Brand New Ward Woes--SLC no help

[jcruse]

I am the clerk of a brand new ward, created mid-January by dividing two other wards. I was clerk of two previous wards, including one of the wards that was splilt (for context of knowledge and information).

I am curious if anyone has had similar issues recently and has better ways of getting assistance than on-line chat or completing tickets.

Since ward creation, we have had 3 issues arise:
*members on-line tithing slip still shows their previous ward. 3 on-line chats and 2 tickets have not resolved the issue.
*ward council members are unable to add calendar events to the ward calendar. 1 ticket, 1 on-line chat, no resolution
*most recent (last 3 days), I am unable to move records out. I receive an error that I am moving a person to an "unidentified unit"...and I am simply moving the person back to one of the "parent" units (they recently moved across town). I just put a ticket it in for this yesterday, so I assume it will take a couple of days.

These don't include the separate instructions received by my ward, our parent wards and the stake for moving members to a new unit. The instructions weren't "first the stake does this, then the parent wards do this". The instructions were completely different and led to different results. Fortunately, the instructions received by the parent wards was determined to be the correct version and, once SLC got the maps correct (2 weeks after ward creation), we were able to have members moved and identified.

My own personal rant: I am an IT project manager. When we take a business live...I'd be fired if my team allowed these kinds of things to happen. These would be on a checklist of "is this working? is this working? is this done?" To say nothing of post go live fixers.

Soap box mode off, anxiety pills taken: besides tickets and following up on tickets, does anyone have any suggestions for moving these along more quickly and actually getting them fixed? Is this the "new normal" with how quickly new units are being formed?

[Mikerowaved]

Yuk, not fun. I assume your PFR and stake clerk are seeing the tickets stack up in FIR. Have you spoken with them about the problems? The STS and them should be able to address at least some of the issues.

For any remaining problems, I would suggest a call to the Global Service Desk, during business hours, so your issue(s) can be escalated up to the next tier of help, if needed.

Best of luck!

[russellhltn]

*ward council members are unable to add calendar events to the ward calendar. 1 ticket, 1 on-line chat, no resolution

First off, they must be members of the ward, and need to be in standard positions, not custom positions.

Secondly, have the calendars been set up? Have the privileges been verified? The only thing I would count on is the extended bishopric being admins of the calendar.

For example, is there a Relief Society calendar, and is the Relief Society President set up as a editor of it?

If it hasn't been set up, you may find a button to create the default calendars. I'd start there.

From the Help Center:

Setting Up Ward Calendars
For a new ward, when a ward calendar administrator (bishopric member) signs in to the calendar for the first time, a set of ward calendars are automatically created and calendar editors are assigned to each calendar by calling. The Manage Calendars option in the settings can then be used to create more calendars, rename calendars, delete calendars, or add/delete editors.

For an existing ward choosing to start using the calendar, if no ward calendars exist, a ward calendar administrator will need to use the Manage Calendars option to manually create the calendars wanted and assign the appropriate calendar editors. A ward calendar administrator automatically has editor rights to all the public ward calendars.

[BrianEdwards]

..... besides tickets and following up on tickets, does anyone have any suggestions for moving these along more quickly and actually getting them fixed? Is this the "new normal" with how quickly new units are being formed?

I know this suggestion at times causes "eye rolls" with many members, but this really seems like something the Stake President should also take up with his Area Seventy in their Coordinating Council. At the very least, from my layman's perspective, the Area Seventy should be informed of "major" issues like this with the creation of new wards or the adjustment of ward/stake boundaries, when the local leadership is unable to perform basic functions, is given contradictory instructions, and the standard support process is insufficient.

This won't provide any near-term help for your needs, and of course Area Seventies have a lot of responsibilities and this might not get any traction due to other "higher priority" items. But ideally, if an Area Seventy became aware of this and then also noticed repeated patterns in other wards/stakes, he would be in a position to escalate this internally, to help mitigate the pain down the road for other units.