Quarterly Report - Sacrament Attendance / Christmas Combined Meeting

Our ward had a combined sacrament meeting on December 25th; Christmas Day. The ward that meets in the building at 8 am, joined our ward for a 10 am sacrament meeting. The attendance at this combined meeting was almost twice our normal attendance.

December is the end of a quarter, and the sacrament attendance for this month is reported on our ward quarterly report. Is any one else in this situation, and did you just use this large number as part of your sacrament meeting attendance calculations for December?

12/4 - 241
12/11 - 277
12/18 - 266
12/25 - 509

jschaub wrote:Our ward had a combined sacrament meeting on December 25th; Christmas Day. The ward that meets in the building at 8 am, joined our ward for a 10 am sacrament meeting. The attendance at this combined meeting was almost twice our normal attendance.

Our bishop felt that we should take credit for the members of our ward who attended our combined sacrament meeting, and that the other unit that met with us should take credit for their members who attended.

The bishop then mumbled something about temptation, and ward budget, and something else, and asked the ward clerk to keep him honest. [grin]

lajackson wrote:Our bishop felt that we should take credit for the members of our ward who attended our combined sacrament meeting, and that the other unit that met with us should take credit for their members who attended.

Unless someone was counting who knew every member, this seems difficult or downright impossible, especially after the fact if you only have one total number.

It's certainly inappropriate for both wards to count the same people -- that is double counting that cannot possibly be the honest, accurate thing to do.

If I were in that situation, I would just prorate the attendance, based either on the relative sizes of the wards or the average attendance in the past. So if ward A had 200 members and ward B had 300 members, then ward A would get credit for 40% of the attendance and ward B would get credit for 60% of the attendance.

Our sacrament meeting last week was two stakes combined – about 20 wards (predominantly student, YSA stakes). I think most of the clerks just treated it like a stake conference and didn't include it in their average at all.

sbradshaw wrote:I think most of the clerks just treated it like a stake conference and didn't include it in their average at all.

In that situation, it makes sense. Other wards might be tempted to do the same once they see what the divided count looks like. <grin>. I'd imagine a number of members were away wth family on Christmas.