Looking for Ideas

[wyarwehere]

Ok, so I just moved into a ward, and their YSA program is virtually non-existant. The bishop gave me a list of the people in the ward that fall into the YSA category, and there are over a hundred of us, but less than a dozen of us actually attend meetings. So, with his encouragement, I contacted the YSA rep in the neighboring stake(we don't have any reps) but now we're trying to figure out what we can do for a dual stake activity. We live in the Northeast, so the weather isn't really cooperative right now, but if anyone has any ideas for activities, that would be great.

Thanks

[Jennarator]

SOunds cliche, but what about a meet and greet. With that many less activies you go to each house and tell the person there are tons of people that don't come and that everyone will be a newbie, so nobody will be "that less active person" and that we just want to get to know everyone and help eachother out. (Put all of this way more tact full.) Plan a meet and greet w/ games and food. Make sure everyone gets a copy of a calendar and such. See who shows.

[Gwen]

Even if a lot of ppl don't show you can still bond and have a great group. The group I was in didn't have that many, if everyone showed we'd maybe have 20 ppl there. lol We had a very close group and had a lot of fun together.

Board games can be a lot of fun. Get some that require more interaction. 'Last word' is a lot of fun. 'The game of life' is too. We went roller skating, mini golf, beach, etc. Any time we combined with another stake we always worked in a fireside and dance with other activities (never did less than a full day). lol

[kasuto]

I am currently a Multi-stake YSA Representative for my stake. My main responsibility is planning activities with the other YSA wards in the area.

Plan a variety of activities: service, cultural, spiritual, and sports. When you planning activities try to make them affordable. In addition, I would try to make sure you have the activity within an hour drive of most YSAs.

How many active YSAs are there in your stake and the neighboring one? That makes a difference in the type of activities you are trying to plan.

Service

Service projects in my experience work better with smaller groups like 30 or less. It will be less intimidating to a less active show up to an activity with a small group and easier for them to make friends.

Cultural

If you have a large amount of YSAs, then you can do a dance. I would suggest you have a theme that will excite people. A good themes allow people to dress up.

There are local festivals that happen all over the place. You can just have you and your friends meet up at the local ward building and car pool to the activity as a group.

Sports

My region has rented out a bowling alley for a night. We have done a basketball tournament. Volleyball has been popular with some of wards in my area.

Spiritual

Arrange a fireside on a Sunday evening.

[nellyleyva92]

My dad has been working for the Church Institutes here in Mexico for more than 20 years. One of the activities he noticed the YSA enjoyed the most was... A collective Yard sale!

Even the guys who wouldn't go to dances or YSA activities because they didn't like to socialize or whatever reason showed up with their stuff because.... who doesn't want to get rid of old things and earn some money? lol $_$

They had to bring to the Institute/ Meetinghouse the stuff they wanted to sell and invited people from the streets, people from their wards, or even they could buy/sell things among themselves if they wanted to.

The guys had so much fun making signs for the yard sale, dancing with signs on the street to invite people, making teams and compete to see who would sell more/ faster, they socialized , they had the opportunity to explain people what the meetinghouse/Institute was and were able to talk about the Church, they made friends, they earned money.... They loved it!!! They wanted to do it again! and they did! and, it was a sucess again :)

If you like this idea, you could plan it a way it could be not only fun but also spiritual/ service. Who knows, maybe giving away some things for free, giving away Books of Mormon, etc, etc.

[Roseslipper]

Volley Ball seems to be a favorite, how about Ysa fhe, Pot luck dinner, movie night @ the chapel, or even at a movie house, going bowling. Ysa need to socialize if they dont find it in the church they will go looking for it in all the wrong places. firesites, ask them what they would like to do...??? service projects...and so on and so on.....good luck, you can do it, dont get discourage if not many show up, it might take time to build it, but it will be worth it....!!

[Martain]

A friend of mine who was a YSA Male Rep did was the work of actually finding out who was actually still in his ward.

Sooner or later I would recommend reaching out / visiting each individual on that list to find out who moved, who is interested in being invited, who is friendly and who is antagonistic.

If they've moved try and find a forwarding address and then look up which ward has stewardship and have their records transferred with an email notice to the appropriate person so that contact can be made.

My friend sought the contact/email address of those that were friendly/interested too which helped him when it actually came time to invite people to the events. Out of a list similar to yours in length, by weeding out those who had moved, were now married, refused contact, he reduced his list by at least half.

You're on the right track =)! Don't forget to seek inspiration and personal revelation on how to fulfill your assignment/calling!