Melchizedek Priesthood Ordination & Certificate

[atticusewig]

I sent in an enhancement suggestion via MLS and the MLS website that the stake should get a printout every time a ward recorded a Melchizedek Priesthood ordination, similar to the way that the wards get a printout whenever membership information is updated. That way, I would know when the wards did record the ordination so I could then print the certificate.

We really need some help with this process through MLS in some way though. I have talked to HQ support and they couldn't give me any good ideas on how to best solve the problem. I've gotten more ideas reading through this forum than I have any other way. Hopefully we will get some help in MLS with this soon.

Enhanced reporting is always a nice feature for the MLS team to work on.

Until then, you can use a workaround by using "differencing" tools on the Membership
export .csv file. Here's how:

a) on a regular schedule (say once a month), you export the membership .csv and
rename it to include the date. ex. June_19-2007-Membership.csv

b) Using the previous month's membership.csv and the current month's, you use diff or compare
to list only changes to membership records, use grep to filter out all but changes in Priesthood held,
and you're almost done. New move-ins with the Melk. Priesthood might throw some extra
steps into the mix because you probably don't need them listed in your report. But I'm sure
that some of the Linux folks on this board can detail the whole process for you.

To do all this on a church machine, I would recommend the unxutils from sourceforge.net.
They are win32 ports of the GNU utilities popularized by Unix and Linux, and can be run
from a thumbdrive, so there is no need to install anything on the church computer. One
nice feature is two additional commands, pclip and gclip, that read /write the windows clipboard
to/from standard input.

- Atticus Ewig

[rknelson]

In our stake the ward clerk has the responsibility to enter ordination information and prepare the certificate immediately before or after the ordination takes place. The assigned stake representative who presided at the ordination then hand carries the certificate back to the stake and places it in the stake clerk's box. The stake clerk gets it signed by the stake president and mails the completed certificate directly to the person ordained. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well when ordinations occur just after stake priesthood meeting and the ward computer is in a different building.

However, the real answer, as suggested, is to allow the stake to enter MP ordination information in the stake MLS. This feature would greatly simplify the process.

[Daryl1]

We just had a Stake Conference in which the Stake Clerk asked me to see if it would be possible to make a change in the MLS software so that the Stake can handle the recording of the Melchizedek Priesthood Ordinations.

According to the Church Handbook 1 2006 the Stake Clerk told me the following.

After a Melchizedek Priesthood ordination, the Stake President and Stake Clerk ensure that the Melchizedek Priesthood ordination record and certificate are completed and distributed according to instructions on the form.

The current version of MLS does not allow the Stake to do this. As it is currently, this can only be done on a Ward Level.

Any one see any problems with the technology in making this change ?
Does anyone know of any work arounds?

This would be a major improvement.

Thank you.

[russellhltn]

Does anyone know of any work arounds?

At this point I believe the stake can print the certificate, but only the ward can record it. It's up to you to figure out how to accomplish what the handbooks says - be it supervising the ward or by using a stake login on the ward machine.

[thedqs]

Hmm, an interesting idea I just thought about. You have X buildings in your stake. You call X-1 stake clerks and each clerk is in a different home ward that meets in the respective buildings. (The stake building wouldn't need to be weekly staffed since stake clerks would have enough meetings to update the stake computer regularly). Then when there is an ordination in a ward that meets in that building the stake clerk enters on the ward computer and maybe is able to print out the certificate too.

Just an idea.

[kfindlay]

The way that we have worked it out in our stake is that since every MP ordination must be supervised by a member of the stake presidency or high council, the supervision of these ordinances is assigned in Stake PEC, the ordinances are performed usually on Sunday, and the HC does not leave the building until he has the clerk record the ordinance and print out the certificate to take back to the stake for signature. It seems that in the past few years that this system has been in place we have had no problems getting MP ordinations recorded promptly. When an MP ordination is completed, the recording of the same in the MLS takes high priority.

[jpapke-p40]

We also experience the same issues due to the multiple hands that the process takes the paperwork. Our biggest problem is with the timing of our Stake Conference just before school is out. Very often the young men who are ordained are on their way out of town to school or elsewhere and by the time the signed certificate and yellow copy make it to the ward the member's records have been moved to their new ward. Then the fun really begins! Having MLS support the stake clerk in entering the ordinace data would indeed be a blessing! Not just to the clerks but also the member and their parents.

[azpcox-p40]

Since today the Wards have to update the record, why not have MLS auto-generate the message to the correct ward when the ordination happens? The ordination would occur, the certificate would be printed and given to them right then, the ward would get an MLS message alerting them to update the record with the MP ordination.

[SmithGW]

It is the responsibilty of the stake to see the ordination is accomplished. It is the responsibility of the stake to produce the certificate (although the ward may do this if directed). It is not the responsibility of the stake to record the ordination on the member record. Church policy as of today is that the member record is changed on the ward level.

This is the reason that the "ball is dropped" so many times in this area: the division of responsibility. When I was a ward clerk, this was the most common error we had on membership records: Men in their twenties who had their endowments, had gone on a mission, had been married in the temple, but were still listed as a priest on their records.

This just means that ward clerks have to be proactive with the stake in obtaining the paperwork if the stake is not getting it to them.

[russellhltn]

Church policy as of today is that the member record is changed on the ward level.

Please note that "church policy as of today" is different for temple ordnances.

Now, I guess the real question is, is the current situation on recoding Melchizedek Priesthood actually "policy" or just "procedure"? I'm of the impression it is procedural based on the technology of the time the procedure was born.