Statistical Reporting
From LDSClerks
| This page may need to be merged to meet the LDSClerks guidelines. This section may need to be merged with Statistical Records. |
Accurate statistical reports (called member participation reports in the Church Handbook of Instructions) are important to help guide priesthood leaders at the ward or branch, stake, and regional levels to highlight areas of concern, to identify things that are working well, and to prepare organizational, budget, missionary, welfare, and building plans based on trends in Church membership and activity. In particular, branch, ward, and stake budgets are directly determined by the numbers in the Quarterly Reports for sacrament attendance and youth, young single adult, and primary activity. Attendance levels and the faithfulness of members, particularly priesthood holders, as recorded in these and related reports determine the need for building expansion and formation of new wards and branches.
The ward clerk is responsible for statistical reporting, although many of these responsibilities may be delegated to an assistant clerk.
[edit] Responsibilities
| This page may need to be merged to meet the LDSClerks guidelines. This section may need to be merged with Statistical Clerk. |
- Count the attendance at each sacrament meeting
- Record the attendance count
- Compute the average attendance for each month
- Provide this information to the bishop
- Enter this information (for the last month of the quarter) on the Quarterly Report in MLS.
- Review the temple recommend book monthly.
- Ensure all recommend expiration dates are recorded in MLS. (This information is created automatically at the stake level when temple recommends with bar codes are scanned.)
- Verify that living ordinances have been recorded by the temple. If this has not happened within a month or so, check with the bishop.
- (Note: this process is in transition as new bar coded temple recommends are distributed Church wide.)
- Assist in gathering statistics, as needed
- Attendance and rolls (sacrament meeting, organization meetings, etc.)
- Home teaching
- Visiting teaching
- Quarterly Report
- New Member Report (aka Convert Retention report)
- Provide training in record-keeping requirements and methods to all organizations.
- Normally, you will train the organization secretaries. This should be coordinated with the bishop.
- Training should be done in a timely fashion. Training should be completed no later than 30 days after the person is called.
- At the bishop's direction, you can also be asked to train other organization leaders.
- During training, help people understand how the information they record will be used, and how stewardship holders and the people they serve will be hurt by late or inaccurate reporting.
- Prepare the Quarterly Membership Report in a timely fashion.
- Remember that this report will automatically be sent to CHQ by MLS whether you have completed entering the information or not.
- The statistics used on the Quarterly Membership Report should come from the last month of the quarter, not from the entire quarter.
- Be aware that the number for sacrament meeting attendance is computed differently than all other attendance numbers.
- Sacrament meeting attendance is the average actual headcount in attendance
- For all other attendance numbers, the individual is counted as attending if they attend once or more during the month, or if he or she has other Church responsibilities that may prevent attendance (e.g., a stake president is counted as attending Priesthood Meeting, and a Primary President is counted as attending Relief Society)
- Prepare a monthly version of the Quarterly Report for use by the Bishopric.
[edit] Additional Helpful Reports
Upon request from the bishop or stake president, the statistical clerk may also use spreadsheets or other tools to provide additional reports and graphs, such as:
For ward activity levels:
- Total Ward Membership (count)
- Total Ward Families (count)
- Sacrament Meeting Attendance (percentage)
- Melchizedek Priesthood Attendance (percentage)
- Melchizedek Priesthood Interviews (percentage)
- Relief Society Attendance (percentage)
- Aaronic Priesthood Attendance (percentage)
- Young Women Sunday Attendance (percentage)
- Primary Attendance (percentage of total primary ages 3-11)
For home and visiting teaching:
- Home Teaching (percentage)
- Members who have not been home taught by home teachers
- Priesthood brethren who have not been home teaching
- Visiting Teaching (percentage)
Other areas:
- Members without callings
- Temple Recommend Holders or Endowed Members Without Current Temple Recommend (percentage of endowed members)
- Progress of new converts
