I met with our Stake President last night and received an additional calling. I am now serving as the "Assistant Stake Home-Storage Specialist." For those of you that would like me to say that again in non-religious terms: I'm now one of two main people responsible for teaching home storage principles to a group of over 4,000 people.Like I said in an earlier post, I've had some responsibility for the ward (about 100 families) application of home-storage principles. But this is obviously much bigger. Our leaders want us to emphasize getting a three-month supply. They want us to make things as simple and accessible as possible -- and don't want us to cater only to food storage "hobbyists." We have also been encouraged to find ways to reach out to the single mothers in our area (for whom home-storage might be particularly overwhelming).
I just sat and wrote down a list of my ideas. This list is just a beginning. There is a lot of praying still to do in regards to what Heavenly Father wants us do. I've shared a similar list before, but this one has my own Stake's objectives in mind. I thought I would share it with you even though much of it is a repeat.
Some of you have had similar responsibilities before. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. I would especially appreciate any ideas on helping the single mothers to acquire their three-month supply.
Short Term:
*Meet with leaders to discuss the goals and objectives of the stake.
*Be a broken record about the three-month supply.
*Make retraining the ward home-storage leaders a priority.
*Set up a communication lines with the ward home-storage leaders.
*Eliminate the stake workshops - encourage the new program to be taught at the ward level.
Medium Term:
*Attend Bishopric training and RS training and present a message about the importance of the three-month supply. Encourage them to emphasize this in their wards and support their ward "home storage" leaders as they try to do so.
*Offer to teach fifth Sunday lessons or Additional RS Meetings as needed or encourage use of ward home storage leaders to teach these lessons.
*Set up an email newsletter (OR set up a paper newsletter) to go out to the wards anywhere from monthly to quarterly.
*Develop a worksheet that simplifies (walks you through) the process of getting a three-month supply.
*Place motivational quotes/reminders on the bulletin boards in the different building RS rooms.
*Contact (or encourage ward home-storage leaders to contact) those in charge of printing bulletins and ward newsletters. Have them include motivational quotes and reminders about a three-month supply.
*Provide outlines for FHE lessons to support the family in teaching these concepts.
*Create a description page and schedule for families who want to reserve stake canning equipment.
*Encourage ward home-storage leaders to volunteer to meet with individuals and/or small groups and help them as needed.
*Help ward home-storage leaders to know about new information including Ensign articles.
Long Term Ideas:
*Maybe do a every-other-year home-storage fair - emphasizing the new program.
*Coordinate and carry out a Stake emergency simulation.
*Meet with leaders to discuss the goals and objectives of the stake.
*Be a broken record about the three-month supply.
*Make retraining the ward home-storage leaders a priority.
*Set up a communication lines with the ward home-storage leaders.
*Eliminate the stake workshops - encourage the new program to be taught at the ward level.
Medium Term:
*Attend Bishopric training and RS training and present a message about the importance of the three-month supply. Encourage them to emphasize this in their wards and support their ward "home storage" leaders as they try to do so.
*Offer to teach fifth Sunday lessons or Additional RS Meetings as needed or encourage use of ward home storage leaders to teach these lessons.
*Set up an email newsletter (OR set up a paper newsletter) to go out to the wards anywhere from monthly to quarterly.
*Develop a worksheet that simplifies (walks you through) the process of getting a three-month supply.
*Place motivational quotes/reminders on the bulletin boards in the different building RS rooms.
*Contact (or encourage ward home-storage leaders to contact) those in charge of printing bulletins and ward newsletters. Have them include motivational quotes and reminders about a three-month supply.
*Provide outlines for FHE lessons to support the family in teaching these concepts.
*Create a description page and schedule for families who want to reserve stake canning equipment.
*Encourage ward home-storage leaders to volunteer to meet with individuals and/or small groups and help them as needed.
*Help ward home-storage leaders to know about new information including Ensign articles.
Long Term Ideas:
*Maybe do a every-other-year home-storage fair - emphasizing the new program.
*Coordinate and carry out a Stake emergency simulation.
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4 comments:
These are fabulous ideas...serving in this calling on a ward level is monumental, but on a Stake level, I can only imagine! Thank you for the labor of love you provide in being such a wonderful resources for us to draw from and bless the lives of our ward members.
I am especially interested in the following topics you outlined, and look forward to hearing more in the future:
*Develop a worksheet that simplifies (walks you through) the process of getting a three-month supply.
*Coordinate and carry out a Stake emergency simulation.
*Create a description page and schedule for families who want to reserve stake canning equipment.
*Encourage ward home-storage leaders to volunteer to meet with individuals and/or small groups and help them as needed.
Again, thank you for everything.
Blessings~
Thanks Christine!
I'm also excited to find out what can be developed from these ideas. And I will definitely share as we put things together in our Stake -- both successes and failures.
My calling is the ward 'self reliance' specialist. I LOVE my calling, but feel it is a bit broad. I love these thoughts/ideas you have. Thank you for sharing your list. It gave me some ideas on what I can do to help out my ward. And, I never knew there were such things are food storage 'junkies' or 'hobbyists' I totally fall into that category and know I need to know not everyone is as excited about grocery shopping and food storage, etc. as myself. I LOVE your blog. Thank you!
Ashlie -
Thanks for your thoughts! I'm so glad to have you visit this blog.
I don't think that having a good home storage and wanting to learn advanced self-reliance skills are bad things. In fact, I would love it if everyone was at that level. However (from our Stake's perspective), if we focus only on advanced topics when teaching others about home storage, then we might not reach those who need our help the most -- those with little or no knowledge about home-storage.
It's a bit of a change in focus for our Stake.
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