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Leadership Mtg Agenda

50 postsstarted by jupurulla-p40 87,984 viewsoriginal topic

jupurulla-p40
New Member
#1
Does anyone have a file of successful agendas you use in your ward? Our PEC, welfare, and ward council meetings tend to run exactly the same, essentially a round robin of auxiliary reports. I have read the handbook regarding the meetings and would like to design agendas which help us to better meet the specific goals and outlines for each meeting. Does anyone have one that comes close to accomplishing that goal or that works well for your ward meetings that I could work from? If so, please email me a copy at brandon@farrowandsons.com. Thanks!
jbh001
Senior Member
#2

Sample Meeting Agendas

Here are some in MS Word format.

I adapted the templates straight out of the handbook. The sacrament meeting agenda uses wording from the handbook for releases and sustainings (as requested by our stake president) with the rest of the wording modeled after General Conference.

While some members of the bishopric do well at conducting, others (especially when they are new) like to have a safety net of what to say for those times when they step up to the pulpit and then go blank.
📎 Blank.SacramentMeeting.Agenda.doc (38 KiB)
📎 Sample.SacramentMeeting.Agenda.doc (39 KiB)
📎 Template.PEC.Agenda.doc (32.5 KiB)
📎 Template.WelfareCommittee.Agenda.doc (32 KiB)
📎 Template.WardCouncil.Agenda.doc (32.5 KiB)
jbh001
Senior Member
#3

Having an Effective Meeting

I saved this from a while back.

Having an Effective Meeting

1. Meetings should have a purpose.

2. Only invite those individuals who need to be at the meeting. For example in an engineering firm, a 30 person staff meeting can cost in excess of $1800 an hour. Even if time is not billable, people do value their time.

3. Give plenty of notice. Invite those who are to attend with sufficient notice for planning.

4. Make sure the meeting has a reasonable starting and stopping time. Most meetings can be kept to one hour or less.

5. Assign someone to take minutes. Minutes should be distributed in a timely fashion after the meeting (when approriate).

6. Use a facilitator. Someone should be assigned to facilitate the meeting, keep the meeting on time, make sure everyone has an opportunity to provide input to the meeting business, control those individuals who might monopolize a meeting.

7. Start and end the meeting on time. If there are any items that were not covered, discuss how this will be handled. Usually if all items are not covered, there was a problem with the agenda, facilitation of the meeting, the time allowed for the meeting, or all of the above. If meetings do not start and end on time, and you organized the meeting, you can lose credibility and people will not be enthusiastic about coming to your meetings.

8. Church Meetings:
a. Priesthood Executive Committee
b. Ward Council (Correlation Committee)
c. Welfare Committee
d. Bishop’s Youth Committee (BYC)
e. Stake Priesthood
f. Stake High Council
g. Quorum Presidency and Quorum Meetings
h. Sacrament Meeting

9. Typical agenda for Church meetings:
a. Opening Prayer
b. Hymn and/or spiritual thought
c. Old business
d. Calendar items
e. New business and reports
f. Testimony
g. Closing prayer
russellhltn
Community Administrator
#4
jbh001 wrote: d. Calendar items
e. New business and reports
While appropriate for some meetings, it derails others from their intended purpose and turns ministering meetings into administrative meetings. The templates in the earlier post was more on-target, in my opinion.

Another resource to suggest is to look for conference talks about ward meetings. I know there have been some that quite pointed in describing what should be happening.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
jbh001
Senior Member
#5
RussellHltn wrote:
jbh001 wrote:d. Calendar items
e. New business and reports
While appropriate for some meetings, it derails others from their intended purpose and turns ministering meetings into administrative meetings.
I agree. I cut out parts 8 & 9 from my original post, but then went back and added them back in since they were part of the original hand-out (wherever I got it from). I should have stuck with my initial impression to leave them out.
Mikerowaved
Community Moderators
#6
jbh001 wrote:...control those individuals who might monopolize a meeting.
Amen. There are some meetings I've attended where I wished a whip was standard issue for the facilitator.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
opee
Member
#7
Great collection of agendas--thanks for sharing!
The_Earl
Member
#8
jbh001 wrote:Here are some in MS Word format.
If you change the extension on those files to '.dot', Word will automatically use it as a template. When you open the document, it will be untitled, and not saved, so you will not accidentally overwrite the template.

Thanks
The Earl
Thomas_Lerman
Member
#9
I agree, these look great. I did notice one adjustment that could be made. Although I do not have most the references in front of me, we have been given the following instruction:
  1. The positions of stake teacher improvement coordinator and ward teacher coordinator have been discontinued (letter from First Presidency date 17 Nov 2006). Sunday School Presidents assume these responsibility.
  2. Monthly teacher improvement mini-lesson in ward council.

Actually, I believe these may be found in one or more of the following:
  1. Handbook of Instructions, Book 2: Priesthook and Auxiliary Leaders - pages 300-306
  2. Improving Gospel Teaching: A Leader's Guide - pages 4-6
  3. more probably exists, just do not have everything in front of me
jupurulla-p40
New Member
#10

Thanks!

Thank you so much for the help! These are just what I was looking for and will be a great benefit to our meetings:).
jbh001
Senior Member
#11
I have now removed the Teacher Improvement Coordinator from the Ward Council Agenda.

Also, while changing the extension to .dot is a good idea, it is probably better that this is done after my dummy names are replaced with actual names. Also, since confidential information is discussed in each of these meetings, it is necessary to determine what hardcopies of these agendas need to be maintained (if at all).
daddy-o-p40
Member
#12
jbh001 wrote:Here are some in MS Word format.

I adapted the templates straight out of the handbook. The sacrament meeting agenda uses wording from the handbook for releases and sustainings (as requested by our stake president) with the rest of the wording modeled after General Conference.

While some members of the bishopric do well at conducting, others (especially when they are new) like to have a safety net of what to say for those times when they step up to the pulpit and then go blank.

Well done. I realize you have to build some time in for the incidental stuff that comes up.

Next you'll have to tell us how to keep these meetings on track. Keep sharing your experiences!!
"What have I done for someone today?" Thomas Monson
dmack-p40
New Member
#13

Bishopric Agenda

Hi, There looks to be some really good agendas here. Can anyone post a successful Bishopric Agenda. I have just been called as a Branch Pres and would like to look at a few different ideas. Thanks
bernkie-p40
New Member
#14

Here are some more templates...

All,

I have a agenda template for PEC, Ward Welfare, and Ward Council. These are based on the book "Counseling with our Councils" (Elder Ballard). His main gist in meetings was:

First, Focus on Fundamentals
Second, focus on people, not programs
Third, Councils are for counsel and the exchange of ideas, not just reports and leactures.

Sorry...no bishopric template yet...
📎 Ward Agendas.doc (78 KiB)
jbh001
Senior Member
#15
Thanks for the templates. I like them. When I created my templates I had nothing to go on but what was listed in the handbook. I reviewing your templates they seem to be a logical distillation of what is in the handbook and also seem to have been streamlined and simplified through use.
dahr03-p40
New Member
#16

Thank you

Thanks for posting those agenda templates. I was reviewing the General Handbook of Instructions today and thinking on better ways to conduct meeting following its guidelines and ended here.

I'll share them with my stake president after I translate them into spanish.
Thanks for sharing!
dahr03-p40
New Member
#17

Agenda templates in spanish

If any one is interested in sharing these agendas with a bishop or branch president of a spanish speaking unit. Here are templates translated.

Regards,
Daniel
📎 REUNIONES DEL BARRIO.doc (98 KiB)
RACSAN18-p40
New Member
#18
Thank You very much................A struggling New Executive Secretary:confused:
MorettiDP
Member
#19
Why isn't interesting to the Church padronize layout for meetings agenda??? Any of you know why it can't be?
mkmurray
Senior Member
#20
MorettiDP wrote:Why isn't interesting to the Church padronize layout for meetings agenda??? Any of you know why it can't be?
Because we shouldn't need to be counseled in all things by Church Headquarters? :)

I think maybe the Spirit and content of the meeting are more important than the actual order. An agenda definitely helps keep the meeting on task and well-planned. But I don't think a uniform agenda from Church Headquarters would suit all wards and branches around the world. I think local leadership can use their own judgement and create something that works most effectively for their ward/branch specifically.

It certainly doesn't hurt to look at these previously posted agendas for ideas or guidance though.
MorettiDP
Member
#21
mkmurray wrote:Because we shouldn't need to be counseled in all things by Church Headquarters? :)

I think maybe the Spirit and content of the meeting are more important than the actual order. An agenda definitely helps keep the meeting on task and well-planned. But I don't think a uniform agenda from Church Headquarters would suit all wards and branches around the world. I think local leadership can use their own judgement and create something that works most effectively for their ward/branch specifically.

It certainly doesn't hurt to look at these previously posted agendas for ideas or guidance though.

Yes... it makes sense... :D
johnshaw
Senior Member
#22

Leaders to Managers?

mkmurray wrote:Because we shouldn't need to be counseled in all things by Church Headquarters? :)

I think maybe the Spirit and content of the meeting are more important than the actual order. An agenda definitely helps keep the meeting on task and well-planned. But I don't think a uniform agenda from Church Headquarters would suit all wards and branches around the world. I think local leadership can use their own judgement and create something that works most effectively for their ward/branch specifically..
I would add that it probably would be more effective relative to EVERY ward or branch organization to have at least a standard format for each meeting built from the CHI. The instructions would then be that local leaders can modify these agendas to meet the needs of the local area.

Without this approach we are left to to the talents of local members for effective administration of the church. We may pass over someone who we know is not very organized in their life in favor of someone seen as successful or organized in their own personal life - In order to have the church administered effectively. This leaves leadership growth opportunities to a smaller and smaller subset of members of the church and can tend towards exclusiveness and the perception that successful person in a career = church leader.

I realize I've probably added way to much weight to a seemingly small topic of an agenda, but it was my thought this morning
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
― Thomas Paine, Common Sense
pete_arnett-p40
Member
#23

Leadership Mtg Agenda - Samples

The following are agendas that our Stake Presidency has provided to all units:

Quorum Presidencia Reunion Agenda Ejemplo (Sp)
Quorum Presidency Meeting Agenda Example
Aaronic PH Presidency Mtg Agenda

They are posted on our's Stake's website under: STAKE NEWS AND INFORMATION

Method to access forms:
To down load the document, please go to the Stake's web page "News and Information" section, upper right portion of web page and click on "More..." for all items
Dated: 07Dec2008
📎 Quorum Presidencia Reunion Agenda Ejemplo (Sp) .doc (33 KiB)
📎 Quorum-Presidency-Meeting-Agenda-Example.doc (15.5 KiB)
📎 Aaronic-PH-Presidency-Mtg-Agenda.pdf (58.87 KiB)
:cool: Your Fellow Servant,
Porter (Pete) Lee Arnett Jr.
USA
Diamond-p40
New Member
#24
Thank you this is just what I was looking for
kennethjorgensen
Community Moderators
#25
mkmurray wrote:Because we shouldn't need to be counseled in all things by Church Headquarters? :)

I think maybe the Spirit and content of the meeting are more important than the actual order. An agenda definitely helps keep the meeting on task and well-planned. But I don't think a uniform agenda from Church Headquarters would suit all wards and branches around the world. I think local leadership can use their own judgement and create something that works most effectively for their ward/branch specifically.

It certainly doesn't hurt to look at these previously posted agendas for ideas or guidance though.
I certainly agree with this. The great thing about the general handbook is that it gives us so much guideance and yet it also leaves enough open for all to be guided by the spirit according to our situation and as long as we do it for the sake of those we serve then the Lord will always bless us.

Having "suggested" leadership meeting agenda's certainly is a huge start for many who are called and who have no previous experience of running meetings and by calling them "suggested" nicely leaves it open so others do not insist on having to follow every point 100% with the fear of loosing the focus of the meeting (on people).

The one thing I often see missing from many agenda's and minutes is a time slot or even list of ALL the specific and smaller tasks people were asked or given so come next meeting they might be lost so if anyone has felt the same problem and come with their solution it would be interesting to hear about.
peden-p40
New Member
#26
Thank you very much for sharing these templates! They were exactly what I was looking for and will be a big help to a new bishopric.
mikelower-p40
New Member
#27
Here are a couple that work well for us.
📎 Revised Fast and Testimony Service Agenda.doc (39 KiB)
📎 Revised Sacrament Service Agenda.doc (39 KiB)
RossEvans
Senior Member
#28
Another idea to pass along: Our bishopric, coordinated by the Exec Sec, maintains its various agendas on Google Docs. This saves him some work, but more importantly allows easy collaboration between meetings. And since he has his laptop in the meetings, it is easy to calendar followup items on the spot.
kisaac
Community Moderators
#29

Ward agendas on google docs

I also wish to have collaborative agendas, such as is possible on google docs. I used it for an ongoing quorum lesson schedule between 3 instructors before with good results. But I'm not sure it is safe/secure for the sensitive stuff that sometimes appear on our ward agendas. any thoughts?

I'll start a new thread about this concern regarding safety of data on both Google docs and Google calendar.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath" works great on LDSTech forum boards!
mrg777-p40
New Member
#30
jbh001 wrote:Here are some in MS Word format.

I adapted the templates straight out of the handbook. The sacrament meeting agenda uses wording from the handbook for releases and sustainings (as requested by our stake president) with the rest of the wording modeled after General Conference.

While some members of the bishopric do well at conducting, others (especially when they are new) like to have a safety net of what to say for those times when they step up to the pulpit and then go blank.
A prayer has just been answered here.

In my attempt to come up with my first agenda for our Ward Council, I failed to do the most important. Inquire of the Lord. I spent a long time trying to do the agenda and finally I realized I neglected to pray for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. So I did pray and about ten minutes later I come across this wonderful website I had no idea existed. Thank you jbh001.
mnmpeterson
Member
#31

Another Source for Templates

I posted some Word and Excel documents/templates I came up with at:
http://members.cox.net/mormonism/resources.shtml

The site is also a missionary tool as you'll see if you check out the other pages. :)
slabuonora-p40
New Member
#32
Estimados hermanos, gracias por todo lo que comparten!
Es mi primer post, soy de Uruguay, y mi ingles no es muy bueno. Alguien puede compartirme una Agenda para la reunión semanal de Presidencia de Estaca? Estamos usando Google Docs para ir armando los temas de la agenda entre semana, entre todos, pero me gustaría tener algo similar a lo que han hecho con las reuniones de barrio. Muchas Gracias!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear brothers, thank you for all you share!
This is my first post, I'm from Uruguay and my English is not very
good. Someone can share an agenda for the meeting
Weekly Stake Presidency? We are using Google
Docs to go putting together the agenda items during the week,
among all, but I'd like something similar to what
have done with the neighborhood meetings. Thank you very much!
danpass
Senior Member
#33
slabuonora wrote:pero me gustaría tener algo similar a lo que han hecho con las reuniones de barrio.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but I'd like something similar to what you have done with the neighborhood meetings.
reuniones de barrio = ward meetings
JasonELee-p40
New Member
#34

www.LDSagendas.com

I've seen some excellent leadership meeting agendas and ideas on this forum and elsewhere that I've compiled at: http://www.LDSagendas.com .
Thanks for sharing.
jwschouten
New Member
#35
Anyone have a good agenda for BYC?
wica-p40
New Member
#36
Here is what I came up with after reading the gospel teaching and leadership section for BYC.
📎 Bishops Youth Committee Meeting Agenda.doc (22 KiB)
schutja-p40
New Member
#37
Really like your meeting agendas. In light of the changes in General Handbook 2 regarding the elimination of the Welfare Committe Meeting as a separate meeting and being incorporated into the Priesthood Executive Committee Meeting and Ward Council Meeting, would you please consider re-doing the PEC and WC meeting agendas and posting them? Thanks so much in advance.
lawrence.sproul
New Member
#38

Templates for iPhone or iPad

Does anyone have a good app for meeting agendas that works for iPhone or iPad?

Or perhaps a database or form app that is customizable?

Thank you
tortdog
Member
#39
We have started to use agreedo. We keep the general themes, but the agenda items carry over from one week to the next based on work performed or the need. Our meetings have become far more effective in getting things done and making sure that nothing is missed. When a task is assigned the members of the meeting are automatically notified to be prepared to discuss at the next meeting. They can login and comment on it.

Pretty amazing, though the documentation on the follow up feature leaves some to be desired.

It's been so effective that at a recent Ward Council meeting one member in the prayer thanked the Lord for the agendas, and he was serious. Made me kind of laugh . . . how often do you hear that.
leslie65
New Member
#40
Quick thank you for the obvious effort to produce agendas which reflect the focus of the handbooks. Don't suppose you have modified them to reflect any changes in the new handbooks? This would be very useful if you are willing to share.
jbh001
Senior Member
#41
tortdog wrote:We have started to use agreedo.
I just checked it out, and it looks like an interesting concept. It would be nice if something similar to this could be added as a tool on lds.org. To me it looks like it has some generally similar concepts with the dutytogod.lds.org and personal progress tracking websites.
lawrence.sproul
New Member
#42
Can you send me an example of your agendas on agreedo?
lawrence.sproul AT gmail
tortdog
Member
#43
Sent you an excel export. Not as clean as printing from Agreedo, but probably enough to suggest.
lds_ivan
New Member
#44
I am so much thankful for all of this resources I found out a proper and well organized settings in conducting our meetings. I am newly called Branch Clerk in our area and I need more things to learn specially this type of church activity.
mnmpeterson
Member
#45

http://mormonism.hostei.com/resources.php

New location for templates:
http://mormonism.hostei.com/resources.php

I had to switch to a new hosting service since my ISP is dropping its web space service.
dwdscott
New Member
#46

Great Agenda's

We are in the Philippines on a couples mission for 18 months and will use these for training in our 5 branches.

Elder & Sister Scott, Iloilo Philippines Mission
jjakob
New Member
#47

Re: Sample Meeting Agendas

jbh001 wrote:Here are some in MS Word format.

I adapted the templates straight out of the handbook. The sacrament meeting agenda uses wording from the handbook for releases and sustainings (as requested by our stake president) with the rest of the wording modeled after General Conference.

While some members of the bishopric do well at conducting, others (especially when they are new) like to have a safety net of what to say for those times when they step up to the pulpit and then go blank.

Thanks these were great. I created one for Bishopric Youth Committee Meeting as well.
📎 Agenda - BYC - Template.doc (35 KiB)
jjakob
New Member
#48

Re: Here are some more templates...

bernkie-p40 wrote:All,

I have a agenda template for PEC, Ward Welfare, and Ward Council. These are based on the book "Counseling with our Councils" (Elder Ballard). His main gist in meetings was:

First, Focus on Fundamentals
Second, focus on people, not programs
Third, Councils are for counsel and the exchange of ideas, not just reports and leactures.

Sorry...no bishopric template yet...

WOW 3 hour ward council! How do you get council members excited to go to a 3 hr meeting?
jjakob
New Member
#49

Re: Sample Meeting Agendas

jbh001 wrote:Here are some in MS Word format.

I adapted the templates straight out of the handbook. The sacrament meeting agenda uses wording from the handbook for releases and sustainings (as requested by our stake president) with the rest of the wording modeled after General Conference.

While some members of the bishopric do well at conducting, others (especially when they are new) like to have a safety net of what to say for those times when they step up to the pulpit and then go blank.
Thanks great templates. I have created ones for Melchizedeck Quorum/Group presidency meetings and for Aaronic Priesthood Presidency meetings. Enjoy!
📎 00 - Agenda - Aaronic Quorum Presidency Meeting.doc (37.5 KiB)
📎 00 - Agenda - Melchizedek Quorum Presidency Meeting.doc (35.5 KiB)
jmporterlds
New Member
#50
The current General Handbook allegedly has a "sample agenda" for Ward Council in Section 7.6.2 BUT that section does NOT work as of 4 July 2021, and several days before then.