EQ/RS Reps for Missionary Work?

[Duncan]

So, if I understand correctly the EQ/RS has reps for missionary work-some wards have gotten rid of the WML-but I was told today that these reps from the two organizations have to have a meeting to discuss missionary matters in their organizations and the fulltime missionaries can come but not necessarily. It isn't a missionary correlation meeting, it's another beyond ward council and missionary correlation. I don't understand what the point is of this meeting though, why can't the WML (either a EQ rep over missionaries or a called WML) simple attend ward council meeting? why create another meeting to discuss missionary matters ? Is this an actual meeting or is it the misunderstandings of locals? 

[mfbukowski]

I don't pretend to know the answer to your question but in order to do all the things the church wants us to do today, there is simply too much to take care of in Ward Council.

Remember that Family History is now to be handled the same way missionary work is, and if that is the case there needs to be family history meetings paralleling all the missionary activities.

When I was the Stake Family History High Councilor the mandate was that new members should be ready to do, and doing, baptisms for the dead (hopefully their own family) within 6 months of baptism, on a limited use recommend.  That has been tested and shown to raise retention rates enormously.  To pull that off you need great communication between the missionaries and the family history folks- and that is one of the reasons missionaries are now trained in family history.  We were never able to achieve that because we could not get bishops to call family history consultants.

It was a great idea but it is not being well implemented in our stake and as far as I know, in other stakes in the area, because we have so few people trained in Family Search, plus they are constantly changing it and improving it, interfacing with Ancestry and the DNA stuff and .....yada yada.  There is a LOT to do just keeping up with the changes in the software, and not many are up to all that.

The way it is supposed to work is that there is one EQ counselor and one RS counselor over each- family history and missionary work.  They are supposed to talk to each other. 

So now the 4 counselors- 2 from EQ and 2 from RS should meet and discuss co-ordinating the after-baptism training for the new investigators, all of them knowing about the progress the family is making, who will train them in Fam. Hist. and help them get to the temple to do baptisms, etc, along with learning enough about Family Search et al, to be able to do their own research.

Obviously in the missionary discussions this needs to be taught- that this is one of the responsibilities and pleasures of the gospel.

So if this was all left up to the Ward Council along with discussing plans for Pioneer day and who is speaking in 3 weeks etc etc, there is obviously too much for one meeting.

In all the Ward Council meetings I have been in- in all the wards I have had some stewardship over, once you start talking about missionary visits and missionary work, the rest of the meeting is going to be totally absorbed in those issues.  That is why a correlation meeting is needed- making sure that Susie from the Investigator family is introduced to Primary, older brother Bob, to the youth programs etc.

But then there are the details- does Brother Investigator now know how to input pictures of his ancestors into Fam Search?  Who is teaching them the after baptism lessons and how to do Come Follow Me?

I would think that IF that extra meeting is held- there would be enough to discuss to have the meeting.  If all can be fit into one, great, but really I think we need to coddle these new investigators if we actually expect to retain them as New Latter Day Saints.

There is a LOT I personally don't know how all this new stuff is supposed to work, much less expecting a brand new convert to instantly know it AND incorporate it into their lives, and accept callings etc

There always have been a TON of changes people take on joining the church and now with all the member-family-centered stuff there is even more!

The LDS lifestyle has just gotten a whole lot more involved than it has ever been and that means a lot of training is necessary.

Edited October 14, 2019 by mfbukowski

[Amulek]

12 hours ago, Duncan said:

[W]hy can't the WML (either a EQ rep over missionaries or a called WML) simple attend ward council meeting?

Tongue-in-cheek answer: Because we don't have 20 minutes to burn getting the run-down on everyone the missionaries have talked to in the last two weeks. 

Slightly more thoughtful response: With the shift of responsibilities over missionary work, having the WML attend Ward Council is largely redundant now. The WML ought to be reporting to someone in the EQ presidency, who ultimately reports to the EQ President, who happens to be on the Ward Council already. If there's anything important relating to missionary work, he ought to know about it already, so there's no real need to have another standing member on the council just for missionary work.

In our ward, we still have a WML. He comes to Ward Council, by invitation, about once a quarter to give a report on how things are going with respect to our ward mission plan. The family history coordinator does the same thing - brief report, no more than once a quarter. That seems to be sufficient, though it does slightly differ from what has been done in the past.

 

[rpn]

The way I read the changes to the AP/YW is that the bishop isn't going to be so involved in anything but the youth, supervising RSP,/EQP and YW pres, welfare and judge in Israel things ---- EQP and RSP are now in charge of missionary and temple issues and counseling members (other than welfare and judge in Israel), and probably facilities and other things for the ward.  There may still be ward councils, but I doubt they will cover the same stuff or include routinely the same callings.

  The EQP and RSP will need to have the meetings to supervise everything but AP/YW and welfare issues and judge in Israel.   (Hopefully they'll find ways to use video conferencing and joint calendar apps and other technology  for some of it as they work to the end goal, instead of having meetings that haven't always been as productive or short or timed well as they could have been.   When a presidency starts out, weekly meetings are often necessary for a time, but then it can devolve to a conference call when necessary, and individual coaching when someone needs help to do their calling.)  

BTW, if your congregation has not adopted the email strategy of bishop[the name of your congregation] at gmail.com, RSP [the name of your congregation} at gmail, etc, I strongly suggest you do.    It will help you maintain the privacy of the members, make it so every member knows the email address of the leader they need and allow you to transfer it to your replacement, who will then change the password and continue using it forever.   

Edited October 14, 2019 by rpn

[Duncan]

56 minutes ago, Amulek said:

Tongue-in-cheek answer: Because we don't have 20 minutes to burn getting the run-down on everyone the missionaries have talked to in the last two weeks. 

Slightly more thoughtful response: With the shift of responsibilities over missionary work, having the WML attend Ward Council is largely redundant now. The WML ought to be reporting to someone in the EQ presidency, who ultimately reports to the EQ President, who happens to be on the Ward Council already. If there's anything important relating to missionary work, he ought to know about it already, so there's no real need to have another standing member on the council just for missionary work.

In our ward, we still have a WML. He comes to Ward Council, by invitation, about once a quarter to give a report on how things are going with respect to our ward mission plan. The family history coordinator does the same thing - brief report, no more than once a quarter. That seems to be sufficient, though it does slightly differ from what has been done in the past.

 

as we all know things change week to week in missionary work, I see this as piling on the meetings,emails etc. you mentioned "report" 3 times (not to be snarky) wouldn't it just be easier to have the WML attend ward council and give a slimmed down report? once? what we did is any upcoming baptisms and what the ward needs to know for today. i.e who's coming, updates on less actives. As it right now our WML hardly ever attends meetings, we have no idea the status on less actives. I am a type a personality, I don't wait around for people to do nothing, I just do it myself

[bluebell]

3 minutes ago, Duncan said:

as we all know things change week to week in missionary work, I see this as piling on the meetings,emails etc. you mentioned "report" 3 times (not to be snarky) wouldn't it just be easier to have the WML attend ward council and give a slimmed down report? once? what we did is any upcoming baptisms and what the ward needs to know for today. i.e who's coming, updates on less actives. As it right now our WML hardly ever attends meetings, we have no idea the status on less actives. I am a type a personality, I don't wait around for people to do nothing, I just do it myself

Would inviting your WML to Ward Council really change anything, if he already never goes to meetings?

[rpn]

32 minutes ago, Duncan said:

n missionary work, I see this as piling on the meetings,emails etc. you mentioned "report" 3 times (not to be snarky) wouldn't it just be easier to have the WML attend ward council and give a slimmed down report? o

Why can "reports" be emailed to those who need them?   Meetings are for joint decision making (the decisions and assignments thereafter can be disseminated to individuals who need to know them)  and collective training and should be reserved for that.

Edited October 14, 2019 by rpn

[Duncan]

2 minutes ago, rpn said:

Why can "reports" be emailed to those who need them?   Meetings are for joint decision making and collective training and should be reserved for that.

i'd be okay with that!

[Duncan]

30 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Would inviting your WML to Ward Council really change anything, if he already never goes to meetings?

I think it would be pressure on him to do something

[rockpond]

14 hours ago, Duncan said:

So, if I understand correctly the EQ/RS has reps for missionary work-some wards have gotten rid of the WML-but I was told today that these reps from the two organizations have to have a meeting to discuss missionary matters in their organizations and the fulltime missionaries can come but not necessarily. It isn't a missionary correlation meeting, it's another beyond ward council and missionary correlation. I don't understand what the point is of this meeting though, why can't the WML (either a EQ rep over missionaries or a called WML) simple attend ward council meeting? why create another meeting to discuss missionary matters ? Is this an actual meeting or is it the misunderstandings of locals? 

If I am reading your post correctly, it sounds like your ward is having both a "missionary correlation" meeting and some other meeting focused on missionary work?  That seems like something outside of handbook guidelines.  Here is the section from Handbook 2 that describes the Missionary Coordination meeting.  I don't see a need for any other meetings outside of this as it is supposed to be held "regularly" and involves all the key players for coordinating the work in the ward.

 

5.1.5

Missionary Coordination Meeting

The ward mission leader (if called; see 5.1.1) or the member of the elders quorum presidency who leads missionary work conducts a missionary coordination meeting with the ward missionaries and the full-time missionaries. A member of the Relief Society presidency may assist. The meeting is held regularly. If full-time missionaries serve in several wards, they attend as often as circumstances allow.

In this meeting, the ward mission leader (if called) and assigned members of the elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies who lead missionary work coordinate the work of the full-time missionaries and the ward members. They may discuss implementing the ward mission plan, scheduling as many teaching appointments for the missionaries as possible, and arranging to have members present as often as possible when investigators are taught.

[Duncan]

Just now, rockpond said:

If I am reading your post correctly, it sounds like your ward is having both a "missionary correlation" meeting and some other meeting focused on missionary work?  That seems like something outside of handbook guidelines.  Here is the section from Handbook 2 that describes the Missionary Coordination meeting.  I don't see a need for any other meetings outside of this as it is supposed to be held "regularly" and involves all the key players for coordinating the work in the ward.

 

5.1.5

Missionary Coordination Meeting

The ward mission leader (if called; see 5.1.1) or the member of the elders quorum presidency who leads missionary work conducts a missionary coordination meeting with the ward missionaries and the full-time missionaries. A member of the Relief Society presidency may assist. The meeting is held regularly. If full-time missionaries serve in several wards, they attend as often as circumstances allow.

In this meeting, the ward mission leader (if called) and assigned members of the elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies who lead missionary work coordinate the work of the full-time missionaries and the ward members. They may discuss implementing the ward mission plan, scheduling as many teaching appointments for the missionaries as possible, and arranging to have members present as often as possible when investigators are taught.

yeah it seems like 3 meetings to discuss one thing, and i'm like ummmmmmmmmmmmm, we have lives here and can't attend all these meetings to discuss the same thing

[Kenngo1969]

Meeting?  Skype?  IM?  Conference call?  As a general matter, in an effort to streamline and simplify, I thought the Fourteenth Article of Faith ("We believe in meetings, we have endured many meetings, and we hope to be able to endure all meetings.  If there are any meetings which are virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these meetings." ) had been repealed.  If the powers-that-be in your area are requiring (an)other meeting(s), you could always do it via one of the remote modes I mention above and, if-and-when someone asks you if you held the required meeting, you could always answer (truthfully, in my book), "Yep!"  (And what they don't know won't hurt them!)   

Edited October 14, 2019 by Kenngo1969

[Amulek]

1 hour ago, Duncan said:

as we all know things change week to week in missionary work [...]

They often do. But what if your Ward Council doesn't meet every week? Seems like there would need to be a system in place to handle that situation, which is what the EQ/RS/WML are supposed to be doing already.  

 

Quote

I see this as piling on the meetings,emails etc.

For whom, specifically? Seems to me like this would mostly affect those serving in the RS/EQ presidencies, but IMO the shift in burden here is just part-and-parcel with the shift in responsibility.

If you were given a promotion at work which entailed taking on additional supervisory responsibilities, I doubt you would be surprised to learn that additional monitoring and reporting would attend such a change in responsibility would you not? 

 

Quote

you mentioned "report" 3 times (not to be snarky) wouldn't it just be easier to have the WML attend ward council and give a slimmed down report? once?

First of all, you don't have to worry about being snarky with me. I am decidedly pro-snark.  

That being said, if a slimmed down report is all that needs to be communicated, why is it that the WML must be the one to deliver it? Couldn't that slimmed down report just be given to the EQ President (or whoever is attending Ward Council that week) instead? 

 

Quote

what we did is any upcoming baptisms and what the ward needs to know for today. i.e who's coming, updates on less actives.

To me, that sounds more like an  'information sharing' item and not really something that needs to be discussed by the council. 

 

Quote

As it right now our WML hardly ever attends meetings, we have no idea the status on less actives.

I see these two things as being independent of each other. Not knowing the status on less actives isn't a function of not having the WML present in a council meeting - it's caused by a breakdown in communication between the WML and (ultimately) the EQ President. Fix the root cause of the issue and everything else will follow.

 

Quote

I am a type a personality, I don't wait around for people to do nothing, I just do it myself

Sometimes, however, you've got to give people the opportunity to improve on their own - even if it it's frustrating and happens much more slowly than you would prefer. 

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Amulek