Another thought on the new schedule change…

I see it as much more efficient not having all of those people tied up in the administrative callings and being one united body AND working hand-in-hand with the Relief Society (if you’re doing it right). And the interviews aren’t monthly like in the old days, they’re quarterly and (again if your leadership is really paying attention to what the top leaders are saying) they don’t need to be “sit down” formal very often, although they shouldn’t always be informal. Our stake presidency (as the local presidency of the MP and with the blessing of the AA) has interpreted that to mean a formal interview once a year is in most cases sufficient – and in most cases that interview need not be more than 5-10 minutes because it’s not about the individual’s worthiness or accountability or anything else, it’s about their ministering families. That means the vast majority of the other interviews, some of which are also conducted by the RS, can be a phone call, hallway chat, or even emails or texts. Again, I see it as much more efficient.

My impression was that our ward was falling behind other wards in the stake at performing monthly interviews.

It seemed like we were reverting into our old methods & metrics.

If we are, it seems like an inefficient way of doing it.

I am so removed from the day to day functions of how the ward & stake operates.

It probably is working just fine.

The PH quorums were combined but when it comes to ministering/home teaching the frequency of reporting has been reduced and made less formal.

With home teaching reporting occurred at the end of every month. There were also Personal Priesthood Interviews. As far as I know there wasn’t a hard and fast rule for how often PPIs should occur. Some wards tried to do them quarterly, some monthly, and some didn’t do them at all.

With ministering we’ve moved to an informal reporting that takes place once quarterly. I haven’t heard much about PPIs lately, maybe the informal reporting also serves as an informal PPI.

My only point is that in the recent past there were eight people (HPGL, EQP and their counselors and secretaries) to cover the reporting responsibilities of the ward and now there are only four, but the administering (distinct from ministering) requirements have also scaled down.

That’s pretty much it. It now resembles the original model much more than it did before the change.

Just as an important element:

Reducing “leadership callings” is absolutely invaluable in small wards and branches. I know having more people available for “normal callings” has made a tremendous difference in my new, small ward. Given my previous callings, there is a decent chance I would have been given some kind of leadership callin when I moved into the ward. Instead, I was called to teach the youth Sunday School class. Taking me out of the picture, having the chance to do something like that is huge in a small congregation.