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Will the reduction of Sunday meeting to two hours create more time for more meetings on Sunday?


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I remember when Sunday meetings were consolidated to the recent 3-hour block that was just reduced to two hours. Before the three hour block Sundays went like this.

Early Morning Priesthood

Return home.

Late Morning/Early Afternoon Sunday School (complete with opening exercises and the sacrament).

Return home.

Late Afternoon/Early Evening Sacrament Meeting

Note: Primary was on a weekday in the afternoon.

There were several reasons given for the creation of the 3-hour block. Two of those reasons were

  • Create more family time on Sunday.
  • Reduce travel time and distance, especially for those who lived far away from a chapel.

Almost immediately after the creation of the 3-hour block, auxiliary presidencies used the extra Sunday time for meetings so they didn't have to meet during the week. I think I remember some direction from SLC not to do that but it seems that some are better than others at leaving the extra time on Sundays for families. Now there's one more hour on Sunday. Will it be left alone?

Edited by Thinking
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Trying to cut back meetings is a time-honored endeavor in the Church. I’ve seen a number of noble attempts to reduce meetings during my 50 years of service, but with so many duties, callings, and organizations they are like zombies....they are hard to kill and they return from the dead. 

This from Elder Ballard in 2000. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/09/members-are-the-key?lang=eng&_r=1

Quote

Are you using the ward and stake councils effectively as they were intended? Don’t let them become meaningless exercises in organizational bureaucracy. The way some leaders conduct council meetings, you would think they really believe in a fourteenth article of faith:

“We believe in meetings—all that have been held, all that are now scheduled—and we believe there will yet be held many great and important meetings. We have endured many meetings and hope to be able to endure all meetings. If there is a meeting, we seek after it.”

We hope you do not have a fourteenth article of faith operating in your wards.

The question is how do we plan, coordinate, execute, report back, and evaluate all we are asked to do, but not have so many meetings?

For example, once when Sister Gui was in charge of Girls Camp, I was serving on the high council and worked with her. The sister called to be the cook requested a certain sister be called as her assistant. 

1. Request from cook to YWCD for an assistant

2. Request from YWCD to Stake YW President for assistant cook

3. SYWP passes request to high councilor

4. HCr gets name approved in HC meeting

5. HCr contacts bishop for bishop input

6. HCr meets with candidate and husband, call accepted 

7. HCr informs SYWP of the approval and acceptance

8. SYWP contacts YWCD to inform results

9. Assistant cook sustained and set apart by HCr

10. YWCD and cook meet with assistant cook

Total turnaround time...3 weeks.

It’s been a while, so maybe things have changed.

Edited by Bernard Gui
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In the mid-70s, I served in a bishopric in Rockford, IL.

We attended a regional leadership meeting in which the bishops were admonished to free up their time in order to pay more attention to the youth by delegating responsibilities to their councilors. We’ve heard that several times, right?

Just for fun, during the instruction I leafed through my handbook to make a list of all the meetings a councilor was expected to attend. Counting Sunday chapel meetings, there were at least 84 meetings per month I should have been attending. After the instructions ended, I approached the visiting authority with that information and asked if anyone had  considered what councilors were already doing. No, but that is interesting, was the response.

Anyone in a bishopric today who could give us a total of their required and recommended meetings?

 

Edited by Bernard Gui
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17 minutes ago, Bernard Gui said:

Just for fun, during the instruction I leafed through my handbook to make a list of all the meetings a councilor was expected to attend. Counting Sunday meetings, there were at least 84 meetings per month I should have been attending.

Several years ago my wife was having a presidency meeting in our living room. They were not very quiet, and I just had to interrupt with the question, "Do you all realize that you are having a meeting to plan a meeting?" They all laughed and just kept going.

Edited by Thinking
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Sunday meetings are often the preference here simply because we live in an area where people have to drive long distances in (and out) from their homes; and most people are just barely getting by, and using gas for that long drive is already a sacrifice.  Asking them to come back in "later" or another day is challenging.  They would drive home just in time to turn back around.  So meetings are held before or after the block.  Or sometimes consolidated with youth night, so again that there aren't multiple drive times and expenses.

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