Thoughts on Training Presidencies

by Adam Everett (Stake Young Men 2nd Counselor)

Years ago, there was a company that sold kitchen and household gadgets with extended TV commercials that would paint a vision of how easy and wonderful things could be. One of my favorites was a rotisserie oven with the catch phrase, “Set it and forget it!” that extolled the virtues of a self-basting oven.

I was convinced. I bought one and I had many happy years using it to prepare great food. However, it was especially awesome that one of the first things that I read in the instruction manual was, “never leave the oven unattended.”

While my new rotisserie was a great tool to help me cook a great meal, I was still the chef, and I had the responsibility to continually monitor my task. This reminds me of our roles as mentors to the youth: developing youth leaders is not like the rotisserie commercial – we can’t “Set it and forget it.”

Over the last year, I have had the awesome opportunity to meet a lot of you and to attend a lot of great activities and meetings. I try to take advantage of these opportunities to observe and learn from the youth and adults about what is working for them. While every ward and group of youth is different, I would like to share with you a useful technique that I have observed to help grow our youth leaders. Our youth presidencies have the role and responsibility to lead. Elder Holland taught us a critical element of working with youth leaders when he said, “We underestimate their ability and overestimate their experience.” It is our role to help them succeed. It is our role to help them prepare for success. It is our role to help them learn and gain the experience they need.

“Youth serving in class and quorum presidencies have been called of God and set apart under priesthood authority to lead the members of their classes and quorums. With this role comes the responsibility to minister to and receive inspiration for those whom they serve,” said Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women General President. “The youth are very capable,” she said. “They are ready and willing to lead. And with adult leaders as mentors, they will quickly grow in skill and experience.”

One method to help presidencies prepare for success is a conscious and deliberate learning together of roles and skills. Some wards in our Stake have planned a deliberate learning experience that focused on learning about their roles as leaders in the Church and training on skills and expectations. The purpose of leadership training is to teach youth with leadership positions about their new roles and how to most effectively reach success in that role. It is intended to help youth in leadership positions understand their responsibilities and to equip them with the vision and skills to magnify their callings.

In one ward, the youth leaders and the adult leaders met on a Sunday afternoon for a few hours at the Bishop’s home to learn together. The Bishopric, Young Women’s Presidency, and Advisers prepared short learning topics to discuss the principles of Live, Care, Invite, Unite; the elements of effective presidency meetings; planning meaningful activities; and ministering to one another.

In another ward, the learning took place on a weekend retreat to a cabin away from other distractions. It was an opportunity for the Bishopric to share their vision, with the youth and other adults, of what made effective presidencies and councils. It provided an opportunity for the adult mentors to clearly discuss what a quorum or class meeting should look like in their ward.

Deliberate training is a chance for advisers to better understand their roles, and for the youth leaders to understand what support they could expect from the advisers. Use the time to set expectations for what a quorum or class meeting should look like and to set expectations for what a presidency meeting looks like. Then, you should follow up every month to review how it is going and refresh.

Also consider learning some practical skills such as how to make and follow an agenda for presidency meeting. There are lots of Church provided videos and material to help orient presidency members. Don’t forget that the agenda for every presidency meeting also has a short training topic at the end you can use to review and focus development.

There are many ways to provide guidance and training to the youth and adults besides an afternoon together at the Bishop’s house or a weekend retreat at a cabin in the woods. The important thing is that the youth presidencies and their adult counterparts are all there learning and teaching together. This is a key opportunity to get everyone on the same page and set expectations.

As important as this orientation and training session is, it should not be the only one. It should be the start of a lifelong habit of learning. Just because they hear it once does not mean they are going to remember it all or apply it all. Training and retraining are part of the plan. A great time for introduction to leadership skills is early in the year after many of the classes and quorums have changed membership, and it should be followed up with a refresher a few months later. The follow-up trainings will provide a great opportunity to reflect, and to train any new presidency members.

We have a role in mentoring the Lord’s leaders. We need to continually help them gain and regain the experiences and skills they need to magnify their callings. This isn’t something we teach once. We cannot “Set it and forget it!”