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I think the way to handle this is when a stake or ward leader asks for
something that we cannot provide through MLS tell them why and to please
address it with the brethren.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ldsclerks at MormonsToday.com
[mailto:owner-ldsclerks at MormonsToday.com] On Behalf Of Eric Bunker
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 7:42 AM
To: ldsclerks at MormonsToday.com
Cc: Eric Bunker
Subject: LDSC: Re: How to squeak
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Skier,
The intent of your letter and petition campaign sounds like a wonderful
idea, but is clearly misplaced in regards to actually getting things done
according to proper priesthood channels. It you want your concerns paid
attention to, the letter to the presiding brethren needs to come from each
of your stake presidents.
The letter from a petition drive from a bunch of clerks crazy clerks, even
if we had 500 signers, would probably never cross the desk of the First
Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve or even any general authority and would
get funneled off by staff to administrative people. And that is where the
problem lies to begin with. The end result would potentially cause more
irritation than achieve positive changes.
The Church is not organized like any business or government we are familiar
with. So attempting to get concerns paid attention to in the way we would
with the government or a business is not the most profitable way of going
about it. Additionally, if we desire the Lord's blessings, we ought to
funnel or efforts through proper priesthood channels.
On the other hand, if a number of stake presidents sent a letter to his
assigned member of the Presidency of the Seventy that expresses these
concerns from his clerks, then I think our concerns will have a much better
chance of being paid attention to by the presiding brethren who then can
direct administrative people to make changes.
I don't think that it would be improper of us to coordinate our efforts so
that if each of our stake presidency's agrees to send such a letter that
they would say similar things and arrive within a few weeks of each other.
Eric
Clerk
Queen Creek Arizona Stake
----- Original Message -----
From: Skier<mailto:ldsskier at rusticate.net>
To: ldsclerks at MormonsToday.com<mailto:ldsclerks at MormonsToday.com>
Cc: Skier<mailto:ldsskier at rusticate.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 4:48 AM
Subject: LDSC: How to squeak
Below is a draft letter which I propose be sent to CHQ en masse. It
needs a few examples inserted (fill in the ... section) to provide
specific examples, but once finalized I propose that it be sent in as
part of a massive letter writing campaign to get some much-needed
attention to the poor state of affairs. If we can get 500 clerks
together to send this in we should see the results we want.
Dear brethren.
We are the clerks of the church. We tirelessly and willingly devote our
time, energies and talents to the smooth operation of the church. We do
this not for glory, prestige or power but out of a desire to serve the
Almighty.
Some tools have been provided us - a computer system known as MLS goes a
long way towards making our tasks efficient and accurate. We certainly
have come a long way since the days of inkwells and parchment, but we
wish to see progress continue to be made on a consistent basis.
We are at a point where we feel ignored, our input unwanted, our
suggestions discarded without consideration. MLS has several
shortcomings, glitches, bugs and tedious features which are obvious to
most of those who use the system on a regular basis. Some examples of
these pitfalls include:
...
...
...
...
We have been patient. We have continued to point out shortcomings and
problems, but no matter how we attempt to gain attention we feel like
Brother Dehlin's recent statement regarding his upcoming 'Tech Talk' is
the de facto slogan of the development office: "If you have great ideas
for MLS or any other Church app this is not the venue." For too long we
have sought the proper venue but a deaf ear has always been turned.
We do not ask much:
1. The privilege of a single contact to whom we can address our issues.
A contact who has the authority and the desire to address our
concerns, not simply a helpdesk worker who tries his best but entirely
misses the point of our concern.
2. A commitment to hire at least one former or present clerk on each MLS
development team, preferably in a lead position.
3. Access to a bugtracking/feature database - something along the lines
of Bugzilla, a collaborative database which allows all to contribute and
all to see the status of requested fixes and solutions.
We are willing to serve with a glad heart. Our only goal is to serve
and magnify our callings. Please help.
Sincerely,
{clerk}
cc: All members of the 1st Presidency, Quorum of the 12, Presiding
Bishopric, and Brother Dehlin.
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