Problem with newly baptized convert records when ordinance performed by out-of-unit

[jgoggan]

We're seeing this problem repeatedly lately and I wanted to see if others were too. When a new convert is baptized, the missionaries submit the record to be added -- and then it comes to the unit as a Pending New Record to be reviewed and created. The missionaries can pre-fill most of the information and then the clerk can confirm it with the new member.

Our problem is that if either ordinance is performed by someone from outside of our unit, then the data submitted by the missionaries is lost. Here, we only have Sister Missionaries and they sometimes have an Elder Missionary come in to perform the baptism. So this happens quite a bit.

When going through the process to create the record, it asks "Who performed the baptism/confirmation?". If the choice "A member of this ward or branch" was selected by the missionaries when they submitted it, then it shows up pre-selected that way as expected with the name filled in. All works great and we can save that section just fine. But if it was performed by someone outside of our unit, even though the missionaries filled it all in properly, when it gets to us, the "Who performed the confirmation?" button is not selected at all -- you HAVE to pick one manually. Just below that, it shows the NAME of the person who performed the ordinance -- the out of unit person. So, it is like it knows it is an out of unit person, but doesn't think anyone picked a choice to indicate that (even though it has the manually entered name already). As soon as we select "A member from a different ward or branch" as should be selected (and WAS selected by the missionaries that submitted it), it CLEARS out the name that was visible (which is now gone forever -- even if you leave the section without saving and try to come back) and wants us to enter the full name or MRN and do a lookup -- which means that we need that persons DOB or MRN. Which becomes a bit of a hassle having to go back to the Sister Missionaries and ask them to track down the DOB or MRN of the Elder Missionary who came in that day to do the baptism.

Anyone else seeing this or have a workaround that maybe I'm just overlooking? Again, the missionaries are submitting everything properly -- it just gets lost in the review process.

If not, I'll file a bug report. I just thought that I'd check here first to see if it was widespread or localized.

[garystroble]

I would report that right away, although there is more than one problem with the software for handling convert baptisms. In addition, often the GSD cannot help us with these problems, saying it is a missionary department problem and the missionaries need to report it to that department. Silos exist on more than just farms and missile bases.

[jgoggan]

I thought the same and ended up reporting it right after posting about it here. I'll post when I hear anything back.

The "funny" thing is that the Missionary side works fine. They filled it all in properly and it was there. It is just when we go to actually review it and add the record here that it seems to get confused.

[garystroble]

I thought the same and ended up reporting it right after posting about it here. I'll post when I hear anything back.

The "funny" thing is that the Missionary side works fine. They filled it all in properly and it was there. It is just when we go to actually review it and add the record here that it seems to get confused.

It's an interface problem between the missionary department and the membership department as far as I can determine from here.