Trying to avoid misunderstandings in assignment with my first counselor

31 July 2020

Paul,

Thank you so much for explaining what happened and for not holding ill will toward your aging, forgetful stake president.

I’ll certainly try to do better in explaining myself and not make assignments without establishing some dialogue and accountability.

What would help me greatly, inasmuch as I’m not always writing down the assignments I make, is if after a meeting…and you’ve been given an assignment that will take some pondering and maybe even research (not a simple go-and-do assignment)  that you email me with something like: “As I understand it, you’ve assigned me to do such and such. This is the direction I plan to take in fulfilling this assignment. Is this the direction you want me to take?” 

That would help me greatly and also hopefully eliminate the misunderstandings I’ve been creating lately.

I appreciate so much your desire to lift my load and move forward the work in your most important area of responsibility.

Gratefully,

Crismon

No problem President.  There are no ill feelings on my part whatsoever.  I am just trying to understand better my assignments and fulfill them in helping our stake leaders support and train ward leaders.  We can certainly wait on this training.  

My primary concern is that when you give me an assignment(we were discussing what topics to train HCs on this upcoming Sunday and in the future months), I understood  you directly gave me a charge to come up with a topic for this Sunday.  To help me better fulfill this assignment it would help me immensely if you would be specific in what training you are thinking about at the time, if you do have something in mind, i. e. Ministering interviews.  That would help me focus my attention on what you feel most important and suggest training around that topic.  Or, if you have a topic already and want to draw from the recent leadership training video let me know that and I am happy to follow that direction.  I know there are many times you receive inspiration or subsequently feel strongly about a topic after you have already given assignment and I understand that.  However, as specific as you can be with your direction and what you are hoping the training will cover would assist me in my endeavors so I can be on the same page as you.  Thanks President!

Paul

Paul,

I can see now I changed course here on you. My apologies. It was a horrible oversight on my part. 

In my mind, the welfare element of the assignment was to focus on how can we help EQ/RS presidents (or presidencies) help the bishops find ways for welfare recipients to serve. That is a major missing element in our welfare assistance. 

I would appreciate training, maybe even use the HC to help create a list of service opportunities for welfare recipients. My hope is that we could show such a list to the bishops and assure them that the EQ/RS have been trained on how to oversee this part of the welfare procedure to give him confidence that as soon as he authorizes welfare assistance he assigns the recipient to work with the EQ / RS president to arrange for ways to serve as a way to show gratitude for the assistance received.

That is the focus I wanted you to take. Obviously I failed in communicating that. Please forgive me. 

I appreciate that you would like to instruct the HC / EQ on all the welfare principles and program, but I would like us to focus on just that one element for now—it’s the missing piece in our stake. 

I agree we want to help offload welfare from the bishop to the EQ. I would like to see us try to make this transition as a first step in EQ/RS offloading the welfare—to give bishops something they can actually DO to move in this direction.

Does that clarify the misunderstanding? Is that something you want to tackle this Sunday or give it some time to work on?

Again, my apologies for my poor communication.

Crismon

In response to a Facebook post by President Christiansen

22 July 2020

Dear (Name),

Thank you for expressing your feelings. 

Priesthood leaders do have to be careful, but I’m not inclined to censure anyone over their expressing a personal opinion. You and I both treasure freedom of speech and I want to honor that.

I don’t think anyone would construe President Christiansen’s HearHim message as a Church endorsement, but simply a personal opinion possibly in line with Elder Holland’s message at the last General Conference where he stated: "May we hope for schools where students are taught—not terrified they will be shot—and for the gift of personal dignity for every child of God, unmarred by any form of racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice.”

The HearHim “campaign” is all about members expressing personal feelings about how we’re inspired by many things in life that may flow from our God-given minds and hearts.

Feel free to forward this to the many you feel were offended by his post. On behalf of the stake presidency, please forgive us for the many offenses we unwittingly cause and mistakes we foolishly make.

Crismon

President Lewis,

I’m very sad that the most recent post on the “How do you hear Him” FB page featuring President Christiansen, who I love with all my heart, has him holding books on political/social racism theory, books which are rather offensive to myself and others in the stake. I thought this page was about the gospel, and our Savior, not personal opinions of this nature. Others may applaud those books, but I have to say I believe them to be really inappropriate for this focus, and with the platform that he has, I would have hoped for a more careful selection of “best books.” 

This isn’t just me, this is many. I thought you should know.

Sister (Name)

Technology recommendation to bishops for broadcasting sacrament meetings

16 July 2020

Bishops and Branch Presidents…

During my meeting last night I began to hear how other wards and branches in the Portland area are now holding virtual sacrament meetings. As suspected, nearly all are using Zoom. I kept hearing about Zoom Webinar.

So I did some checking.

First, in my opinion here are some of criteria of what we’re looking for in technology:

1. Unlimited minutes

2. Capacity of at least 100 log ins (I doubt anyone will need more than 100 simply because that’s 100 households)

3. Capability of members, who don’t have Internet at home, to call in and listen to the meeting over the phone (the phone number to call is always in the meeting invite along with the Zoom link; someone would need to call and give it to those who don’t have email)

4. Ability to make others a co-host so they can share their screen

5. Interactivity for 2nd hour classes and meetings (everyone can be seen and heard for full participation; they can turn their cameras on/off and can mute themselves)

6. Privacy for sacrament meeting (members can see and hear the presentation but cannot activate their video or audio)

7. Mute and unmute “panelists” (those on the sacrament meeting program)

I have investigated this, including speaking with Zoom reps. Zoom can fulfill all of the above criteria.

Here’s what I recommend:

• Each of you purchase the Zoom Pro plan (reg $14.99/mo), which I think most of you’ve already done by now

• Purchase what’s called the Webinar Add-On ($40/month)

Here’s why:

• The Zoom Pro gives you the basic plan that will accomplish Criteria 1-5 above;

• The Webinar Add-on gives you Criteria 6-7 so attendees cannot activate their own camera or speaker, like they can when in a Zoom Pro meeting, but you can activate the video and audio of “panelists."

How to buy:

1. I recommend you cancel your month-to-month Zoom Pro plan ($14.99/mo), if you already have

2. Then go to this link and purchase an annual subscription of the Zoom Pro license ($149.90 / year, which comes out to $12.49 / month; a 20% savings)

3. Also purchase the Zoom Webinar Add-on for $40 / month for a total of $189.90

Later your credit card also will be charged $40 per month for the Webinar Add-on, but you can cancel it any time.

Why do I recommend this?

• While I don’t believe we’ll be holding virtual sacrament meetings for a year (you can cancel the Webinar Add-on anytime), I think you’ll agree that virtual meetings are to here to stay. Some of you have already expressed a desire to conduct ward council meetings virtually in the future because it means leaders can participate even when traveling. So an annual license is not a high risk.

• The Zoom licenses that are tied to whomever sets up the account (i.e. purchases the plan), can be transferred fairly easily (in settings) to someone else if you are released, move, want someone else to initiate all video conferences. Note:  we are not allowed to share our log-in information with someone else.

• All of you have adequate budget funds to cover the above costs. This is good use of Church funds.

• We need to have confidence that we are using proven technology so we don’t have to worry about the technology, but focus on providing quality, inspirational meetings.

If you have a better plan or proposal, please feel free to reply to everyone so we can all learn together. I hope the above is helpful, especially for those who don’t have time to investigate this further.

President Lewis

P.S. One other excellent idea I heard last night was to play Tabernacle Choir music as prelude and postlude (10-15 min) so program participants can’t start chatting before and after sacrament meeting and disrupt the reverence of the meeting.

Guidelines to bishops as we near the start of virtual sacrament meetings

13 July 2020

Bishops and Branch Presidents,

Thank you for your continuing efforts to provide your ward or branch members a virtual sacrament meeting, some beginning this Sunday, July 19. You’re doing a wonderful job communicating with and preparing your membership for these upcoming meetings.

Some developments and reminders:

1. ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE LIVING ALONE: Many families will find their “home church” more enjoyable (with more reverence from children) than when they’re watching a sacrament meeting online. You may want to remind members, especially families, that this virtual meeting is optional. And then emphasize with leaders to continue to focus on making sure all members living alone can access the virtual sacrament meeting. These virtual sacrament meetings are especially for them. And then arrange for them to receive the sacrament before or after, if they welcome guests.

2. NEW GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES: You may have seen the news today that Oregon’s governor announced that beginning this Wednesday, July 15: (1) indoor social gatherings of more than 10 people are banned; and (2) everyone must wear masks outdoors if they are unable to maintain a 6-foot distance from others.

While the indoor social gathering limit does NOT apply to churches (we’re still allowed the indoor limit of 25), please remember the example of our leaders to be “good global citizens” and keep gatherings, especially among youth groups, to as few as possible and instruct everyone to wear masks. Also, please make sure parents are aware of in-person youth gatherings and that they do not feel obligated to send their children.

3. SETTING UP THE ZOOM CALL: I’m not a Zoom expert, but I noticed when scheduling a Zoom meeting it gives you the option of turning off participants video (under the “Video” heading) and “Mute Participants upon entry” under the “Advanced Options.” (See attached screen shot) While everyone will still be able to view the Participants list, you’ll want to avoid having participants on video to eliminate the distraction it will cause during sacrament meeting. Of course, for the second hour meetings you’ll want all participants to be on both video and audio.

If you haven’t already, please feel free to use budget funds to purchase the video conferencing service you need to provide these virtual meetings for your ward or branch. 

4. MEETING SCHEDULE: Also attached is the most updated version of the Virtual Sacrament Meeting schedule in our stake. Please notify us of any changes.

5. WORK TOGETHER: As you begin hosting these meetings, please work together by sharing ideas and recommendations with the other bishops and branch presidents. The oft-used phrase “We’re in this together” certainly applies to us right now. Let’s help each other learn how to do this so it’s a blessing to the members of our stake.

I hope the above is helpful. Thank you again for moving forward on this new direction of holding virtual meetings.

President Lewis

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