NobodysFool

Nice poem, although for some reasons, I kept expecting the age to increase. But why is this is this in the SA section and not the YSA section? You've got 4+ years before you're tossed out of YSA - and then things really suck. Just keep circulating. Remember, guys don't go tracting for dates. Be where you can be found.

Why? What was your experience in Singles Wards that you consider them such a tragedy? Now some singles are more comfortable in family wards. They like the opportunities for service that are there. Others (like myself) prefer to be with people in our own stage of life. I see singles wards as providing much more opportunity for making friends in the church. Just maybe one of them will we one you want to be with for eternity.

There's truth to that. But the problem is that singles programs require "critical mass" to work. If you can't get enough singles in one place, it never goes anywhere. One idea that would work is to have a "magnet" ward - select one family ward to allow all the singles to attend instead of their normal geographical ward. It's done now with some language needs that are not big enough to warrant a branch of their own. While there is truth to the idea that the needs change as they mature, they never go away. Singles have different social needs.

What age limit? If they're under 31, they're a Young Single Adult. (It's in the handbook.) If you're seeing a upper age limit, it's a local thing. Maybe keeping the 70-somethings from looking for a nurse. I can understand targeting different age groups, but any hard cut-off is arbitrary and when enforced causes a lot of problems as Fiannan pointed out. Unfortunately obedience to the handbook doesn't give much leeway. I used to be in a singles ward that was about 50/50 YSA/SA. Everyone seemed quite happy.

Unless the current incarnation is different then the past - it doesn't. It defines the terms, defines the leaders, and that's it. No mission. No goal. No purpose.