What it takes for a ward to function.
Posted by Matt W. on May 7th, 2007It takes ~79 volunteers to fully equip an LDS ward. Of these callings, 20 must be women (RS, YW, Primary), 29 must be men (Bishopric, HPGL, EQP, SSP, YM, WML, clerk, ex sec.) and 30 can be either (pianists, choristers, sunday school teachers, primary teachers.) 27 of all the callings together are teaching positions.(RS/YW/YM/HP/EQ/SS/Primary teacher) The most powerful person in terms of direct reports are the Bishop and the Primary President (who both have 16 direct reports, though both can deligate this out to their councilors). The least powerful leaders are the EQP and the HPGL, both with for direct reports. I am not sure where the Pianist and Chorister callings go in the Church Hierarchy of classification, but right now, I have them as reporting directly to the bishop (otherwise he only has 14 direct reports.) Of course, the most important calling in the church is sunbeams teacher, because my daughter is a sunbeam.
I however, am now a Ward Clerk (as of yesterday.)
How do we fill 79 callings with qualified quality people in a ward where maybe 100 people are really active?
Or in my case in Michigan where only about 60 adults are active…
In almost all cases one has to make due with what you have. You can not exactly recruit people. Although I have heard stories of bishops feeling impressed to call a non-member to a calling and explaining that they would have to join the church first. I’m not sure whether these stories are true.
I thinks we often have to ba accepting, patient and tolerant with people who are simply incompetent in their callings - including bishops and RS presidents.
I also wonder about your power analysis with EQP and RS leaders. Particularly when one considers HT and VT, and various committees which can exist. I often feel that the most powerful person in the ward is often the RS president.
Training is certainly key. That is a big part of what my parents are doing in Kenya. Trying to help inexperienced leaders in very small branches learn how to act in their callings.
Congratulation in your new calling. I take it your recent baby is not your first. If she is she is progressing pretty fast.
Comment # 1 left by Eric Nielson on May 7th, 2007
Wow, interesting stats on the numbers and sexes of callings. I’ve always kinda wondered that…
Comment # 2 left by Connor on May 7th, 2007
A few steps:
(1) Revise your count. If by “fully staffed” you mean every position named in the handbooks, you’re too low by about 50%. If you mean every position that is reqlly required to minimally function, you’re way too high. (I tried to duplicate your numbers, and can’t pull it off. My “minimum” numbers, based on observation and experience, are 12 women-only callings, 18 men-only callings, and about 20 for either gender. But much of that is a judgment about what a ward really “needs.”)
(2) As ward clerk you have access to the most valuable list on MLS: Members Without Callings. Use it!
(3) Don’t ignore the “one calling per person” instruction. Doing so has short term benefits but hurts in the long term.
Comment # 3 left by JrL on May 7th, 2007
I know, I know! Everybody takes two callings, of course! (or three)
Comment # 4 left by JVT on May 7th, 2007
Very interesting Matt. Recently I’ve been trying to explain to various people how difficult it is to get all the callings right (so that nobody complains about where they’re serving, how long, etc.) and this provides an interesting perspective.
Comment # 5 left by Rusty on May 7th, 2007
Wow. I didn’t know there was a one calling per person guideline. At one point I had 3, and they were all large ones (in addition to being a VT). (Institute president, stake YSA representative, and primary teacher). Now I only have 2, which is a relief.
These are some pretty cool statistics, I had often wondered about the numbers. I’m going to ask a question here that I’ve often wondered about. I’ve only seen women in the primary presidency. Is this just out of convention, or is there a specific instruction regarding it?
Comment # 6 left by Keri on May 7th, 2007
Keri, only Women can be in the primary presidency. I currently have 4 callings (In charge of high adventure, in charge of scouts, Sunday School Teacher, Ward Clerk) but I am told they will release me from the other three soon.
Funny story about being Ward Clerk, when I was first baptised, I was made the member clerk about 3 months later, and the ward clerk came to me and told me “If you are righteous like me, someday you too will be ward clerk…” I guess I’ve arrived…
JrL:
1 sac chorister
1 sac pianist
3 bishopric
3 clerks
1 ex sec
3 HPGL and counsilors
1 HP sec
1 HP teacher
3 EQpres and counsilors
1 EQsec
1 EQ teacher
3 YM pres
1 YM sec
3 YM advisors
3 YW pres
1 YW sec
3 YW advisors
3 RS pres
1 RS sec
1 RS teacher
1 RS VT coordinator
1 RS enrichment coordinator
1 RS compassionate service coordiantor
1 RS chorister
1 RS pianist
3 SS prez and councilors
6 SS teachers
1 WML
1 New members teacher
8 Ward missionaries
3 Primary President and councilors
1 Primary sec
1 Activity days
1 Weebelos leader
2 nursery
2 sun beams
1 CTR 5
1 CTR 6
1 CTR 7
1 CTR 8
1 Valiant 9
1 Valiant 10
1 Valiant 11
TOTAL = 79 (I may have missed some)
We could probably quibble on what is essential. I was going by what is “normal” in my limited experience.
Comment # 7 left by Matt W. on May 7th, 2007
What I have seen happen is that some of these callings don’t happen, like RS compassionate service, or advisers in the youth (because smaller wards will also mean fewer youth and less need there).
What this doesn’t show, though, is the fact that if men teach in Primary, there have to be two teachers in the class. Also, only one RS teacher is pretty unlikely. There may be other such tweaks that could add people, but not all callings are essential, as you mention.
This was interesting. My only quibble is the comment about “power” and direct reports. Whenever the words power and calling are mentioned in the same breath, and not speaking about spiritual power, I get squirmy because callings aren’t supposed to be about power. I know you all agree, but the language these days can be so charged and so I react based on what kinds of problems that can create when it really shouldn’t.
Comment # 8 left by Michelle on May 8th, 2007
Michelle, I’ll have to do a post some time in the future on ‘power’ from the perspective of what all the MBA manuals say. I think you’d like it.
I guess I just found it interesting that the Primary President has so much to juggle and manage. I sincerely believe it is a vitally important calling.
Comment # 9 left by Matt W. on May 8th, 2007
Matt W.,
Depending on your ward, you can actually cut a number of your essential callings, especially if you have limited youth or children in your ward. When my wife and I were first married, we taught the youth SS class (like, 6 or 7 youth). In that ward, there were maybe two active YM and 4 active YM, and all ages met together, both for YM/YW and SS. That cuts both the number of SS teachers and YM/YW advisors the ward needed. The Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts met together with another ward or two. I’ve even seen a proposal, where I am now, for two wards’ primaries to meet together.
Which isn’t to say, on a macro level, that you’re not right, but if a ward is too small to fill all those positions, chances are there are some positions that don’t need to be filled.
Comment # 10 left by Sam B on May 8th, 2007
It is quite a luxury to have both a Young Men’s presidency and young men’s advisors.
I also do not see scouting leaders on your list.
In my ward, I am the 1st councilor in the Young Men’s, which also means I am the YM advisor for the teachers quorum, which also means I handle scouting for the teacher aged boys. Things like that get rolled into one in a smaller ward.
Comment # 11 left by Eric Nielson on May 8th, 2007
Sam B and Eric, I am going to have to pull up some empirical numbers before I can make any analytical suggestions to the Bishopric on these, but these are excellent points.
Comment # 12 left by Matt W. on May 8th, 2007
Matt,
(It’s been a while….)
I’m always interested in what you have to say. Makes me want to pull out my MBA stuff to see what you might be getting at.
I think that power in a church calling, though, will likely be measured in a different way than what you would find in the content of an MBA class discussion. But still, I’m interested in your thoughts.
Comment # 13 left by Michelle on May 8th, 2007
Ancillary question, how do you staff a ward when the stake poaches half your resources?
We are the smallest ward in our stake. Four men are on the high council, one man was called to the singles ward, one man was called to the Spanish speaking ward, one man is in the stake YM presidency. One woman is in the stake YW presidency, one woman in the stake Primary presidency, one woman in the stake YW presidency. That is ten capable adults unavailable to staff the ward.
Stake organizations are for the most part trivial helps to the real work that goes on in wards yet they usually take the most qualified people. There should be a new round of correlation aimed at reducing stake bureaucracies to free up the best people for where they are needed most, in their home wards.
Comment # 14 left by KLC on May 8th, 2007
“Although I have heard stories of bishops feeling impressed to call a non-member to a calling and explaining that they would have to join the church first.”
My sister-in-law was called as a counselor in the young women’s presidency around 6 months before she decided to join the Church.
Comment # 15 left by DavidH on May 8th, 2007
“Although I have heard stories of bishops feeling impressed to call a non-member to a calling and explaining that they would have to join the church first. I’m not sure whether these stories are true.”
Tis somewhat true. I had been inactive for 10 years (absolutely no church attendance, had the HT visit maybe 5 times). I was called to be the primary pianst*! This calling (and the primary kids) saved my soul. I remained primary pianst for the next 9 years (over various ward splits and one move). I almost died when they asked me to be in the EQP.
*I did attend (but not participate) in my son’s baptism. Afterwards, not knowing anyone and being extremely bored I sat down at the piano and softly played primary songs and hymns. Three weeks later (still not attending church) I was asked to be the pianst. Someone was divinely inspired.
Comment # 16 left by Daylan on May 8th, 2007
Daylan — too awesome. Glad you shared that.
Comment # 17 left by Michelle on May 8th, 2007
Matt,
You have RS pianist, but not Primary pianist, which is 100 times more important. Also, you are missing Primary chorister, which is one of the best callings in the church. The Primary president is responsible for recommending people to fill more callings than anyone else in the ward. Serving in the Primary for the last 5 years has given me a great appreciation for how important (and overlooked) that calling is.
Comment # 18 left by Jacob on May 9th, 2007
The adults serving youth shouldn’t outnumber the youth being served. Also, some callings are smaller loads, and for those who are capable, doubling up is not a problem. For example, for a couple of years I was teaching the 13-year-old Sunday School class and was a cub scout den leader simultaneously. Doing those two things together was still a smaller load than single callings that many people in the ward perform.
Comment # 19 left by John Mansfield on May 10th, 2007
Sunday school president is not a male calling!! I knew a woman in this role myself and have heard of others. This is crucial to point out, becuase it is the only place in the church where men “report” to a woman. Primary teachers aren’t actually under the power of the PPres–the bishop has full discretion on those callings. I have seen bishops tell PP’s that they don’t know how to get insipiration before when they kept giving names the bishop didn’t agree with. In contrast, an EQP owns the callings underneath him–he can release at will, and does not extend calls to anyone he doen’t approve of. The womenfolk CAN have the bishop design their entire organization w/o their input (an impotrant power asymmetry). So bishop is number 1, with 60+, and EQP is number 2, with anywhere from 4 to 10 (teachers, district leaders, etc.)
Comment # 20 left by Ujlapana on May 11th, 2007
Despite currently living in Utah, I’ve never lived in a ward that had all 79 of those positions filled. Just to validate that number slightly, I’ve lived in 2 branches and 4 wards in the US and 2 branches and 2 wards on a mission. I’m currently ward mission leader and in our last Ward Council meeting several of the other leaders played a light hearted game of one-upmanship with respect to who was in the most need of counselors. There were 5 presidents/group leaders in attendance who (according to your list) should have a total of 10 councilors and I believe there are 5 or 6.
Comment # 21 left by Rob on May 11th, 2007