Need HELP with ideas for reducing number of Church Meetings

[Anonymous User]

I attended Ward Council yesterday, and the subject of the number of Church meetings came up — something we really struggle with in this area.

I am wondering what you are doing to reduce the number of meetings where you live. Please, please, share below!

[Jenny Smith]

Too many church meetings seems to be an almost universal complaint. We’re working on it here, too.

Our stake has designated one weekend per month as a “Family Weekend” during which no meetings besides the 3-hour block can be held. The family weekend lasts from Friday to Sunday and usually coincides with a holiday. Problem is, we haven’t reduced the number of meetings we hold, so we hold 48 weeks worth of meetings in what amounts to 36 weeks. :(

In one ward I attended in Utah, the Bishop determined we had too many youth activities going on, and so he declared we would have only one youth activity per week. If there was a dance, mutual was canceled. If we held a fireside, it was on a week with no dance and mutual was canceled. (I can’t remember how we handled class presidency meetings….) It was great!

Does anyone else have ideas?

[Anonymous User]

Look into email or interactive programs such as google wave. Appropriate for housekeeping and calender items that take up most of time at meetings. Also, you can keep a running agenda on the google wave

[Jenny Smith]

The problem in my unit is not really the *length* of meetings, but instead the *volume* of meetings…..

I recently compiled a list of our ward/stake activities by type and here’s how it broke down:

* Relief Society: 19
* Priesthood: 33 (mostly building cleaning)
* YSA: 56
* Primary: 57 (most are cubs/activity days)
* Family: 61 (49 of these are choir or Why I Believe Firesides)
* Youth-related Activities: 331 (170 are seminary, 42 are mutual)

How I did it:
– exported the calendar at LDS.org as a CSV file; sorted by title, and categorized them (eliminating anything that I don’t think significantly affects families — like FHE or temple recommend interviews)

What I took out:
– leadership meetings that affect fewer than 3 people
– Sunday meetings, excluding BYC

What I added that wasn’t present on the calendar:
– Seminary

What is “Family”
– My “Family” category is a stretch. It’s a list of activities that you could potentially take your entire family to (excluding Sunday meetings, and including ward/stake temple trips). It is mostly made up of choir and Why I Believe Firesides, meaning there are fewer than 20 church-sponsored opportunities for families to be completely together based on this calendar. And yes, some 500 times a member of a family will be separated from his/her family due to a church activity.

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