Ward Board Meeting Ideas

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In our Stake three years ago we had a leadership meeting on death, funerals and everything connected with it.  Research was done on the local funeral homes and a cost comparison was prepared.  Brochures were collected from local hospitals about grieving, helping children cope with death, etc. Included in the notebook prepared for each Ward were the above materials, plus articles from church publications, including President Kimball's "Tragedy or Destiny" article, local procedures for helping families prepare for the funeral and burial (clearing the building, a sample program, etc.), and instructions for clothing the dead.   I don't have it in front of me, but I think that covers everything.  It is very helpful for RS Presidents to have this information readily available.  We found that the prices of funeral services and burial plots varied considerably.  When a family is grieving, that is not the time they want to do comparison shopping.

Some of the things we have done at leadership:

1.  There is a marvelous video (we found it at our local college library) by the British actor, John Cleece, on communication.  It was made for the work-place but it applies to families, to presidencies and all relationships.  It is presented in a humorous manner (as you can imagine from John Cleece) but demonstrates the skills of real communication.  Our presidencies loved it.

 2.  We had our Regional Welfare Council Secretary give a presentation on welfare administration.

3.  We did a spiritual skit about visiting teaching and then had several sisters bear their testimonies about being visiting teachers and being on the recieving end.

3.  We had our High Council representative give a presentation on stress management.

4.  Did one on Elder Ballard's book, "Counseling With Councils."  (Excellent for training bishops on the importance of sisters input.)

5.  We did a mock board meeting to show how they should be run and how the board members need to be involved and report their stewardships.

6.  One of our best leaderships was our first one, when we invited all presidencies, teachers, homemaking leaders, compassionate service, VT coordinator, single adult rep, and music people.  We wanted to get a clear idea of what problems they were all facing in their individual callings in their own wards.  We divided into break-out groups in separate rooms according to their callings. They were to choose three of their most pressing problems and then discuss ways of addresing them.  At the end we gathered back together in the RS room and each group presented their three problems and possible solutions.  It was a real eye opener and very effective.

There have been others but these were the best for us.

Love,

Bev


Even before so much emphasis was placed on retention, we had a leadership on just that with one of the ward RS presidents who is a convert of 3 years speak, and also my high counselor who has just finished serving as the stake mission president speak.  Our theme was "No more Strangers and Foreigners, but Fellowcitizens with the Saints".  To hear this RS president talk about some of the things that seemed strange to her at first, and some of the struggles she had was really insightful.

For our leadership in Sept.,  our theme is "Stitched with Love".  Our idea came from the story in the Random Sampler in the Ensign in April (I think) about a young sister in Alaska who's wedding dress caught on fire and the sisters in her RS sewed for 2 days straight to make her a new one.  The ending comment in that story was "That is what RS is all about".  My mind then started racing about what RS meant to me and Elder Packer's comments about we need to not just attend RS, but be a part of it, and his comment about all our needs will be taken care of if we devote ourselves to RS.

HI-a few ideas that I would love to have at a Leadership meeting:  If I can think of more, I'll send them on. Ethleen

Here are some of the things we did for leadership meetings. I gave a lesson once called "Service is a Joy, Not a Job".  My inspiration came from Chieko Okazaki.  This is what it looked like.
I: Don't spread yourself too thin.  Use Mosiah 4:27
II: "Sometimes you need to make a different set of choices from those around you to make sure service is a joy." Chieko Okazaki III Focus on the Individual IV: "It's possible for all our good works just to be a list of chores and duties unless we let the  Spirit of Jesus Christ fill our hearts." Chieko Okazaki

Read "Counseling With Our Councils" by Elder Ballard to find out the proper way to hold Presidency meetings.  This makes a good lesson.

Use the purpose and goals of Relief Society as it applies to Homemaking, Visiting Teaching, Sunday Lessons, and Welfare.

Have someone from the Welfare department of the church (check with your Bishop's Storehouse) come speak.

Focus on Retention and Activation, or Abuse.

Give a lesson devoted exclusively to the law of the Fast.

We had one where we focused on the Word of Wisdom and how it applied to our food storage.  We used the same lesson to also talk about 72 hour kits and first aid kits.


Here is the list of ideas from a handout I made for our ward presidencies. Obviously, you wouldn't do everything on this list in one meeting.  They are merely suggestions to get started having them and thinking of the needs in their own wards.

I read Jeanna' post this morning and really like the ideas she gave for having an inservice lesson for everyone first.  I really like to see presidents speaking to their sisters, letting them know the things that are on their minds.

I also would love to see more ideas on this subject come to the list.

Ann Amadori

Here is a handout I made some time ago.  It needs updating to reflect changes in the New Handbook.

IDEAS FOR MONTHLY WARD RELIEF SOCIETY BOARD MEETINGS

OPENING EXERCISES

1. Always keep Relief Society Objectives and Stake goals in mind, use approved resources, and plan approved activities.  (See RS Handbook pp 8-9)

2. Use an agenda (see RS Handbook, p. 26) - stay within time limit

3. Review Calendar

4. Inspirational thought by a different Board Member each month (with prior notice)

5. Discuss and set goals for ward Relief Society Board - toward end of year for following year

6. Evaluate ward RS meetings: Attendance, lesson preparation, participation, homemaking  activities, other activities or socials: How can we improve? How can we better meet the needs of our sisters?

7. Quarterly or monthly challenge: receive reports on how previous month’s challenge has influenced Board Members, (successes, how to tips),  give a new challenge each quarter/month such as:

8. Brainstorming session: Let Board Members know topic ahead of time so they can pray about it & ponder and have time for the Spirit work on them 9. Plan an activity for just the Board to strengthen unity; temple trip, dinner, service

10. Encourage the entire Board to be involved in all RS activities and to read and participate in weekly lessons (coordinate
      with ward librarian)

11. Tour of Meetinghouse Library; see new resources, learn to operate equipment, discuss policies and procedures

12. Assign greeters for each meeting from among Board Members

13. Instruction in areas such as stewardship, unity, being an example (let your light shine), the purpose of RS, other by a
      member of the Presidency or invite the Bishop or other priesthood leader to speak on occasion

14. Share testimonies

15. Discuss and coordinate special service projects (compassionate service, service at the courthouse, missionary service,
      other)

16. Refreshments

DEPARTMENTS

17. Even though there should be quarterly inservice meetings you could have your teachers take turns giving teaching tips each month (See Teaching, No Greater Call)

18. Education counselor could meet with Pianist and Chorister and brainstorm ideas for 5 minute music time

19. Homemaking department: HM Counselor, HM Leader, Food Chairman, Home Management Teacher, and Nursery leader could plan and coordinate Homemaking meetings

20. President, Secretary, VT Supervisor and Compassionate Service leader could discuss VT and Compassionate Service, identifying needs (being careful not to break confidences) and discussing solutions

21.Topics of Visiting Teaching messages (for Homemaking Meeting) can be discussed and President assigns herself, VT coordinator, and/or other board member to give these messages.

22. Other

NOTES
 
 

 Ann A.

 Ann & Bob Amadori
 

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