Stake Conference Attendance

[byu71]

I was talking to a friend of mine early this morning and he said his Bishop talked to him about SC attendance. He said the Bishop said the previous week the attendance at SC was 22% and the SP was concerned and wanted to know why.

My friend told the Bishop that he has small children, 3 under 7 and that with all the sickness going around he didn't want his kids exposed. As a matter of fact, he keeps them out of the nursery.

I told him with all the meetings and stuff he should have told the Bishop he looks at SP as a vacation. He kind of chuckled and said, I don't think they want to hear that.

Is this just an isolated thing or do you think SC attendance is down all over.

[Moliere]

I was talking to a friend of mine early this morning and he said his Bishop talked to him about SC attendance. He said the Bishop said the previous week the attendance at SC was 22% and the SP was concerned and wanted to know why.

My friend told the Bishop that he has small children, 3 under 7 and that with all the sickness going around he didn't want his kids exposed. As a matter of fact, he keeps them out of the nursery.

I told him with all the meetings and stuff he should have told the Bishop he looks at SP as a vacation. He kind of chuckled and said, I don't think they want to hear that.

Is this just an isolated thing or do you think SC attendance is down all over.

So he misses SC because he doesn't want to expose his kids to sickness but does he allow them to go to primary?

SC attendance is always down compared to church. I dreaded SC for years because my wife insisted on being in the choir. That would leave me with multiple young children and trying to keep them quiet for two hours while sitting on a hard chair in the cultural hall. I rarely got anything out of SC but I went because in that rare time I got something out of it, it was very good.

SC is a chore with young kids, but honestly some of the best talks I've ever heard have come out of SC.

[BigPiney]

We had stake conf this weekend. It is a 2 hour drive one way to attend for my family, so not easy. We went down and I attended the afternoon priestood meeting, my wife attended the Adult Sesssion while I listened to it from the primary room and took care of the 4 little uns. Then we drove home, slept in our own beds, and watched a session of GC on tv in the morning. It is jsut too much of a hassle to try and deal with little kids for Stake conf.

[Fiyero]

The Bishop said the previous week the attendance at SC was 22%
....Is this just an isolated thing or do you think SC attendance is down all over.

Do you know if that 22% is based on overall membership? I had a recent SC where they said that only 60% of those who normally attend their meetings attend SC. I don't know what the normal activity % is though, and perhaps 60% of that number could amount to 22% overall.

[Fiyero]

Come to think of it, if there are 13 million members and 3,000 stakes, that's over 4,000 people per stake. I don't believe I've ever seen a SC with 1,000 in attendance, even when the prophet was the pre-announced speaker.

[byu71]

Do you know if that 22% is based on overall membership? I had a recent SC where they said that only 60% of those who normally attend their meetings attend SC. I don't know what the normal activity % is though, and perhaps 60% of that number could amount to 22% overall.

I think he said 22% of those who normally attend regular church meetings.

The drop was interesting. No matter how you calculate it, if their Stake it dropped from 50% to 22%. I don't know if that is over a years period of time, 3 years or what.

[Surfah]

Come to think of it, if there are 13 million members and 3,000 stakes, that's over 4,000 people per stake. I don't believe I've ever seen a SC with 1,000 in attendance, even when the prophet was the pre-announced speaker.

Really? I have seen 1000+ a few times.

And Eddie Jones is right, it's a chore for parents with young kids. It's hard enough to keep them still and quiet for 1 hours let alone 2. Our daughter nears her breaking point as soon as the hour is passed.

Due to an outbreak of swine flu in our stake (our SP was actually speaking from home via webcam because he had it - Elder Anderson who was visiting stayed with his children in Maryland to avoid catching it), Gidget stayed home with our daughter for our last SC.

[byu71]

So he misses SC because he doesn't want to expose his kids to sickness but does he allow them to go to primary?

This is just my guess. He probably doesn't feel like he can afford to miss his regular church meetings and thus his kid primary age goes to primary. Again my guess, he feels he can afford to miss SC.

I personally feel those who get a lot out of SC should go and those that don't shouldn't feel guilty if they take a week off.

[LA Ute]

. . . our SP was actually speaking from home via webcam because he had it . . . .

I like this "virtual attendance" idea. Has possibilities!

[Color Me Badd Fan]

My 21 month-old's breaking point is the amount of time between the beginning of sacrament meeting and the when the sacrament is finished. I guess that's approximately 20-25 minutes or so.

If the stake leadership is concerned about SC attendance, then they need to somehow link up another chapel to see the meetings. Every time I've gone in the past few years, it's a standing room only affair with even the overflow rooms being packed. Even if more people attended, they couldn't seat them all. Considering that a stake usually consists of about 8 wards or so and each ward is supposed to at least fill up the chapel, it's ridiculous to assume all these people from the 8 wards could fit into one chapel, gym and overflow rooms (relief society and primary rooms) for one meeting.

[Art Vandelay]

Come to think of it, if there are 13 million members and 3,000 stakes, that's over 4,000 people per stake. I don't believe I've ever seen a SC with 1,000 in attendance, even when the prophet was the pre-announced speaker.

We had Stake conference yesterday that likely had 2500+ in attendance. It was simulcast to 4 different buildings, each of them full to standing room only.

[byu71]

We had Stake conference yesterday that likely had 2500+ in attendance. It was simulcast to 4 different buildings, each of them full to standing room only.

How many members are there in your Stake and what would be your guess at weekly attendance for regular meetings.

Maybe this is an isolated problem my friend is talking about.

[Non Sequitur]

We had Stake conference yesterday that likely had 2500+ in attendance. It was simulcast to 4 different buildings, each of them full to standing room only.

Was there a GA speaking? It was always my experience that attendance doubled if a celebrity was to be present.

[Fiyero]

We had Stake conference yesterday that likely had 2500+ in attendance. It was simulcast to 4 different buildings, each of them full to standing room only.

How many can you cram into a chapel: 300? Then how many in the cultural hall: 1000? I've never seen one with a cultural hall more than half full. Singles firesides yes, stake conferences no.

[Art Vandelay]

How many members are there in your Stake and what would be your guess at weekly attendance for regular meetings.

Maybe this is an isolated problem my friend is talking about.

Was there a GA speaking? It was always my experience that attendance doubled if a celebrity was to be present.

Elder Holland was speaking. The more I think about it, I realize I'm likely underestimating attendance. I don't know what our weekly combined sacrament attendance is, but I would guess yesterday was close to 100% if not over (there were a ton of investigators and less actives present).

I'm sure some do view the GA's as celebrities. In my limited experience I have always been disappointed when I've met someone famous. My experience with apostles (again very limited) has been the exact opposite, the meeting yesterday and a training meeting I had on Saturday exceeded my expectations.