Relief Society Board Meetings:
What Should We Talk About
Annette Nay, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1998

In the Relief Society Manual it gives a breakdown of what things/departments the President is over, the 1st counselor, and the 2nd Counselor. Each department has a series of jobs with a woman in charge of each. When you break into departments the Relief Society President takes the people in the area she is responsible. Her counselors do the same.

Each of those people in those jobs gives an oral report of what is going on in her stewardship/job.

For example: This is when the president learns about how Visiting Teaching is going from the Visiting Coordinator and how the sisters are doing in general. When the VT Coordinator comes to this meeting she brings with her the VT statistics gotten from Visiting Teaching Supervisors. The VT Supervisors have reported the statistics and the concerns/needs which was reported to them from each set of Visiting Teachers to the VT Coordinator. The President learns from her who is ill, inactive, moving, having a baby, etc. If the president had to go to each Visiting Teacher to get this information, that is all she would get done.

The Relief Society President is in charge of Visiting teaching routes to make sure they work appropriately. The VT Coordinator helps her know if this is happening. She can suggest to the President what changes need to be made...ex: Visiting Teacher that cant get along or have schedules that don't work together, partnerships that have broken down due to one of the pare moving, death, illness, etc. In this way the President know what needs to be fixed. The President can as the Coordinator how she thinks it can be fixed, but ultimately the fix has to come from the President as she discusses it with the Lord.

The President may have a person as a Youth Liaison who is over the 18 year old sisters just coming into Relief Society. That person reports on how those sisters are doing, their interests, if they are coming to Relief Society, what needs to be done to make them feel a part of Relief Society.

Meanwhile each counselor get reports from the different department they are over. They discuss any concerns they may have, any up coming events happening in their jobs/stewardships.

For example this is where Enrichment Meeting Leader reports on the plans that her specialists and her have made for the next 3 months. The Enrichment Meeting Leader tells the counselor the solid plans that she and her board of specialists have made for September, the tentative arrangements made for October, and the ideas that they have talked about for September. Since the counselor is over Enrichment, it is her job to see that everything is in ready for Enrichment and to report those plans to the President. It is the Enrichment Leader’s job to make the plans to make Enrichment happen. Her specialists in each department make it happen.

The other Relief Society Counselor making sure that all is in place to see that the Relief Society lessons happen.

With each department head reporting to the President or one of her counselors about their department, the meeting is fever-pitched to get all the information discussed. Notes are taken by the president and her counselors to be discussed in their Presidency Meeting. Notes are taken by the department heads as the President or counselor discusses what needs to be done in their individual departments.

This meeting then is where the whole of Relief Society is planned and run. It is one of the most important meetings in Relief Society, next to the Presidency meeting where all the information gathered from the Board Meeting is discussed, one department at a time.

As you can see at Board Meetings there is not a moment to loose. The information has to be passed up the chain of command; so ultimately, the President will know what is happening in her organization in each department and how the sisters are.