10 replies to this topic

[Duncan]

What is the origin of members doing the building cleaning ?

[thesometimesaint]

I was doing it in the mid seventies. It does save on the expense of having a professional janitorial service come in once a week to clean. Beyond that I can't tell you much.

[blackstrap]

When I was a youth,our janitor was a ward member,as were the janitors of the other church buildings in the area.They were paid a small amount. At that time, in addition to tithing and fast offerings ,each family was given an alotment for building fund( and mantainance) which could be several hundred dollars per year.It was Bishop assigned and based on ability to pay.Eventually the pay for janitors increased and some of the outside work was contracted as it is today for grass and major snow removal. I presume that when the caretaking costs worldwide became significant,the church leaders chose to release all caretakers and pass those duties to the members. To me it is a good thing to have families do a bit of cleaning. We used to raise much of the funding and do most of the building of our buildings.I understand why that is not done now,but much brotherhood was developed in the process.This joining together to build the Kingdom physically is hard to come by today. I miss it.

[Garden Girl]

I know what you mean, Blackstrap... some of my fondest memories as a teenager in the 1950's (Yikes!), was on Saturdays when the ward brothers would work on the chapel... the women would bring food and we'd have a huge dinner that evening and just fellowship after the day of hard work.  It was so much fun, and did indeed foster a closeness of the ward members...
Today, we have enough "teams" in my small ward that I only have to help clean the chapel once every ten weeks.  We usually meet at 9:00 a.m. and finish by 10:30 at the latest.  I think we as a ward take better care of the chapel since we clean it.

GG

[ERayR]

My personal assumption is that it was a move to get the members to take a personal ownership of the facilities and to encourage reverence for the buildings.

As for working on the buildings it used to be that members provided labor to the contractor when a new chapel was being built.  When I graduated high school our stake was adding on to the stake center and I spent the week after graduation working on it as donated labor.  Some good experiences.

[mtomm]

"Member Participation" has evolved much, over the past 25 years or so.  A letter from 1998 was sent to local authorities outlining how this should work.  Of course, before that we had been asked to put up our chairs and set up the chairs for other activities that had often been done by custodians.  

Check out this article partway down the page of the June 1999 Ensign.

And it has changed dramatically since then with the release of all meetinghouse custodians.  

How the program is instituted and the types of things still contracted will vary from region to region depending on the ecclesiastical leaders and the church employees of that area.

[Deborah]

I can understand having ward members participate in keeping the building clean and having them pick up trash etc. But seriously we need professional cleaners to disinfect due to the amount of germs spread at church, especially in classrooms and bathrooms. I helped clean the temple and we were given a 3 page list just to do the bathrooms. Now I know why the temples are so clean. If members are going to clean they should be given detailed instructions on how to do it.

[ERayR]

Deborah, on 22 June 2012 - 08:58 AM, said:

I can understand having ward members participate in keeping the building clean and having them pick up trash etc. But seriously we need professional cleaners to disinfect due to the amount of germs spread at church, especially in classrooms and bathrooms. I helped clean the temple and we were given a 3 page list just to do the bathrooms. Now I know why the temples are so clean. If members are going to clean they should be given detailed instructions on how to do it.

When one comes to take their turn cleaning they receive a "cleaning card" for the job they are assigned, say bathrooms.  The card tells them the cleaning procedure and cleaners and chemicals to use.  When they have completed that task they sign off and receive/take another task card.  Repeat until building is cleaned.  Our stake has a custodian who goes to each building once or twice a month and takes care of any problems.  It really works quite well and yes the bathrooms and such get disinfected with every cleaning.

Usually we have enough people each week that the job only takes an hour or slightly more and the building is clean.

Edited by ERayR, 22 June 2012 - 11:10 AM.

[Deborah]

ERayR, on 22 June 2012 - 11:08 AM, said:

When one comes to take their turn cleaning they receive a "cleaning card" for the job they are assigned, say bathrooms.

We don't have anything like but it sounds like a good idea.

[mtomm]

Deborah, the cleaning cards should be standard.  It wouldn't hurt to ask TPTB why you don't have them.  It would also be appropriate to contact your local Facilities Management and ask about cleaning cards.

[Garden Girl]

Each cleaning team has a "team leader" who gets the instructions and supervises the work... such instructions include what/how things are to be cleaned.  We have carts with all the various cleaning products, rubber gloves, paper towels, etc etc... as well as several vacuums, and away we go.  We too have a professional company come in once or twice per month to do certain things.

GG