Ward Building Usage

I understand that HQ is encouraging a broader use of our buildings by the community or at least that is what I am being told by my Stake President. We live in a populated area and I have some questions. How is this being done in other parts of the United States? I have been the building Coordinator for many years for our stake building. It has always been the policy, as least in our area, that there needs to be someone on-site that was connected with the building during an activity. Even when you rent a facility in the community there is someone present somewhere in the facility that has a connection with it. I have gotten over part of that notion, if you are LDS you are expected to take care of the building whether it's the one you meet in on Sunday or not. BUT, I don't know what to do with the greater use directive and someone who is just coming in from the outside to ask for the use of our building. Do we check to see if the missionaries could cover the building during the time the event takes place in the building? Please advise. Thanks.

nancypalemany wrote:I understand that HQ is encouraging a broader use of our buildings by the community or at least that is what I am being told by my Stake President.

I haven't seen any signs of it in my area. You may want to look over Facilities Management Guidelines for Meetinghouses and Other Church Property

This was evidently in a letter sent to Stake Presidents in the past couple months??? When my Stake President mentioned it to me at an event in December, my knee jerk reaction was "WHAT!?"

We are finding in our area that the BSA is coming to us more frequently in a panic because they have lost access to many of their usual church locations. The new directive from HQ has made it an easy thing to say "Yes, you are welcome to use our facilities for Cub Scout Day Camp or the District Dinner."

I would like some direction for when I approach my agent bishop. The missionaries would be perfect hosts for these little community groups that use our buildings, since tracting is now discouraged.

nancypalemany wrote:This was evidently in a letter sent to Stake Presidents in the past couple months???

I'm quite confident that no such letter was sent to all stake presidents. Perhaps it is specific to stake presidents in your area.

nancypalemany wrote:This was evidently in a letter sent to Stake Presidents in the past couple months???

If this was true then I would expect to find something in the Official Communication Library (Link only available to certain calling positions). I can find nothing.

I'm thinking we maybe a pilot program. We'll let you know how it works and what we learn.

At this point, I can tell you the missionaries will make natural hosts for many of the little events. They are discouraging tracting in our area, anyway. Stake Primary will make natural hosts for anything Cub Scouting and our Stake Young Men Scouting Specialist will make a natural host for anything Boy Scouting. I feel strongly that there always needs to be an LDS host in the building when a community program is using our buildings.

An example of this type of usage is the Daily Dose program for ESL. An administrator is called to open the chapel at frequent intervals for "huddles" in which non-English-speakers come to the chapel to learn English.
Another example is employment workshops, which are essentially open to the public.

Both of these programs frequently cause an increase in convert baptisms.