ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL WARD YOUTH COUNCIL

I hope that everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and are excited for the upcoming Christmas Season. I hope that everyone took the chance to participate in President Nelson’s challenge to flood social media with positivity by “Giving Thanks.” Personally I know that each day as I sat down to post on Twitter I realized just how much good I have in my life. It ranged from small things I take for granted to the bigger things such as my family. I know it opened my eyes and filled my life with joy and gratitude.

Another great opportunity I had was to sit in on a ward while they held a Ward Youth Council. I had spoken to the Bishop about joining beforehand and he sent me the code before the meeting. As I signed on I realized this was the meeting before the meeting. The Bishop had invited the two youth leaders into the meeting 15 minutes early to discuss with them the agenda and to train them on how to run the meeting. I was extremely impressed as he used the handbook and taught the youth and then during the following meeting he allowed them to lead the meeting as he sat and listened and asked an insightful question here and there.

While in the meeting the young man leading the meeting did a great job of covering the agenda as well as addressing the needs of the particular quorums and groups. I saw the youth work through the different challenges they were facing in their individual quorums and classes. They discussed the needs and sought to find solutions. One of the biggest issues was coming up with ideas that would excite the other youth to join the virtual activities.

What happened next was very impressive. The leaders of the quorums and classes talked about generating a list of activities that they had received great feedback and participation from. They discussed setting up a google document but decided that the best way for the youth to communicate to each other would be through a text thread. They felt emailing was too time consuming and that they wouldn’t see the list or put the time into it. The overall message I got from this is the youth preferred communication is through text which was a wakeup call to me.

In providing feedback during the discussion the Bishop spoke of the need to plan very well for the virtual activities so that there is greater buy in and participation. The preparation that goes into these virtual activities will help determine the success that is had with the activities.