I was gearing up to teach a 5th Sunday lesson, taking the first lesson from September since we will be losing a day due to the dedication of the Ogden Temple. This way we would be right on track. However, after not having a chorister for a month and a half, we are so excited to finally have one, and want to do all we can to help her get on track. We tried to teach the kids the songs during the time of no official chorister, it was just hard for them to actually learn them when there were so many different teaching styles. Because of that, we decided it would probably be best to let our wonderful new chorister have the whole time to go over all the songs and find out which songs they know, and which need work.
We are so excited to have our chorister!
An idea I have been toying with is that of a third counselor. Actually, I was initially calling it Less Active Specialist, but after counseling with my counselors, we decided it would be better to call it a third counselor because we will need to work closely with her anyway, and it will sound a lot less overwhelming to the one being called. Firstly, we need this position because we have 60% of our Primary is less active. When I was first called, I was initially told it was less than 20% activity, but having gone over the roles and learning about the families and kids more, I have learned that it is actually more like 40% activity. Which is a huge difference! That said, the majority of the less actives are in one class. The teachers are amazing. It is a couple, and the husband is a former bishop, the wife a former Relief Society president. They are wonderful with trying to contact all of their less actives each week, on birthdays, etc. But they are older, have health problems, and expecting them to contact 20 kids on their own each week is just not fair. In thinking about that, I was trying to figure out a way to help them. I realized releasing them would not fix the problem, it would just shift the burden from them onto someone else. And we don't want to lose them! Which is how I came up with the idea of Less Active Specialist.
The Less Active Specialist would help and encourage teachers to contact the kids not coming to their classes each week, and try to help them find new ways to help those kids be more comfortable. Also, with the humongous classes (there are actually 2), they could help the teachers with that responsibility of contacting the kids. That way it doesn't rest on the shoulders of one teacher.
As a third counselor, she could help us out exponentially! My second counselor is very nearly having a baby and so will be out caring for the baby often. As it stands right now, we don't have enough hands to be able to do all the things that need to be taken care of on Sundays. We have the person conducting, who the bishop has requested sit behind the pulpit as the one presiding over the meeting. We have the person who does the Sharing Time, and then there is the floater who is the one who breaks up chatty/fighting kids sitting in the Primary congregation, monitors the halls for straying children, and reminds the kids who are playing in the bathroom that they need to get back to class. She also checks on the nursery periodically, and watches the doors for a picture of Jesus which tells us that there is a problem in a class that we need to step in and help out with. We are also supposed to be visiting classes, but that is not feasible right now. We really don't have enough hands. Our Secretary, well, I don't know exactly what she does, but I know she is very busy and I am just grateful I don't have her job. She is our life float and without her, we would be so lost on Sundays! If we had that third counselor, we would be able to rotate and do classroom visits, which would, I think, help us be more in tune with the needs of both the teachers and the children.
I'm going to be honest, I don't envy the Sister who receives this call. It will be a lot of hard work. A lot. But as they say, 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
Now to convince the Bishop that this is a genuine need, and have him call the person whose name we submitted.
It's a waiting game.
But at least I have more time this week, not having to plan a Sharing Time!
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