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I just wanted to share something. About 8 years ago, I put together what I called “The Moving Checklist”. It is a guide for members who want help moving. I still have people quoting it, and asking for it — usually leaders or seasoned HP’s when they come over and ruminate on my time as a leader in the Ward, Essentially, in June one year, I was asked as HPGL to arrange 4, full-service moves (truck, volunteers) in the same month. One was for a relative of a woman who had been in our Ward for years, but had never come to church and had not even told us — she was not on our Ward records even though a member. Plus she was moving OUT of the Ward. Could we get her a truck and some people to move? She is thinking of coming back to church! I kindly said “No” as our brethren were worn out, and so was I. As a result, I put together this checklist, which I then explained to the RS, and the HP group, and had it distributed to HT families in our stewardship. Here is is:
Quote:__________________________________The Moving Checklist _____________________________
This checklist is to help members who would like help with moving.
By following the items on this list, you can help your move go more smoothly. The checklist below also highlights ways in which you can rely on family, friends and Church members to help you move.
General Items a) Arrange for a truck so it’s ready to be loaded when volunteers arrive
b) Start looking for Church volunteers at least two weeks before your moving date
c) Plan your move during evenings or on Saturdays when more people are available to help
d) Arrange for a professional moving service to move heavy items that could injure people, such as pianos that can injure volunteers
e) Pack up everything so it’s ready to move when volunteers arrive
f) Call friends and family to help you with the move
For Members moving within, or out of the Warda) Ask your priesthood leader to make an announcement asking for help
b) If insufficient volunteers come forward as a result of announcements, then you should actively phone members on the ward list for volunteers
b) Log into
http://www.lds.org (you need your record number and baptismal date, which you can get from the ward clerk). Here you can search for the ward you are moving into – contact the priesthood leader in the ward into which you are moving for help unloading.c) Give the Ward into which you’re moving at least two Sundays to arrange for volunteers.
For Members moving into our Ward Call your priesthood leader in the new Ward to announce the need for help, and to arrange volunteers through phone calls to move you when you arrive.
My Bishop at the time, when he saw it said “So, you’re getting OUT of the moving business — right?”.
I replied ‘yes’, except for new move-ins — and explained my reasons. Massive support from everyone on the PEC at the time. And then, I started hearing single sisters had moved, and I never even knew about it until after it happened. I almost felt guilty and left out, but then realized I’d caused it….
Thought I would share. Represented a small victory in culture change, at least, in our little HP group. Someone asked me for it again this evening…and I had to go back through several years of email to find it. He agreed to keep it in his scriptures, stapled to his patriarchal blessing
😆 When we were moving into this ward, we were given a list of contact numbers along with a statement. It let us know that the ward was willing to help people move when financially necessary, but otherwise, the ward expected people to handle their own moving arrangements and expenses, We thought is was an appropriate policy for this area.
SD: Great checklist.
We’ve all been involved in moving “that” family. Nothing in a box. No boxes. Dirt and garbage all over. Mass chaos and no truck.
amateurparent wrote:When we were moving into this ward, we were given a list of contact numbers along with a statement. It let us know that the ward was willing to help people move when financially necessary, but otherwise, the ward expected people to handle their own moving arrangements and expenses,
We thought is was an appropriate policy for this area.
This policy is even stronger than the one I wrote — and I like it better.
When my husband was EQ Pres, the presidency wrote a letter that basically said, “We are not your moving company.” They had too many of
Quote:Nothing in a box. No boxes. Dirt and garbage all over. Mass chaos and no truck.
I like yours SD, a bit kinder on the message.
This gets even messier when one family gets the full treatment – reminder emails to everyone that help is needed and let’s all pitch in, and then other families apparently had to go it on their own. You find that out the Sunday you notice they’re gone. Maybe it’s often the way people want it, but I see a really wide range of help. On the other hand, the tiny ward I grew up in was practically a commune. We helped each other do darn near everything and we all seemed okay with it. That wouldn’t work now, and, yes, the most recent move I was involved in was quite a flail.
I feel somewhat conflicted on this. On the one hand, I agree with the checklist. It seems reasonable to communicate expectations. It is only fair and considerate that things are packed and the truck is there before the volunteers show up.
OTOH, there has also been some discussion about not helping people move or only helping the financially destitute. I feel that getting help with a move is one of the few services that I can count on in the LDS church (that and getting meals brought in if my wife goes through major surgery).
I am very frugal and because of this have significant savings. A few years ago I had lost my job. I met with the bishop to make him aware and to explore my options. I was fully transparent of our savings and that we were filling out paperwork to get state assistance. He essentially thanked me for letting him know and told me to keep him informed in case our savings ran out. I am not saying that his decision was wrong. I am sure from his position it seemed like we were prepared to weather the storm compared to so many others that come to him with nothing. But idealy I would have loved for him to offer a short term food order – just until the state assistence paperwork came through and more of a token gesture than anything. Instead I felt that because of my frugal nature I might never be in a desperate enough position to get help through the church. I might be always helping (through tithes, offerings, and service), but never helped.
If I could not get help moving (either because the church doesn’t do that or because I can afford to hire movers) it would change (slightly) the value proposition that the LDS church offers for me.
Roy wrote:
If I could not get help moving (either because the church doesn’t do that or because I can afford to hire movers) it would change (slightly) the value proposition that the LDS church offers for me.The church’s message is that you should expect little, or no help unless you have short-term, life-sustaining needs. And even if you have life-sustaining needs, our past bishop would require that you give up even incidental comforts like Netflix at $8 a month, or a magazine subscription at $20 per year even when all other expenses had been cut to the bone when it became evident the church would have to pay a fast offering or food order.
Further, i don’t think it’s fair to non-members learning about the church to take the discussions, and then find out they have joined a moving company. If that hard expectation is there, it should be in the discussions
For me, the value proposition of the church was a) a path to salvation b) a community to which I might feel I belong and c) a forum for growing in my leadership ability.
and C) fell off the map, except for my daughter and wife, who still value and get that. And so did A) after I learned about so many things that I won’t go into about the church….The expectation that I help people move, actually subtracts from the value proposition in my view, as I would end up doing it multiple times a year, when I move probably once every 5-8 years myself — and never ask anyone to help. Plus it puts in a position where I feel I have to do a cost-benefit analysis on my service in this regard, which can be uncomfortable when it happens too much due to onerous service requirements.
Interesting, a HP who visits me, without being my HT, told me his wife no longer serves at church — she serves in the community (that is what I have been doing) even though they are TR-holders. She indicates that in the community groups she is involved in, there isn’t this widespread, bottomless expectation from members of the community organization that people will serve them. They are there to serve an external target audience, and it’s far less a burden. I had never thought of it that way.
I get what you are saying SD. I just feel that a major benefit of being part of a community is to help each other out. Serving and being served can strengthen the bonds of friendship and belonging. SilentDawning wrote:For me, the value proposition of the church was a) a path to salvation b) a community to which I might feel I belong and c) a forum for growing in my leadership ability
I agree with these three points and they complement each other so nicely. When it works, it works well. Now that these values are not present for me I console myself that at least I can get help moving.
Roy wrote:I get what you are saying SD. I just feel that a major benefit of being part of a community is to help each other out. Serving and being served can strengthen the bonds of friendship and belonging.
Funny, after years of obligatory helping people out in the church, I no longer want that from a community. [But I understand how you might like that, and it’s cool — lots of people like that aspect of being part of a community]. A friend in the church who visits me, a former member of the High Priest Group when I was HPGL, told me that whenever he moves, the church never knows until its over. He is so tired of moving people that he doesn’t want to burden anyone. He projects the dread HE feels when asked to help someone move, onto everyone else, and wants no part of making people feel that way. So, he does not see the community as reciprocal.
I think the “community as a place of service” ideal is great — until it becomes so systemized, or expected that it becomes a burdensome obligation rather than something you do out of love or enthusiasm. There was a time when a woman was moving. She was doing it on a weekday at 3:00 pm. No one was available or could help at that time due to most people working during the day. She was ticked that the ward would not help — as if it was an entitlement.
I have also expected help on major issues from the church in the past — counseling over church matters that rocked my pscyhe, an adoption, and funds for a mission. These were things that at the time, met needs I could not fill on my own, and they were hugely important. They were also consistent with church’s mission.
I was let down on all three counts, to the point I don’t see the church as a place where there is reciprocity. People are too worn out doing things that strengthen the goals of the organizational church to care about the things that are important to individuals, in my experience.
amateurparent wrote:When we were moving into this ward, we were given a list of contact numbers along with a statement. It let us know that the ward was willing to help people move when financially necessary, but otherwise, the ward expected people to handle their own moving arrangements and expenses,
We thought is was an appropriate policy for this area.
I like this, particularly if the people had the means to move. The only downside I see is that it exposes the whole Ward to a person’s financial neediness if they ask for help.
how can I contact Silent Dawning to properly attribute this list? D
CaliforniaEZ wrote:how can I contact Silent Dawning to properly attribute this list?
Use the private message feature. Click on Silent Dawning in this or any of his posts and click “send private message” on the left. If you’re looking for personal information about SD or anyone, you’ll likely not get it and probably shouldn’t ask for it – most of us enjoy our sense of anonymity. When I have used stuff from here (with permission, of course), I usually just relate the story as being from a friend in another area or I do Pres. Uchtdorf’s “David” thing and not use real names.
I apologize for not approving the post sooner, usually unapproved first posts show up with an indicator on the main board menu and if this one did I didn’t see it.
No attribution necessary — just use it and enjoy! LOVE IT!!! I also agree with asking specific people to help in addition to making a blanket announcement. That way people who may not be on a ward member’s “friend list,” but who would otherwise like an opportunity to serve have the chance to volunteer.
Way to go.
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