Looking back at all the meaningless paperwork as a former Sunday School president, what is the purpose of taking roll every Sunday?
I know the church only counts the numbers in attendance for sacrament meeting, and I don't remember them taking a specific roll in gospel doctrine, or elders quorum, but why is there a "roll" taken for the teens and kiddies in Sunday School?

Are these name rosters sent into church headquarters and logged into some databank for some reason?
What purpose does it serve to know that little Timmy attended Sunday school on August 12th, 1973?

to keep the minions busy doing busy work.

So they can see trends and know who to love bomb

The commandment "Ye shall be a record keeping people" use to be a large part of the restored Gospel. Everything that was written down (membership records, tithing records, attendance records, etc...) were to mirror what was written in the "Book of Life". So when judgement, the heavens would just whip out a copy of all of those records to help judge you.

SWK was very, very big on this and pushed this quite a bit during his presidency. https://www.lds.org/new-era/1975/10/the-angels-may-quote-from-it?lang=eng

Stupid is as stupid does.

As far as I knew, those Sunday school rolls never left the church. They were always returned to the library where I think they got shoved into a filing cabinet every week, making me wonder, why?
But I learned tscc doesnt like being asked, "Why?"

wait, yeah, why?

It implies that church attendance is mandatory doesn't it?

Is that why I felt compelled to go every week?

Gagh! the brainscrubbing is just everywhere isn't it?

Rolls for the kids did get boiled down to a statistic that was entered quarterly in the MLS. Other than that the rolls were handed to the bishop so that he could keep tabs on kids that weren't attending.

Nothing was ever done with adult Sunday school roll. Doesn't even go on the MLS. When I was ward clerk an old bishop asked me why we even circulated the darn things as they were disruptive to class. I asked the current bishop if we could drop it in the adult class, and we did.

Also counting heads in sacrament is only entered into the computer for the last month of each quarter, so the other 8 months the guy really doesn't need to do it, but it's tradition.

Thank you. I always wondered, and it never really made any sense to me.
I always pictured the old, completed rolls being shipped off to Salt Lake, where some clerk named Milton, working in a back office cubicle had to log in all this vital information. Lol


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uVD3KPUnKHk

Log rolls?

Beer is great.

ContROLL!

In the ward I lived in they would pass around the roll that had blank check spots for a month.

I would always check every square at the first of the month. Nobody ever said anything to me about that. Even when I was TBM I figured it wasn't their business to know if I showed up for SS every week.

I use to do the same thing,.... even check ahead a few weeks in case I wasnt there. Lol

I was married in 1973 and my new wife and I moved into some apartments not far from the Cottonwood Mall in Salt Lake City.

I was called to be the Young Men's secretary, to go collect the rolls during the actual class time and I remember transferring them to a chart or something each week or month.

No one ever told me what to do with the collection of rolls and I asked the YM president more than once who I was supposed to give them to. He was new also, and said he would find out and let me know.

We lived in the apartments for about 18 months and when we were packing to move, I found a dozen or so rolls, for both weeks and months. I tossed them away.

We would use the attendance records to find out who to worry about.

If a 'sister' hadn't been to ANY RS meeting in a month, then they were put on a list and handed in to the bishopric at the end of the month. They would also end up on the agenda as 'sisters of concern' at our RS Presidency Meeting. So we'd pray for them, and try and figure out how to get them to at least one meeting per month. That sometimes involved looking for a small assignment on the Homemaking committee, or some way to participate in class so they'd HAVE to come.

So basically, the rolls are there to help the church determine if it's time to talk about you in meetings, and manipulate you into attending. Maybe it's there to give the ward leaders something to do, to make them feel like they are being useful. Or maybe it's to help people bond as they gossip about people who don't attend.

I think the ward turned in a compiled list to the Stake of the officially inactive people for the month. Maybe they became agenda items in ward council.

CULT!

Because every organisation that has membership events wants to know who is attending meetings.

Other churches don't seem to care.

If a member doesn't attend, they are shunned or fellowshipped. If they need financial aid or clearance for certain programs they must attend. If they lie about attendance, there's proof of it in the records.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2015 09:46PM by frackenmess.

Gotta find out who's naughty or nice

It's not like they use the rolls as the actual membership count that they give out in Conference.

It's a way to find out who they need to harass for not showing up on Sundays, and if someone is attending a BYU school, it could be enough to get them kicked out, or if they're graduating, they won't be able to get their degree.

Speaking as a teacher, I think it's a good policy to take roll whenever underage children are involved. That way if there is a question as to a child's whereabouts at a later time, you have a record.

object to the concept of a diety but I'm baffled by the notion of one who needs to take attendance." Amy Ferrah Fowler

You've no doubt heard of "kicking ass and taking names?" Anyway, it's another control mechanism. How else can you keep tabs on who is not attending, who is not signing up to clean or to feed the damn missionaries?

DH's TBM friend told me they take roll so if you are not there, they can call and make sure you are okay. Yeah right.

The purpose of taking role is to determine which individuals are present.

So they can fire up those ovens for the cookie patrols.

Also, they will know who they can impose on; drop in without any warning.