New System for Temple Recommends?

[sbradshaw]

This is is what we are doing:

- Ward interviews member and activates their portion of the digital signature
-Stake reviews the Recommend Activation List in LCR and secretary schedules interview at a specific time
-Member is interviewed by a counselor of the stake presidency
-Stake secretary activates, prints & cuts out recommend while member is being interviewed
-Stake secretary hands out recommend to member if interview is good and has member sign recommend (counselor signals secretary that all is good).

Our Stake President only interviews living ordinances which means no digital signatures for him. That means I only have to manage 2 counselors doing digital signatures. We don't have weekly open hours which cuts down on waiting time to a few minutes; everyone is scheduled to a specific time. The stake can only reprint the same day. I am not sure if the ward can reprint later after stake activation.

The ward can reprint the recommend at any time after it's been activated, as far as I can tell.

That's interesting that you activate the recommend before the person finishes their interview. If the person doesn't qualify for a temple recommend, do you then deactivate it after the interview? It seems like that could mess with reports, and it could cause issues if the secretary gets distracted and forgets to deactivate it.

[barkeraj]

How do the digital signatures work? We changed one of our units to digital to see how things would go but our presidents don’t see a place to upload a signature or anything. What are we missing?

[davesudweeks]

How do the digital signatures work? We changed one of our units to digital to see how things would go but our presidents don’t see a place to upload a signature or anything. What are we missing?

I don't have any special knowledge and am no longer in a position to see this in the system, but in my work we have systems that use a digital signature. You don't upload a copy of your handwritten signature, you digitally "sign" the record by approving with your password-protected access and that is the "digital signature" our system uses.

[swigginton]

How do the digital signatures work? We changed one of our units to digital to see how things would go but our presidents don’t see a place to upload a signature or anything. What are we missing?

It's not really a digital signature. It's more of a digital authorization. When a bishopric or stake presidency member completes their interview, they enter the information in LCR and indicate who did the interview by choosing the name from a drop-down list. When the recommend is printed, the names of the bishopric/stake presidency interviewers are printed in the signature areas. When using the digital option, the only signature on the recommend is the member's.

[silus99]

I have a question regarding the language in the December 22nd transmittal:

It states a member of the stake presidency or bishopric needs to deliver and witness the signature. The stake clerks are given authority to activate (on behalf of a presidency member), print or cancel a recommend. Does this language mean they cannot deliver it and witness the signature?

It would be helpful if clerks could not just print, but also deliver the recommend.

Thanks!

[barkeraj]

I have a question regarding the language in the December 22nd transmittal:

It states a member of the stake presidency or bishopric needs to deliver and witness the signature. The stake clerks are given authority to activate (on behalf of a presidency member), print or cancel a recommend. Does this language mean they cannot deliver it and witness the signature?

It would be helpful if clerks could not just print, but also deliver the recommend.

Thanks!

That could depend on your (or your stake president’s) interpretation of “stake presidency” or “bishopric”. Sometimes the terms include clerks/secretaries, and sometimes it doesn’t. In Member Tools if you click stake presidency it includes clerks/secretaries

[russellhltn]

Reading General Handbook 6.2, I'm seeing a very different interpretation.

[supermanforever]

The wording on the print out is as follows: "The stake/mission leader will: Deliver the recommend to the member and ensure that the member signs the recommend." It does not mention stake presidency. Yes, the clerks can deliver the recommend after the interview.

[BrianEdwards]

It seems we currently have three areas of official guidance:
1) GHB 26.3, which is silent on the procedure for witnessing a member's signature on the recommend
2) 12/22/21 Official Communication: Refers to Stake Presidency or Bishopric witness
3) Print Out: Stake/Mission leader witnesses signature (doesn't mention Bishopric or Stake Presidency directly)

I agree with russelhltn, both GHB 6.2 (Stake Presidency definition) and GHB 7.1 (Bishopric definition) do not include clerks. GHB 33.3.2 separates a Stake Clerk from the Stake Presidency (but he is a member of the Stake Council). And GHB 7.4 states ward clerks are not members of Bishoprics.

So my thought is that the 12/22 communication is more specific than the language on the printout, and thus clerks should not be witnessing the signatures.

[barkeraj]

We switched our stake over to all digital last sunday so today we are getting lots coming in with them. But the temple recommend pages have been up and down and throwing errors all day. Anyone else? This is kind of a nightmare for us.