Transferring membership records of one parent?

[nuclearfuels]

Handbook 33.6

Membership records are to be kept in the ward where the member lives. Exceptions, which should be few, require the consent of the bishops and stake president(s) involved and the approval of the Office of the First Presidency. To request an exception, the stake president(s) sends a letter to the Office of the First Presidency for approval.

We have a family where one parent wants their membership records transferred to a smaller branch in our stake, while the other parent and kids will keep thier records in the current unit they are attending in the stake. 

Should be pretty basic right, like emailing the bishops and clerks of the transferring and receiving units, no?

Our stake has several branches (for different language congregations). I dont think we usually reach out to the First Presidency.

Edited October 13, 2020 by nuclearfuels

[Amulek]

The 'can it be done' question is pretty simple: yes, most definitely. 

However, if the family is all living together, it would be a rather strange circumstance to have one parent attend a different unit from the remainder of their household.

Usually the whole family goes or the whole family stays.

[Ahab]

14 minutes ago, Amulek said:

The 'can it be done' question is pretty simple: yes, most definitely. 

However, if the family is all living together, it would be a rather strange circumstance to have one parent attend a different unit from the remainder of their household.

Usually the whole family goes or the whole family stays.

Divorced parents was the first thought that came to my mind, but there are other reasons the parents of a child would not live in the same home or attend separate wards.

The fact that records can be sent to any ward a family member attends should be a comforting assurance.

[Amulek]

1 hour ago, nuclearfuels said:

Our stake has several branches (for different language congregations). I dont think we usually reach out to the First Presidency.

That is because the geographical boundaries of the foreign language branch encompass multiple ward boundaries, so such approval is not necessary. You can attend the branch because you live in the branch.

In fact, sometimes a stake will 'call' families to attend a foreign language branch to help provide needed support.

But I've never seen just one member of a household switch - it has always been the whole family (at least, from what I have seen).

Like I said, it would be a rather strange set of circumstances which would have one household head attend a different unit from the remainder of their household (again, assuming they all live together still).

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but that doesn't mean such don't exist.  

 

Edited October 13, 2020 by Amulek

[Robert F. Smith]

56 minutes ago, Amulek said:

That is because the geographical boundaries of the foreign language branch encompass multiple ward boundaries, so such approval is not necessary. You can attend the branch because you live in the branch.

In fact, sometimes a stake will 'call' families to attend a foreign language branch to help provide needed support.

But I've never seen just one member of a household switch - it has always been the whole family (at least, from what I have seen).

Like I said, it would be a rather strange set of circumstances which would have one household head attend a different unit from the remainder of their household (again, assuming they all live together still).

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but that doesn't mean such don't exist.  

 

Does free agency play any role in this?

[Kenngo1969]

Search me.    As others have pointed out, I've only seen it in cases of divorce accompanied by a shared custody agreement.

[Calm]

2 hours ago, Amulek said:

can't think of any off the top of my head, but that doesn't mean such don't exist.  

Possibilities:

Kids and one parent speak English just fine and don’t the other parent’s preferred language. Other parent struggles with language so wants to go to a language branch. 
 

Parent feels they are given make work calling in their current big ward and want a calling that has more interaction with others or sees it as more meaningful to live in a smaller branch where they can develop a closer relationship with everyone. 
 

One parent struggles with another member of the ward, perhaps has been ostracized by that member and they are influencing others, very difficult feelings, might be a leader or leader’s spouse that makes it harder to feel they will receive true spiritual guidance, therefore wants to change wards while the kids want to stay with friends and other parent does as well.

[Amulek]

2 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Does free agency play any role in this?

Sure. One is always free to move...  

 

[Amulek]

50 minutes ago, Calm said:

Possibilities:

Kids and one parent speak English just fine and don’t the other parent’s preferred language. Other parent struggles with language so wants to go to a language branch. 

Parent feels they are given make work calling in their current big ward and want a calling that has more interaction with others or sees it as more meaningful to live in a smaller branch where they can develop a closer relationship with everyone. 

One parent struggles with another member of the ward, perhaps has been ostracized by that member and they are influencing others, very difficult feelings, might be a leader or leader’s spouse that makes it harder to feel they will receive true spiritual guidance, therefore wants to change wards while the kids want to stay with friends and other parent does as well.

I don't think these really rise to the point where one would actually need to have their records moved though. As I said, it depends on the specific circumstances, so I don't want to make it sound as though it would never be possible - just that it would likely be a pretty rare occurrence.

 

[Calm]

41 minutes ago, Amulek said:

I don't think these really rise to the point where one would actually need to have their records moved though. As I said, it depends on the specific circumstances, so I don't want to make it sound as though it would never be possible - just that it would likely be a pretty rare occurrence.

 

But someone can’t get a calling in a ward that they do attend if they don’t have a record there and may get callings in a ward they don’t. 

[JustAnAustralian]

8 hours ago, Calm said:

But someone can’t get a calling in a ward that they do attend if they don’t have a record there and may get callings in a ward they don’t. 

There are "out-of-unit callings", but these are for things like calling a bishop of a singles ward.

[The Nehor]

You can do it easily. I had to do it once when a spouse moved away but the other stayed in an area to keep the kids in school for the rest of the school year. You just split the household and assign which members go to which. It does not change marital status. Later you can recombine the household when needed.

It would be weird if they stayed in the same house but were in different units but this is also easy to do. You just have two households in two different units with the same address. I have seen it used for language reasons.