Quarterly Reports and Weekly Attendance

[kadenwillie]

I am aware that the handbook now says we should be keeping sacrament attendance weekly as well as class/quorum attendance weekly. However, it appears that the Quarterly Report is still only using attendance numbers from the last month of each quarter, as was done previously. Can anyone find any update which states the Quarterly Report is using an average of all 12 weeks rather than just the last month?

[garystroble]

I am aware that the handbook now says we should be keeping sacrament attendance weekly as well as class/quorum attendance weekly. However, it appears that the Quarterly Report is still only using attendance numbers from the last month of each quarter, as was done previously. Can anyone find any update which states the Quarterly Report is using an average of all 12 weeks rather than just the last month?

Cannot quote any update or bulletin but every week with attendance in sacrament meeting and second hour counts. That is the way the quarterly report is calculating things now and has been for quite a while.

[kadenwillie]

This link that explains the quarterly report, which says was updated October 2022 still states the following:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/too ... t?lang=eng

“By the 10th of the month following the end of each quarter, quorum and auxiliary leaders or secretaries give attendance information for the previous month to the clerk so he can include it in the report.”

At the bottom of the page also has this link (https://assets.ldscdn.org/ef/fa/effa91a ... ptions.pdf ) which explains each line in quarterly report. Attendance for sacrament and each organization on this document also says it only uses attendance from the last month of the quarter.

I am not able to find any other information stating that the quarterly report uses attendance numbers from the whole quarter.

[garystroble]

That link is obviously outdated. Suggest you report it as such when on the link as feedback.

[kadenwillie]

How can it be outdated if it states it was just updated 3 months ago? If the changes to attendance and quarterly report were awhile ago before that you would think the update in October would reflect that.

[garystroble]

How can it be outdated if it states it was just updated 3 months ago? If the changes to attendance and quarterly report were awhile ago before that you would think the update in October would reflect that.

There are plenty of dated links out there by the Church which have outdated information. Things have been changing rapidly and not always are links updated timely or even correctly.

Since you may be new doing the quarterly report I suggest you look at the actual report itself in LCR under reports>quarterly report. Clicking on the blue line after the number of each line will give you the correct criteria for the report in each category. The blue line for average sacrament meeting attendance says "Record sacrament meeting attendance each week it is held using LCR or Member Tools." There is similar verbiage for the organizations and quorums.

Sacrament meeting attendance is to be reported each Sunday it is held in LCR or member tools under reports>sacrament meeting attendance, likewise 2nd hour attendance is also to be reported each week under reports>class and quorum attendance by the various organizations and quorums. If they fail to do so for a week the ward clerk is the back up person. Then the quarterly report populates itself in most areas other than recent converts. If you have further questions suggest you check with your stake clerk soon as the deadline is January 15th for submitting the quarterly report.

By the way, the same link you quote also says this further down the page under Sacrament meeting attendance:
"To record sacrament meeting attendance, use the “Sacrament Meeting Attendance” screen in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR) or Member Tools. The Quarterly Report will automatically be updated with the information entered using the sacrament meeting attendance tool. Count all persons attending sacrament meeting, including members, nonmembers, and visitors. Do not count any ward members not in attendance, such as members serving missions, away performing other Church assignments, or attending other wards." This is the correct information.

Below that paragraph it talks about Quorum, Class and Primary attendance. The talk about persons serving out of the ward or on full-time missions is not correct any longer. So yes, things change. Since you did not respond to my suggestion about reporting the erroneous information on the page, I will do so, but don't expect it to be fixed quickly. Unfortunately that is the reality of the internet and the priorities the programmers have to deal with.

[kadenwillie]

Thanks. I am aware changes happen. The reason the question came up is because the verbiage on the quarterly report for class and quorum attendance is not the same as for sacrament. It does not specify weekly which I why I wanted it clarified, especially since the only other information I could find online about the quarterly report still states it uses only the last month of the quarter. Hopefully your feedback will help them clarify the situation for those of us who are new to this.

[russellhltn]

Sacrament meeting attendance is to be reported each Sunday it is held in LCR or member tools under reports>sacrament meeting attendance, likewise 2nd hour attendance is also to be reported each week under reports>class and quorum attendance by the various organizations and quorums. If they fail to do so for a week the ward clerk is the back up person. Then the quarterly report populates itself in most areas other than recent converts. If you have further questions suggest you check with your stake clerk soon as the deadline is January 15th for submitting the quarterly report.

While attendance is recorded weekly, what numbers are actually being used for the quarterly report?

[garystroble]

The quarterly report takes an average of the numbers recorded during the quarter for sacrament meeting. Then for 2nd hour it picks up on anyone attending 2nd hour classes for the quarter and still in the ward as of the last Sunday of the quarter and uses that vs. the gross number of possible members as of the end of the quarter to come up with the number attending by category. If someone moves out prior to the last Sunday their statistics transfer to their new ward. Should it be a move in, then their statistics move into the ward as of that last Sunday, as long as the membership is brought in promptly. If either wards fail to record the member's 2nd hour attendance, then it will not only appear that the member has not been attending 2nd hour, but the statistics will be skewed as well.

As long as attendance is properly recorded for 2nd hour on those Sunday's where 2nd hour classes are held, the quarterly report will calculate the numbers correctly. Visitors are counted by total number in category each Sunday in the visitor section of the 2nd hour attendance. They do not change the statistics (there was an error in the software for a few quarters where 2nd hour visitors were changing statistics, sometimes to over 100%, but that appears to have been corrected now. It was raising the budget allowance some also for YM, YW and Primary, but that gift appears gone.)

Regrettably one has to almost reverse engineer how the quarterly report is being calculated to determine the above for 2nd hour. I agree that clear and concise communications and explanations have not been forthcoming.

[russellhltn]

Regrettably one has to almost reverse engineer how the quarterly report is being calculated to determine the above for 2nd hour. I agree that clear and concise communications and explanations have not been forthcoming.

Agreed. I was checking to see if you'd done the reverse engineering to determine if the whole quarter was counted or just the last month. In the absence of clear instructions, that's what it comes down to.