Help needed from the women. New calling...

[carlimac]

I'm the new coordinator for the monthly mid week activities. (AKA Homemaking or Enrichment Meetings) Have the small groups gone by the wayside? They don't do them in this ward.

Anyway, can you share with me some of the most memorable, helpful, inspiring, or fun meetings you've been to? I need ideas!! What topics would you want to see discussed or skills learned or projects done in your ward if you could decide? Any websites you recommend?

I did this once before about 5 years ago but I only did one meeting before our ward was split and I was moved to a new ward and lost my job. (I breathed a big ole sigh of relief when that happened. But it's caught up with me again. )

Edited May 11, 2013 by carlimac

[dahlia]

Our RS is doing an 'intro to gardening' this week. I'd go, but I'm moving to a condo townhouse w/no real yard (thank goodness).

We've sewn cloth shopping bags for the women's crisis center and made baby tie blankets. Some of this crafty stuff is a bit over my head, but I go for the company and don't mind doing the lowest level work to get the job done.

We also had a crock pot cooking class, which was interesting, but maybe more so if you're young or never seen a crock pot before.

It might be useful to ask around your community food bank, women's shelter, etc. what your RS could do to be helpful.

[Jenamarie]

Maybe you could ask your RS president if you could pass around a clipboard asking for suggestions of activities or things the sisters in your ward would like to learn about, and also which ones have skills they'd be willing to teach. This happened in my old ward, and the activities vastly improved as a result.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Jenamarie

[Smudge]

My suggestion would be to try and get a balance of activities that will appeal to all - I rarely go to our mid week meetings because to me they are very old lady activities - certainly not things that what to do or learn. My house mate used to be the secretary and everytime she tried to suggest activities she knew would appeal to our age group she was shoot down so eventually gave up. I am not saying make every activity universal as that is unattainable but if you have 2 activities in a row that are very passive try to do something more interactive.

[Wingnut]

Think outside the box. Don't stick with activities that are typical to sisters. We had a class a few years back on how to change the brakes on our cars. We have the good fortune in our ward to have a sister who actually used to work in the pits in NASCAR in a former life. She showed everyone their way around under a hood, as well as how to take tires on and off, etc. It was (unfortunately) poorly attended, but highly educational and very interesting.

[pam]

I have to go with Wingers. One of the most enjoyable activities I went to was learning basics about cars. I was amazed how many women didn't even know how to fill their cars with gas because their husbands always did it.

[Guest]

Our ward don't do monthly enrichment activities. We do the small group activities. We have a lot of clubs - reading club, scrapbooking club, running club, beach club, park club, etc. Then once a month, usually towards the last week of the month, we have the VT social. Basically, if you haven't done your VT, you try to invite the sisters in your route to this VT social and everybody gets the VT lesson at the same time. It's supposed to be a "I just can't get to it" this month, not your monthly planned VT. I think they do an all RS meeting twice a year - I know Christmas time is one of them, and I think sometime in the summer they hold an enrichment. I've been in Primary for years and have only been back in RS for a few weeks.

[Leah]

I feel your pain.

I'm not the coordinator, but one of the members of this committee for our ward. It seems in our ward, it is the first calling automatically given to female converts. I remember feeling rather out of the loop at my first meeting, as all the other sisters had years of experience to fall back on. I still have the calling and am burned out.

Our committee only seems interested in ideas that include doing a craft. If one comes up with an idea that doesn't involve a craft, it doesn't get any attention. Yet, the feedback I get from the sisters in the ward (our monthly activities are very sparsely attended, it is usually the same half dozen - or less - that attend every month. There are often more committee members than attendees) is 1) monthly is too often and 2) they don't want crafts EVERY month. They are really okay with also learning something new without needing a hands-on activity to go along with it.

I think the idea of getting feedback from your ward is an excellent idea.

[Guest]

Here are some ideas from one of those mid-year enrichments that I've attended in our ward. The Christmas one is usually Christmas-themed (making ornaments, cooking for a party, etc.).

1.) Home decorator ideas. The sister-in-law of our then RS President is an interior decorator. She gave us ideas to control clutter, how display collections, how to properly position a frame on a wall... etc. I liked that one.

2.) Financial planning. We have several members of our ward who own successful businesses. They gave us ideas on how to manage money from the struggling college student, to the just-started-my-career-and-just-had-my-first-baby, to the I-want-to-risk-everything-on-a-start-up-business, to the I'm-in-my-mid-life-crisis, to the I-need-to-retire stages of life. This one was good except that there were some people who were a bit overwhelmed by it.

3.) Cleaning a house. We had a member in our ward who has a house-cleaning business. She gave tips on how to clean bathroom grout. How to clean and disinfect the kitchen. How to clean the entire house in under 2 hours. And something I really liked - how to make your own "Swiffer Wetjet" refill instead of buying refills from the store. She even gave tips on what to do if your kitchen got invaded by fruit flies.

4.) Provident Living. We get these in almost every mid-year enrichment together with the other enrichment lessons.

As you can see, we're not big on crafts. LOL.

[Jenamarie]

Oh, my ward had a "Food Storage Fair" one year, where some women each presented how they use different parts of their food storage, or ideas for just *storing* it, like if you have a small house. I did a presentation on things to do with your wheat if you don't have/can't afford a wheat grinder (or just don't like making bread ). When they did a repeat of the activity a couple of years later I was asked to do it again.

[Guest]

Oh, my ward had a "Food Storage Fair" one year, where some women each presented how they use different parts of their food storage, or ideas for just *storing* it, like if you have a small house. I did a presentation on things to do with your wheat if you don't have/can't afford a wheat grinder (or just don't like making bread ). When they did a repeat of the activity a couple of years later I was asked to do it again.

Oh yeah! We had that too! That was good! We tasted chicken pot pie from one-year-old chicken in Ball jars!

[Jenamarie]

Oh yeah! We had that too! That was good! We tasted chicken pot pie from one-year-old chicken in Ball jars!

Ya, our fair discussed "canning" meat as well. I was both awed and mildly grossed out.

[Guest]

Ya, our fair discussed "canning" meat as well. I was both awed and mildly grossed out.

The food storage beans pie (for desert) mildly grossed me out... it actually tasted pretty good but just the thought of having beans for desert was kinda freaky.

[Jenamarie]

The food storage beans pie (for desert) mildly grossed me out... it actually tasted pretty good but just the thought of having beans for desert was kinda freaky.

I made a jello salad with cracked wheat! Doesn't get more Mormon than that.

[Wingnut]

I'm not the coordinator, but one of the members of this committee for our ward. It seems in our ward, it is the first calling automatically given to female converts. I remember feeling rather out of the loop at my first meeting, as all the other sisters had years of experience to fall back on. I still have the calling and am burned out.

Coordinator or committee member is the "new convert calling?" Coordinator would be an awful calling for a new convert (with very few exceptions), but I can see the committee being a good one.

Here are some ideas from one of those mid-year enrichments that I've attended in our ward. The Christmas one is usually Christmas-themed (making ornaments, cooking for a party, etc.).

1.) Home decorator ideas. The sister-in-law of our then RS President is an interior decorator. She gave us ideas to control clutter, how display collections, how to properly position a frame on a wall... etc. I liked that one.

2.) Financial planning. We have several members of our ward who own successful businesses. They gave us ideas on how to manage money from the struggling college student, to the just-started-my-career-and-just-had-my-first-baby, to the I-want-to-risk-everything-on-a-start-up-business, to the I'm-in-my-mid-life-crisis, to the I-need-to-retire stages of life. This one was good except that there were some people who were a bit overwhelmed by it.

3.) Cleaning a house. We had a member in our ward who has a house-cleaning business. She gave tips on how to clean bathroom grout. How to clean and disinfect the kitchen. How to clean the entire house in under 2 hours. And something I really liked - how to make your own "Swiffer Wetjet" refill instead of buying refills from the store. She even gave tips on what to do if your kitchen got invaded by fruit flies.

4.) Provident Living. We get these in almost every mid-year enrichment together with the other enrichment lessons.

As you can see, we're not big on crafts. LOL.

I really like this idea (generally), mostly because it involves using as many women in the ward as possible, and getting more people than the standard go-to sisters to share their talents. This would be another tip I would offer: use as many people as you can!!

Ya, our fair discussed "canning" meat as well. I was both awed and mildly grossed out.

So interesting, and I've heard it's really good, because it's so moist. But seriously, it looks like a bad science experiment. So gross.

[dahlia]

2.) Financial planning. We have several members of our ward who own successful businesses. They gave us ideas on how to manage money from the struggling college student, to the just-started-my-career-and-just-had-my-first-baby, to the I-want-to-risk-everything-on-a-start-up-business, to the I'm-in-my-mid-life-crisis, to the I-need-to-retire stages of life. This one was good except that there were some people who were a bit overwhelmed by it.

The financial planning class is a good idea. We had one sponsored by the priesthood for the men and their wives (singles could attend), but I'm sure one addressed to the women would be very useful. They need it, at least in my ward with so many young mothers and couples living on student stipends.

[pam]

I don't know if many sisters live in small homes or apartments, but container gardening would be a topic I'd be more interested in learning about. Wingers sent me a link to some good resources, but a class would be awesome as well.

[Wingnut]

I was thinking that, too, Pam -- I forgot I'd sent you those links. Did you get around to planting?

Dahlia, I taught a class last Spring for a RS activity in my ward, about gardening, and since so many families in our ward live either in apartments or rented homes with little yard flexibility, I was asked to focus a lot on alternative gardening ideas -- bucket, containers, etc. There are a lot of innovative ideas out there. Of course, if you're not interested in gardening, it doesn't matter anyway. :)

[dahlia]

I was asked to focus a lot on alternative gardening ideas -- bucket, containers, etc. There are a lot of innovative ideas out there. Of course, if you're not interested in gardening, it doesn't matter anyway. :)

I didn't go to the session and don't know if they mentioned container gardening. I didn't even think of that and might have been a little interested if it were covered. We have a lot of small, cheap townhouses, so a lot of the sisters do have garden space, tho it might not be very big.

Once I was over to a sister's house and went in the back yard with her kids. She gave me a pepper from her plant. It was so weird - a real red pepper from someone's back yard! What will they think of next?

[Leah]

One our most popular topics involved a sister teaching about end-of-life planning. She had this amazing notebook organized so that should one spouse or the other died, all the important info was in one place. It would also be helpful for other family members, after the surviving spouse has passed on.

Another very popular one - but has probably already been done most places - was teaching how to make your own - much cheaper - versions of a wide variety of cleaning products. I don't know why, but I was suprised at just how popular that one was.

[pam]

I was thinking that, too, Pam -- I forgot I'd sent you those links. Did you get around to planting?

Dahlia, I taught a class last Spring for a RS activity in my ward, about gardening, and since so many families in our ward live either in apartments or rented homes with little yard flexibility, I was asked to focus a lot on alternative gardening ideas -- bucket, containers, etc. There are a lot of innovative ideas out there. Of course, if you're not interested in gardening, it doesn't matter anyway. :)

No. With my work schedule I get up, leave for work, come home just in time to go to bed. :)

[Leah]

No. With my work schedule I get up, leave for work, come home just in time to go to bed. :)

Sounds like my schedule!

And I'm pretty tired of it.

[Smudge]

Something which I had hoped to organise was a backwoods cooking day - the theory being that are encouraged to have a years supply of food but it isn't safe to have a years supply of gas canisters for camp stoves so we need to learn to cook over an open fire. Plus fire building is fun :)

[Jean]

I've been relief society meeting coordinator for about 3 years now. I'll admit it can be a ton of work. When I was first put in we had monthly meetings. Now we don't have them every month, but we at least have them quarterly as the handbook suggests. We always celebrate the RS birthday in March. We've used people in our ward who are talented in various areas. We've had one successful relief society on cooking healthy. We've had game nights tied up with service projects. We wrote down a service we could do and posted it on a bulletin board. The winning sisters of the games would go and pick a service as their prize. That was successful because people actually came through with their service project. I think it's important to work with the RS presidency on the needs in the ward and tailor your activities... ie self-esteem, marriage builders, sewing, date nights, etc. to whatever would be most helpful to the women in your ward. I think it's important to have a committee and different people can focus on the 4 aspects of the meeting -- publicity, food, whatever decorating is necessary and the activity.

There are quite a few ideas you can get from the internet. There are even RS pinterest boards. Good luck with your calling.

[dahlia]

Another very popular one - but has probably already been done most places - was teaching how to make your own - much cheaper - versions of a wide variety of cleaning products. I don't know why, but I was suprised at just how popular that one was.

I guess this is a good idea for survivalists. I don't have a problem with using vinegar for some cleaning, but HF gave us Johnson & Johnson and the Clorox companies for a reason. Plus, products are so cheap, my time is more profitably spent in other endeavors.

Re end of life, that's pretty interesting. One thing people forget to do is have a list of their online names and passwords and the sites they frequent the most. Part of administering an estate these days should include notifying message boards that you have passed on. Some may recall I mentioned a person I'd known online for a few years passed away recently. Thank goodness her family knew how to contact our board and let us know what happened; we would have wondered forever what happened to our chatty online buddy.