We Became Youth Conference Leaders!

After a last minute assignment to plan and carry out a three-and-a-half day, church youth conference for 120 youth (plus adult leaders and chaperones) we are happy to announce "It's over." But also, I would like to whisper, "I absolutely DO NOT want to do this again." The only way to have carried out this PARTICULAR conference, was for it to become my full time job in the two-and-a half months prior. (Which was acknowledged and apologized for.)

However, to toot our own horn...we ARE pretty awesome and capable. Put that on our resume. And honestly, I think the only people perfectly situated to pull this particular conference off this year. But still, I am burnt out. 

The Conference Themes 

Though, one is plenty, we had two running themes which needed marrying. The first, a Church-wide theme, came from the scriptures. Moses: 6:34 "And thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me." It's an invitation from Jesus Christ to journey side-by-side through life's daily moments, challenges, and spiritual growth. 

The Church provides a logo for their theme, so I deconstructed it, and this is the color and design the youth chose.

Above: In one of their classes, the youth share what "Walk With Me" means to them. 

The shirts, by the way, were ordered from Printed Threads in Fort Worth. I was absolutely thrilled with their service and geeked out about their branding and packaging because I'm a design nerd, plus their recommended t-shirt fabric and printing was on point for our needs. Pricing was fair too. Ask me for more details if you're curious and in the area. Their studio is awesome too—I kinda wish I worked for them.

 

The second theme, "Mini Mission" was chosen by a small group of our youth—YCLs (Youth Conference Leaders).  They wanted to have a mini-missionary / training experience.  

So here you have it—a long weekend with the youth, starting on:

Thursday: Mini-Missions 8:30am–7:30pm

• Youth arrive at church dressed in Sunday dress, check-in and receive swag bags with: notebook and pen (below), water bottle, t-shirt, enveloped mission call and missionary name tag, and daily schedule. What more could a youth possibly want? A snack. I know. We got it covered. 

• Youth enter the chapel to watch "What it's Like Inside the Missionary Training Center" (MTC) while waiting for everyone else to check-in. I was VERY happy to have found this video, it was PERFECT to open with (20min long).
  
  
  
  
• Stake President commences the day with a talk about the mission experience and describes how, when they're ready, the youth will obtain his endorsement to serve a mission.  
• Youth enter the gym where twelve adults have set up displays about their own missions in various countries. Every three minutes the youth rotate to the next table clockwise. (Below: After I got a cancellation a day before the event, our good friend Nick, stepped in to share his mission experiences. Thank you Nick! Adam too, stepped in after I couldn't find anyone else to fill our last slot.)

 

Above, rotations are just beginning and I am feeling.... 

• Mission-call letters are excitedly opened and youth discover to which country they have been assigned. A name-tag for each person has also been placed in the envelope. These new groups of "missionaries" are called districts.  Now all youth have tags on, have found their adult district leaders, and look fabulous.

• Each district splits off into a classroom to learn more about their country, create a district banner (below), motto, and get to know one another.

• Training begins with a group study class of Preach my Gospel.

• Time for lunch where mottoes and banners are shared.
  
  Food prep was a feat all its own. I had angel volunteers who pulled it together and worked VERY hard in the kitchen. I didn't have to be involved in meal planning and prep which I am ever grateful for. (If you haven't heard of it, SignUpGenius is a resource that helped us find ALL the remaining kitchen volunteers and food cooks we needed.)
   
  1st photo below: Janet and Ema. Ema told me she would take on ALL the meals. I cried on the phone. She told me not to be dramatic. Two days later it was announced she had accepted the call to be the Stake Young Women's second counselor! Janet had offered to help with meals so I put the two together. It was a companionship not easily forged, but I know they came out of it truly appreciating one another. 
   
  Second photo below: The Stake President Todd and his wife Abby—both are stand out people. (Abby has done a turn as the Stake Young Women's president. So she knows what goes into a conference, I appreciate her volunteering. And the kitchen people enjoyed her company.) 
   
• Six classes on rotation begin with snack break half-way through. To keep class sizes small, we have two classes per topic—meaning 12 classes are in session throughout the afternoon which are:
  
  1. Theme: Walk with Me
  2. Am I Ready? Based on the resource Adjusting to Missionary Life 
  3. Using Social Media to Share: Youth create a short media post to be viewed during dinner.
  4. Finding Answers in the Scriptures
  5. Temple Preparation: adjusted for youth
  6. Missionary role-play with full-time missionaries. This class became Missionary Jeopardy, as the missionaries became unavailable five days prior. 

  Below: It was disappointing we couldn't do missionary role-play as this was specifically requested by the youth. But about five days before the event we had to pivot. Knowing we couldn't ask someone to prepare a lesson this late, Adam remembered a Jeopardy game from years past. So we spent a few days finding questions and populating the program. I found a substitute...who also cancelled a day before the event. The man on the right, Brother Harrison, rescued us and switched his work schedule to come and run the game. He wins the day. 

  

• Dinner. Time to watch the social media posts.
• Last group meeting with invited speakers. Two recently converted members share their story and testimony. One former missionary shares how her mission impacted her testimony and life. John Elmer, a former Mission (2003) and Temple President from the neighboring stake speaks to the youth about "How to Go on a Mission and Stay on a Mission." 

 Above: Cheryl S. and John G. Elmer / Image found here.

 

Brother Elmer was a fantastic speaker for the youth. He was friendly and funny...but as an audience the youth gave him little to no feedback (why do the youth these days act like dead fish? Are they absorbing anything meaningful and worthwhile???) but Brother Elmer went with it incredibly well—it was a lesson to us adults on how to speak to youth. We had a Q&A with him where only two questions were asked, but when the crickets sounded Elmer was prepared and said, "Now, another question you should have asked me is ________." And he went on to answer his own questions in a friendly way that truly seemed as if a youth had actually asked.

Friday: Day of Service 9:00am–4:00pm 
and Carpet Activity 7:00pm–8:30pm

Conferences ALWAYS include a service, which makes a positive impact for all involved. In the morning, half the group traveled to the Tarrant Area Food Bank to sort food for three hours. (And the facility was air-conditioned. One point for Anna who found a large group service project in-doors!)

The other half met at the church to participate in rotating service projects. Most of these projects were found on JustServe.org.

1. Supporting cancer patients through bracelet making:
Volunteers create handmade bracelets that share care, strength, and encouragement with individuals undergoing breast cancer treatment. These will be added to care packages by Stronger Than Cancer. 

 

2. Braiding paracord lanyards:
When lanyards arrive at Operation Gratitude, they will attach a carabiner that can be clipped onto almost anything to keep the lanyard within reach should an emergency arise. They have lanyards in their care packages because they’re both functional and meaningful, as they are handmade by Americans who want to show their appreciation to our military and first responders. (In the end, 350 were shipped off to them!)

3. Decorate empty boxes for children:
Finished boxes are filled with food by LovPacs and given to students who may not have reliable access to food outside of school.

4. Handmade Greeting Cards
The Creative Kindness team organizes and distributes the cards to cancer foundations, hospitals, shelters, retirement homes, children's homes, and other organizations in need.
The cards are used by nurses, doctors, staff members, counselors, parents and volunteers who add handwritten messages of encouragement and love before giving them to patients, children and other people in need.

Halfway through the day we served lunch and the two groups swapped places. We were done by 4:00 pm. ALL the youth then came back to the church for the Carpet Activity at 7:00 pm.  

Carpet Activity 

The Carpet Activity was run by Tami, friend and member of my congregation. She runs group activities for 100+ people as part of her job. I had remembered an activity she ran for our congregation's youth YEARS ago, so I asked for details I had forgotten so I could run it—but she offered to take over!

It was loud, exciting, and frustrating for some teens who got legit angry—one was red faced and yelling at me (Tami forewarned us this WOULD happen) so all I could do was give her a wincey smile and shrug. It was all part of the game and this youth would learn why very shortly. It had a twist. At the end Tami debriefed the group, pointing out certain lessons the youth didn't know they were learning while participating in the activity. And it made an impact. Score! (Sorry, I can't tell you more about it, 'twould ruin the game should you or anyone ever participate.)

Saturday: 6 hour Fun Day at Burgers Lake

Burgers Lake is an "historic 30-acre park in Fort Worth Texas, featuring a spring fed swimming hole that originated in 1929 when traveling salesman Hugo Burger and his wife Gladys bought the property for $50,000 (it was a goldfish hatchery at the time) and turned the cold-water spring into a public bathing spot." Now it features various slides, diving boards and even a trapeze to swing off of and drop into the water.

Above: Adam shoots off one of the Great White Slides into the water. Below: Said shooting.

We were very grateful to the friendly Burger management. We received a 50% discount for bringing in 100+ people, keeping it within our shrunkled budget. The venue was PACKED and it was HOT but I hope fun was had by all. 

Sunday Night: Testimonies

Traditionally, conferences end with a testimony meeting. This is when the youth share what they have learned and what they know to be true. Thankfully we heard something said about each part of the conference. Two older teens told the group they were now committed to serving a mission because they felt like they'd be missing out if they didn't. This is how we know it made an impact...otherwise, we would have closed the event feeling like failures! 

 

Epilogue 

There are so many behind the scenes things to say about this experience. So many. The last minute nature created multiple frustrations. It isn't normal to assign people as Youth Conference Leaders (it's supposed to be carried out by Stake Youth Presidencies) but there were several extenuating circumstances.

A friend commented thusly about the situation, "We want something amazing and big this year, but let's tie your shoelaces together first!" And that's how it felt. It was a fight to get to the finish line. 

Most of these tips I already knew, but they happened just the same. So I give this list to myself as a reminder for next time. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention there will be a next time? 

• Never plan anything without a pre-approved budget and double check that it is truly approved: 
  We were told the money was there. It wasn't. We had to pivot in a BIG way.
• Don't give the YCLs carte blanche: 
  What they wanted and what we could realistically pull-off ended up being different. And we DID pull off the impossible, but it was at my expense. Give youth realistic options to chose from instead. Get THEM involved in preparation—which of course, can only happen given enough time.
• Avoid work hours: An activity that depends on more-than-usual adult help is nearly impossible on short notice, especially when some of it takes place on a Thursday. I knew it would be a problem but there was no changing it. I am grateful for EVERY adult who said yes and were willing to shift their schedules.
• Attendance will be less than expected: 43 registered youth did not show up. This caused wasted time and money. Plan on 60–70% attendance from registrants but plan on some showing up without having registered at all.
• Don't plan an event that relies on specific numbers or specific youth showing: Districts were meant to have 8-10 youth. Because some didn't not show up, we had districts with VERY low numbers which was unfair to those who DID attend. I could only hope the smaller districts had the experiences they were meant to have.
• Always get parents' phone and email address (plus more): So MANY parents don't have these listed in the directory. I had to lean heavily on the secretary, Yolanda, who had access to what I was not given. Bless her.
• Ask for a committee: Even if it's a small one. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to work with a committee. We needed to move forward with decisions in real time. What we really needed this year were task rabbits and gophers.
• Get someone to take care of registration and release forms, make it their only task: This was all-consuming. And we STILL never got mandatory release forms from some parents. Again, thank you Yolanda! 
• Keep it high energy: Maybe it's music in the background, maybe it's an energetic MC (Adam). And probably it's reminding the adults to make a lesson interactive.
• Bring ANYTHING extra to the last meeting: all the extra food, t-shirts, and other items. Those things WILL find a home with participants.  
• Avoid multiple meals if possible: Asking volunteers to provide two meals in one day is quite a lot. Three in two days is almost unreasonable in my opinion.
• Confirm all assignments a 1-2 weeks ahead: If you don't, something will fall through the day-of. 
• Stupid things will happen: Adults will forget about a schedule conflict, parents will forget to register their child, people will cancel last minute, someone will ask if it's too late to register after the first day is already over. Things will have to be re-planned and reprinted and restated...take a breath, be calm, and be prepared for it.
• Thank you cards: Take care of your bridges. Tell the adults the kind of impact they made, thank them. Try to talk to them at the event so they can feel the gratitude in-person too. You'll need the help of some of them in 2028 when you do this again. 

Again, we're grateful it's over. And now, I'm desperate to play catch up (as if that's possible) with everything we couldn't do this spring!