What is the official church policy on determining when a record should be moved out?

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ohiomatt-p40
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What is the official church policy on determining when a record should be moved out?

#1

Post by ohiomatt-p40 »

What is the official church policy on determining when a record should be moved out?

Often, a less active will appear to have moved out of ward boundaries and no one knows that they have moved, until later, after letters have been sent and bounced back, the door has been knocked on multiple times at different times and day of the week, or neighbors have confirmed they've moved. I'm a firm believe in not sending a members' record out until due dilligence has been done, but would like to see the official direction from the church.

Thanks.
russellhltn
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#2

Post by russellhltn »

I assume you mean the policy for moving to Address Unknown. Because if you have a forwarding address, there's really no question. (However, if they will be returning in 3 months or less, you should not move them.)

A check of the MLS help file:
(Membership Records > Moves > Move Individual Record Out > Move Individual Out Address)
Policy concerning address unknown:

Priesthood leaders and clerks should work together to reduce the number of membership records sent to the administration office without forwarding addresses. The local leaders and clerks should:

- Contact the family presently living at the member family's last known address.
- Contact neighbors and ward members who know the member family.
- Call the phone number the member family had while living in the ward.
- Contact known relatives in the area.
Furthermore, when you attempt to move them, you'll be presented with the following questions:
Has the bishop or branch president approved moving this household's record without an address?

Date bishop or branch president approved moving this record(s)
Someone with access to the CHI may have more information.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
jdlessley
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#3

Post by jdlessley »

RussellHltn wrote:Someone with access to the CHI may have more information.
The information in the CHI, Book 1, is on page 146. There is actually more information in MLS Help than in the CHI. I would follow that for more detailed procedural help.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
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mkmurray
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#4

Post by mkmurray »

Agreed, we definitely don't want to shirk our personal responsibilities and send every move out to Address Unknown without any effort on our part.

The following suggestion is a personal thought and you should really decide for yourself (or even consult with your local leadership) what the best methods are to fulfill your duties. I have been told they have quite the army of Church employees, service missionaries, and volunteers manning the work of finding those who have landed in Address Unknown. In many cases, the Church will have more resources and data available to them for finding these "lost sheep" than you, including contact information of various family members and so forth.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am still advocating diligent effort on the part of the clerk to exhaust as many of the best leads as he can gather before resorting to sending the records off to Address Unknown. However, and I have had this happen to me personally, you don't want to make the mistake of holding on to the records for a long period of time with weak leads and no progress being made, when you could have Church HQ working on the case with better contacts and more man-hours to devote to find those that are not currently being ministered to.

Again, just some personal thoughts on the subject. Just don't be overly afraid to utilize a service that may be able to find these moved out members in ways that one clerk may not be able to perform.
ohiomatt-p40
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Address Unknown - When to send out

#5

Post by ohiomatt-p40 »

I agree that when all resources have been exhausted, records should be moved, but don't think we should be too quick to send records out. I have been an EQ President before and experienced several instances where HT'ers wanted to give up and send a record out, but we persisted to have them continue searching.

I have seen people ultimately find their HT'ees on the internet, or by knocking on multiple neighbors doors when the address wasn't terribly clear. These experiences were growing experiences for the HT'er and the HT'ee. Many with address unkown are from less active family members that will be of little help or won't even have contact info either, if SLC were to be the ones in charge to place phone calls.

So, I agree unknown addresses should be moved out but only after neighbors, doors, letters and emails have been sent by the HT'er or missionaries. It should not only be the clerks job to search for unkown addresses (HT'er and local missionaries can help) and the SLC missionaries should not be inundated with more names than they could handle. If they wanted more names, I'm sure SLC would encourage sending names more promptly, without the Bishop approving.
ohiomatt-p40
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Church Administration Office - Address Unknown

#6

Post by ohiomatt-p40 »

Can you share more about what the Church Administration does when it gets an address unkown? I know they place a phone call to family members, but am curious what else is done.

Thanks.
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mkmurray
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#7

Post by mkmurray »

ohiomatt wrote:Can you share more about what the Church Administration does when it gets an address unkown? I know they place a phone call to family members, but am curious what else is done.

Thanks.
I don't really know much of the details in this regard, but perhaps a Church employee or someone else more knowledgeable could provide some answers.

I do know that over the course of the last year or two, our ward has gotten a few requests from Church Headquarters to help find some individuals in Address Unknown by talking with family members currently residing within our ward. So it does appear they do get other clerks around the world involved in the hunt as well.
kisaac
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transfer after "due diligence."

#8

Post by kisaac »

ohiomatt wrote:Can you share more about what the Church Administration does when it gets an address unkown? I know they place a phone call to family members, but am curious what else is done.

Thanks.
I volunteered for a short time in the "lost members" division many years ago. While I'm sure I just received a snapshot of what happens, I called family members, past ward leaders, and did some old-fashioned detective work using phone books of the area, or directory assistance, and even cold-called people with the same surname in their home town.

It was heartbreaking at times to talk to a distraught mom who wanted somebody, somewhere in the church to care enough to track down an inactive son or daughter and alert a bishop of their location. It really gave me a perspective about what I should do now, as a ward clerk, when I don't have an address.

If one phone call I made back then in "lost members" tracked down the member, the old ward probably didn't make much of an effort to find the person. Now I try to do better-make the phone calls to family, talk to ward auxiliary leaders (not just the bishopric,) do my best, seek inspiration, and all before I move that membership. After all, their salvation may be at stake!

If they are not in your unit, your ability to shepherd them is minimal, and I echo mkmurray, quoted below. If you aren't shepherding them, somebody else should be, and a record transfer may help.
mkmurray wrote:you don't want to make the mistake of holding on to the records for a long period of time with weak leads and no progress being made, when you could have Church HQ working on the case with better contacts and more man-hours to devote to find those that are not currently being ministered to.
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