|
|
Responsibilities
of
the Young Women's
Beehive Advisor
| To help each
young woman in the ward feel loved, accepted,
needed, and to have a desire to "Come unto Christ" as they strive to
live the gospel. 1. Represents
the need
and interests of the Beehive class in the following meetings:
2. Presidency Meetings. Your class presidency meeting should be a spiritual meeting. Help the young women recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit as they consider different issues. Help them stay focused. Try to stay 3-4 months ahead in your planning so you can focus on different issues at your meetings. Leadership training should be done by the member of the Young Women's Presidency who is over your class. You may be asked to assist with the training. Help the girls understand the great responsibility they have and the seriousness and importance of their callings. Assist in assigning each girl in your class to a member of your class presidency on a phone tree. Each presidency member should be responsible for calling her girls about activities, birthdays, other special events, on days when she's not there, etc. Special assignments beyond the phone tree may be made for those struggling. Plan with a purpose! Help make sure activities are planned that reinforce the principles taught in Sunday lessons or the Young Women Values. One activity a month should be planned on service. Normally the service activities will be on the 4th Wednesday of the month. Evaluate previous activities and find ways to improve ones yet to come. Be willing to give input and guidance. Your guidance is crucial in making sure we have worthwhile activities that will help these young women gain a testimony of the gospel and the YW Values. 3. Sunday Instruction a.
Should be planned and prepared so that you
can teach the young women gospel principles and how to apply them in
their every day lives.
b.
Lessons are to be taught from the approved
Young Women manuals. You may use other approved church materials.
c. Each
young woman should bring her scriptures
to the Sunday meetings.
d.
Prayerfully consider the lesson to be taught.
You do not have to teach the lessons in the order they are in the
manual.
Mutual activities should try to be planned around the Sunday lesson in order to reinforce the principles taught. In your planning, work with the counselor in organizing it accordingly. e. Take time to thoroughly and prayerfully plan your lessons. Rely on the Spirit to help you teach the young women. Help them recognize the Spirit as you feel it during class time. 4. Wednesday
Mutual a.
Responsible for assisting with Wednesday
Mutual. Attend and assist in whatever areas are needed.
Encourage
your class to be involved, supportive,
and
respectful.
Encourage class presidency to delegate to other girls in the
class.
The other girls love to feel needed and included, instead of always
just
showing up.
b. Help keep track of class during the activity. c. Be positive and enthusiastic. Be supportive of class presidency and help girls in the class recognize the time and efforts made by the presidency on their behalf. d. Lead and guide with love when problems arise. Pull young woman aside and encourage her and try to find out why she isn't participating or whatever else the situation may be. e. ALWAYS end Mutual with a prayer. 5. Personal
Progress a.
Prepare yourself spiritually so you can help
guide the young women, share your love with them as you build a caring
relationship with each one, and share your testimony at appropriate
times.
Gain a testimony of the Personal Progress program and help the young
women
to do the same. Be encouraging and
supportive
and
help them learn to love the program.
b. Encourage young women to involve their parents. c. Work with counselor in assisting them with Personal Progress. d. Hold regular interviews with her and become familiar with the experiences or projects she is doing. e. Help her plan and participate in a realistic program of scripture study. Family, seminary, or other study programs can be used for Personal Progress. f. Many of the Value Experiences require a young woman to record her feelings in her journal and to discuss them with her parent(s) or Young Women leader. This does not require her to show you her journal, only to be able to report from it. It is recommended that a separate notebook serve as a personal journal and be used as a companion to a young woman's Personal Progress book. g. Personal history pages are included with each age-group. These pages must be completed to fulfill the age-group requirements. She may want to keep a more complete record in another place. h. Young woman cannot start doing the next age group requirements until her birthday. Encourage her to pace herself with her experiences so that they last her a year. i. She may choose to replace two of the suggested experiences each year with experiences of her own design. j. She may choose to work on Value Experiences individually or with others. If two young women work on one, the responsibilities must be equally shared. k. Make sure each Value Experience that is completed is signed by a parent and a leader. You, the counselor, or the class president can sign off completed experiences. l. A young woman receives age-group recognition when she has completed all first and second year age-group responsibilities, including being interview by the Bishop. The certificates will be presented on an "as earn basis" on the first Sunday of every month with the accompanying age-group jewelry. m. Try to keep an on-going record of where they are on their Personal Progress. 6. The YW
Counselor will
be responsible for interviews with the girls. Due to the large
number
of girls in some classes, you may be
asked to assist. Your class should be
interviewed
AT LEAST once every 3 months. If you assist with the interviews,
go over the following: a.
Personal Progress: Counsel them to
set their goals with the Lord and to make Him a part of it.
Determine
where they are with their Personal
Progress. Do they need
help?
Discuss the other responsibilities (pp. 44 & 56 Pers. Prog. Book)
for
the age group they are in. Help them make it a very personal
thing
between them and the Lord. Encourage them to really stretch
themselves
and to do it the right way. Challenge them to give a great deal
of
thought and effort as they choose and accomplish experiences. Go
by the Spirit when signing off
experiences. Make sure you
ask questions.
Encourage them to include their parents!
b. Standards of Personal Worthiness (Found on page 9 of the Pers. Prog. Book). Especially encourage them to stay morally clean and to obey the Word of Wisdom. If there are problems in these areas, do not get details, encourage them to see the bishop to take care of them. FOLLOW UP! c. Go over Young Women motto ("Stand for Truth and Righteousness"), class mission statement ("Being a young woman of truth"), and the class symbol (a young woman kneeling in prayer). d. Find out how they are! What's going on in their life? What are they involved in? How are they spiritually? How do they feel about Young Women's? Do they have any input or suggestions? Etc. e. Challenge them to pray and read their scriptures every day. Challenge them to do service. Challenge them to bear their testimonies! f. All these things would still be wonderful ways to reach the young women even if you were meeting on a casual basis. 8. When a young woman advances into your class, make sure the YW President and Secretary are both aware and that she is recognized and presented with her YW logo pendant and chain. Remind your secretary to update your class list and assign her to someone on your phone tree. Class presidency should also plan a special welcome for each young woman as she enters a new class. 9. Beehive
Yearly Value
Projects a. At
the beginning of the year have each young
woman choose a value she would like to focus on. Help them
understand
that this should be one that they would
like to be
strengthened
in or may be struggling with. Keep a record of who is doing what
value so you can encourage them and help
them.
b. Assist them in choosing a project based on that value. They will also need to be able to display it at "Young Women's in Excellence" at the end of the year. c. Project should be one that they can continue to work on through the year. Make sure the project is worthwhile, will force them to reach and stretch themselves, and will accomplish the purpose of strengthening them in the YW Value they have chosen to focus it on. If it doesn't meet the requirements, guide them and counsel with them on how to improve it or maybe give some other suggestions. d. Follow up with them and assist when needed. Find creative ways to remind them and encourage them to really make these projects important to them. Most importantly, involve the parents. Touch base with them on a regular basis to encourage them to be involved! 10. Develop a close relationship with the counselor that works with you. She is a valuable resource and tool for you. Follow her counsel and guidance. If you have concerns with girls in your class, share them with her and seek her advice. Develop a partnership in working with the girls. Support her and assist her when needed. Her main responsibility will be the administrative area of the program. Your main responsibility should be to develop a close relationship with each young woman in your class. You are also in charge of the Sunday lessons and assisting with Mutual activities. Work with the counselor over you so that you can be freed up to really spend some quality time working on each young woman individually. 11. Service
a.
Encourage your class to participate and have
input on service ideas.
b. Have valuable service activities on the 4th Wed. Mutual night. c. Teach the girls to serve each other. d. Follow the spirit in helping them to gain a testimony of the importance of service and the blessings that will be theirs as they do it. e. Especially encourage class presidency to find ways to serve the young women in the class. The class counselor over service should come to the presidency meetings with a variety of ideas for service or ideas to strengthen and encourage attitudes on service. 12. Less
Actives/Missionary
Work a.
Determine what needs there are for those
who are less active and reasons they are not participating.
b. Help class presidency understand their responsibility to fellowship less active young women. c. Make sure they are getting a weekly phone call from the person who has them on their phone tree AND from one of the leaders in your class. d. Encourage the girls in your class to reach out to them and to get to know them! e. Make a special assignment to someone in the class to fellowship them on an individual basis. f. PRAY FOR THEM and maybe consider fasting for them as a presidency or as a class. g. Have faith and rely on the Lord for guidance in how to approach her and on ways to touch her heart. h. Help girls understand that fellowshipping is not easy. It requires hard work, fasting and prayer, sacrifice, and planning. Be happy with any amount of progress. It is important for each young woman to know you are genuinely interested in her and not just her attendance at meetings or activities. i. On a regular basis discuss progress made with less active young women and develop new plans for reaching out to them. j. Provide adequate opportunities in planning Mutual activities for the girls to bring their non-member friends. Let them know when the activity is going to be a good one for them to bring a friend to and encourage them to do so. Make sure that there is something at the activity to allow the Spirit to be present. Maybe a group discussion at the end or a little talk. Help them recognize the good feelings they feel. 13. Work together with YW presidency to determine those who are less active or those who need extra fellowshipping. Keep in close contact with the girls in your class. Show encouragement, support, concern and love for them. Make time to talk to them and to find out what their life is all about. Be an example of righteousness and strength. They will look to you for guidelines and for what is and isn't appropriate. Stand firm for those things that are right and encourage them to do the same. Most importantly, pray for them. As mentioned earlier, your main responsibility will be to provide a close, on-going, supportive relationship with each young woman in your class. You are to help the class presidency succeed in their callings. Help them understand and care for class members. Provide a loving and supportive environment for each young woman in the class. Be especially sensitive to the needs of young women who are less active or who do not feel accepted by other young women. Help each young woman feel loved, accepted, and needed. 14.
Responsibilities in the
YW Board a.
Counsel with President when needed
b. Be involved in the planning and implementing of the Young Women's program in the ward c. Be involved in the planning and implementing of the main programs of the year (New Beginnings, Standards Night, and Young Women in Excellence) d. Be supportive of members of the YW Board e. Be willing to offer input, counsel, advice, and suggestions. f. Read Personal Progress book and YW Leadership Handbook from cover to cover. g. Participate in the Personal Progress program if you haven't already done it. 15. Other assignments and responsibilities as needed. |