- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Just as an fyi: The General Presidents of the RS, YM and Primary just announced that the General Young Women’s Board will be adding five members who live outside of Utah, four of whom will live outside of the United States. Communication will occur using telecommunication technology, rather than the previous model of in-person meetings. This will be watched and evaluated by the other auxiliary presidencies, with the intent to do the same in the near future with their boards.
This means that the compilation of the boards will be four women living in Utah, one woman living in the United States outside of Utah (and the surrounding Western States) and four women living outside of the United States. Thus, the majority of the board will be living outside of Utah.
In the announcement, the Presidents said the new structure was their idea and that it is being implemented because the LDS Church no longer is a Utah church or even an American church and needs top-level eyes and ears on the ground around the world. In essence, the auxiliaries are moving into an organizational structure more like the overall structure of the Church, using Utah-based presidencies and area authorities.
This is good. Five isn’t really enough, but it’s a step in the right direction. I read the Newsroom article, and thought it was interesting how one of them mentioned that thanks to technology, it’s no longer necessary to meet face-to-face. I actually wish that this was a mindset embraced more in our church – there is almost nothing a face-to-face meeting accomplishes that Skype doesn’t!
🙂 Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Curtis. That is pretty cool. I applaud the desire to internationalize the leadership of the Church, and I think that will show fruit. There is one thing I notice in the implementation that I wish were a little different. Previously, apparently, the board was all Wasatch Front people. In extending the board outside of that corridor, they added only one board member form the US outside of Utah, one from Brazil, one from Peru, one from Japan, and one from “Africa”.
Yet, if non-Utah-US can be defined as a region, that region would have the largest population of LDS membership in the world. LDS members living in non-Utah-US: 4.3 million. Members living in Utah: 2 million, members living in Brazil: 1.2 million, Peru: 0.5 million, Japan: 0.13 million. Africa is a bit nebulous, because it has has so many countries, but if we assume Nigeria, the country with by far the most members, it only has 0.11 million.
This is a great start, but I would love to see the board made up of more from non-Utah-US. I have long said that Utah Mormons do not represent Mormons from the rest of the US, but apparently, the Church thinks they do.
I think this is great and should be far more widely implemented (including at the GA level). I have long felt that having these leaders all from Utah left them severely out of touch with the real church membership the vast majority of which do not live in Utah. I agree with OON, I believe there need to be at least a couple more from the US outside the Mormon Corridor, and one each from Canada and Mexico also wouldn’t hurt. Seems like a good idea. Running a world wide corporation can be daunting. A good organization has feet on the street to provide feedback I like this idea. I hope they extend it to the 12 apostles as well.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.