New youth program being defined

[nibbler]

Looks pretty vague. In my experience members struggle without specific standards and tasks being defined.

That's what happened with ministering locally. No one really knew what to do without direction, so local leaders made it HT 2.0. They even started setting quorum goals to visit in the home to teach a lesson by the end of the month. Sound familiar?

Kids choosing their own goals instead of it being spelled out probably won't work too great. Leaders will have to come up with stuff on their own which could get very interesting in some areas.

Historically I've seen two failings:
1) Adult leaders will call the quorum leaders together to hold another meeting in addition to the ones that they've already attended. Who wants to do another hour or two of church in addition to the 2 hour block, seminary every weekday, and a night of mutual? Why not hold the "what do you want to do?" meeting during the 2nd hour. Two birds and it addresses my next point.

2) The only people that get to give input on what the group will do are the two or three kids that hold a calling that allow them to have a voice. If they did the "what do you want to do?" meeting during the 2nd hour you'll potentially get input from more people. But that's a common problem all up and down the church. A small group of guys decide, no one else gets a say-so, their job is to follow.

It will be interesting to see what happens. The YM/YW program might dwindle down to nothing in some wards and in others it may become a program that's micro managed by the SP where kids have milestones that they have to check off, all with the end goal of serving a mission.

[alas]

The “selecting your own goals” sounds like the YM will join the YW in doing “personal progress”. All the guys commenting make it sound like they are talking about activities, but they kind of do that now, so how is that different. I think the things the youth will be picking their own goals are things like the YW have been doing now for a long time. They have a book with lots of suggestions for each YW’s value, or they can name one they would rather do. So, under “Devine worth” the girls have a long list of suggested projects or can come up with their own. It’s been a long time since I was involved, but there were suggested readings, writing, and projects on most of them. Heck, I can’t even name the values any more, let alone remember a project under each value. The program changed totally since I was in YW, and has even changed a whole lot since I had daughters in YW’s. But you had to pick a specific number of tasks under each value. But the goals are not specific like they are for merit badges, and you get to choose which ones you want to do under each value. But then again, they were all spiritual and nothing practical or skills or useful.

So, to me it just sounds like they are going to have the YM doing a variation of what the girls have been doing.

[Anon70]

The best thing about the new program is that all “treks and youth conferences” are to be put on hold. Amen & Hallelujah! I hadn’t prayed about it but wish I had so I could say my prayers had been answered.

I had actually been the only vote against trek here and had said that with all the issues they’ve had, the illnesses and deaths (not to mention costs!) I couldn’t imagine the church supporting these much longer. I had a few council members come up this past Sunday and say, looks like you’re right. Just logic, no inspiration required

[Culper Jr.]

I think the things the youth will be picking their own goals are things like the YW have been doing now for a long time. They have a book with lots of suggestions for each YW’s value, or they can name one they would rather do. So, under “Devine worth” the girls have a long list of suggested projects or can come up with their own. It’s been a long time since I was involved, but there were suggested readings, writing, and projects on most of them. Heck, I can’t even name the values any more, let alone remember a project under each value. The program changed totally since I was in YW, and has even changed a whole lot since I had daughters in YW’s. But you had to pick a specific number of tasks under each value. But the goals are not specific like they are for merit badges, and you get to choose which ones you want to do under each value. But then again, they were all spiritual and nothing practical or skills or useful.

My daughter just got her YW medallion and this is an accurate description of the program. They do some goals at church, but the quality of the program is really dependent on what the parents do. My DD is an only child and my DW stays home, so we were able to go all out on a lot of things and actually used the local Catholic church for some really cool service opportunities for her; so I feel like she had a pretty good experience with it and learned a lot of new things.

If a girl's parents are not really on board with it for whatever reason (time, money, multiple children in the program, low interest) I don't see that the girl gets a lot out of it. The times my daughter participated in the personal progress stuff at church it was a bland, underfunded affair where they were doing the minimum to let the girls check off the goal. One thing about scouts in the church, even the watered down LDS version, was that it provided me with a lot of opportunities to experience things and go places that my parents couldn't easily provide by themselves.

I hope I'm wrong, but it seems like instead of giving the YW better funding and more opportunities like the YM had with Scouts, they are making the entire thing a bland underfunded bore-fest.

When DD finally got the award, they handed her the certificate and necklace and said "Good job." A far cry from the special Eagle COH the Scouts do. I don't know why they think watering down and defunding youth programs is going to retain the youth.

[2bizE]

What will happen:
YM leaders: “In recent months, we have learned about scriptures, poetry, dancing, opera and the arts, and have been to all the free LDS museums with the young women. If all the YM hadn’t stopped attending, back during the month-long ballet nights at the church, I would recommend we go camping on our next activity.”

[Brent]

Dear CoB,

YoungLife. Plagarize.