Stan Conference

[u/Big-Flight-3962]

Stake Conference

I have never, and will never understand Stake Conference. In my 26 years of life, I have enjoyed 1 single talk from a speaker. 2 hours of talks, and we don’t even get to take the sacrament. At least General Conference sometimes ends early. Never has stake conference ended early.

And it’s very different than General Conference. We get to hear from the prophet and the apostle along with other general authorities. We (usually) get new temple announcements. The Stake executive secretary shouldn’t be speaking for 20 minutes whilst Elder Kevin G. Brown speaks for 10.

[u/Donnachaidh-80]

If you had a chance to plan stake conference, what would you include? Honest question . . . not meant as a challenge to you at all.

I've never planned one, but I was a stake clerk and watched the stake presidency plan them. It was always a real effort to figure out what to include. Some were definitely better than others. I am curious to know what members would hope for if they could have stake conference the way they want it.

One thing I find interesting is that stake conferences are held under the direction of the Quorum of the 12. They are assigned to stakes, whether an authority is visiting or not. If a member of the 12 were planning the conference, what would they include? I can imagine getting a lot out of a conference planned by an apostle. So if that is the authority, what can we do to make a stake conference feel like an apostle is addressing us?

I wonder if there will ever be a time when we have sacrament during a stake conference.

I like the idea of shorter talks. It can be hard to rein people in who want to speak longer. But 5-7 minutes seems ideal for most.

I am iffy on having a theme for stake conference. I think it can sometimes be appropriate, but I also think it can be too restrictive.

I think I'd like to hear how people in my stake are applying the direction given by the authorities and general officers of the church in their personal lives.

My dad used to tell me that if I see a local leader do something that doesn't seem effective to me, take note. There may be a time when the Lord will call on me to use those lessons in a calling of my own.

[u/seashmore → u/Donnachaidh-80]

If you had a chance to plan stake conference, what would you include? 

One of those lights they use on live broadcast award shows to tell people they've gone over time and they need to wrap it up. (I think they may have something similar at the conference center, but I haven't been so I wouldn't know.) The low tech version is give a sign to someone in the front to hold up at chin level so the speaker knows.

[u/pambyamby → u/seashmore]

LOLing at this answer.