the Church has structured access to member info. And you can always submit Feedback using the link at the bottom of most church webpages, which will be processed by the Church's support team for consideration.

[tonynocchi]

The EQ/RS presidencies don't have to personally do the outreach but if they are some of the only members who can see the FLM list, then they are the ones that are going to have do most if not all of the coordinating and be heavily involved in the process when they are already stretched thin with more immediate matters. There's a reason our FLM list now has 54 names on it and is turning into a monster and it's not because our ward council isn't spending a lot of time doing church work, it's because they have jobs/families, spend a lot of time addressing immediate needs, and this is something that just constantly gets put on the backburner.

I'm appreciative of the desire to make an effort to resolve those members whose records are "lost". Each Bishop will have different priorities, but I personally don't see having a large FLM list as a "problem". Yes, every name represents somebody who made a baptismal covenant, and deserves to be remembered and ministered to. But every unit has limited resources (except my YSA student ward where they invented callings, but that's another story ), and we all need to prayerfully select priorities.

If the FLM list is determined to be a priority, then I'd think the leaders should feel comfortable with leaving some of the other (equally important) items as a secondary importance. If the other more immediate matters are determined to be more important, then I'd personally want to have any members who get custom callings, to be assigned to support those immediate matters, since the current leaders are stretched thin.

Again, every Bishop has unique inspiration for what's needed, so if there's a desire to do work with FLM list while also addressing the other matters, then you'll just have to do the best with how the Church has structured access to member info. And you can always submit Feedback using the link at the bottom of most church webpages, which will be processed by the Church's support team for consideration.

I agree, and it's not anywhere near a top priority but it gets brought up from the stake level at least every few months. I also think it could be low-hanging fruit that we could call someone to do if we know what position to call them to. We talked about it in ward council and I'm going to use a guinea pig to test if certain positions (e.g. Assistant Ward Mission Leader) can see the report.

[jirp]

Now as to why you don't want huge names lists in finding lost members. Once the list gets big enough people will simply quit looking at it in frustration. That is human nature. It is one thing when it is a dozen names but if it got up to say 500 names who is going to look at it seriously? It is simply over whelming. Our current list is about 50 and probably should be 150 to 200 if those requesting no contact and those who we haven't given up on yet were added.

I would like to see another data field added to it when they move.(already suggested multiple times online but adding it to this discussion) That field would provide someplace to extra store information about that member. For example Facebook or linkin profiles. Last known community from a semi solid source would be another. Things that would aid anyone in finding them at some future date.

So what is everyone doing that is working? Thru the ward council monthly like recommended is nearly worthless. The women will get some done but priesthood is mostly waste space on this issue. So what has helped.
1. Yearly or every couple of years a full ward council(not just presidents but councilors and secretaries) plus a few added people who just seem to know people run at the entire ward list. Usually takes about 2 to 3 hours.

2. Missionaries get a few but also mostly ineffective.

3. every 4 or 5 years pay for the subscription to the commercial people search software out of ward budget.

4. Facebook stalking. Look for who are their friends in the ward and use those people. Still leaves me with a bunch I can't reach. One younger lady I know she married this fall, what town she lives in but she wants no contact with the church and when friends ask she simply doesn't share her address.