Task: Zones

Since I have the preparedness blog, and sometimes mention the newsletters, it may be clear that I am in charge of emergency preparedness for my ward.

For non-members, your ward or branch is the congregation that you meet with. A collection of wards is a stake. Several years ago (well, I guess eight) I was called as the ward emergency preparedness person. Later on I was called to stake, and then they did some reorganization and we were in a different stake, which released me from the stake calling, and suddenly I was called back as ward emergency preparedness specialist.

Preparedness is one of those callings without a set way to do it. One part of the calling is helping members with their own preparedness, which is what the newsletter is for. There is no requirement to write a newsletter, but I have in all three phases of my calling, because it is a natural communication method for me, and it feels right to do so.

The other part of the calling is to be responsible for the plan in which we will check on everyone in the event of an emergency, and provide necessary help. There are two ways in which this is harder in a singles ward.

One obstacle is that the area is so large. Generally a ward has set geographical boundaries, and while that can get pretty big in areas where the members are scattered, out here it usually isn’t so bad. However, with a ward or branch where there is some special factor other than geography, it spreads out quite a bit. We have members in Beaverton, Hillsboro, unincorporated Washington County, Forest Grove, Vernonia, St. Helens, Banks, and so on. The Spanish branch would have a similar situation, I am sure, and my understanding is that the deaf branch really sprawls.

The other thing that is hard is that the turnover is so frequent. People get new jobs, they go off to college and come back, they change roommates, and ideally they get married (the ultimate roommate change). To handle the large area, I divide things into zones, and then we have leaders responsible for reporting for each zone. We try and get responsible people, so they tend to be the most likely to move on in some way. We don’t call people whom we know are going back to college, but they advance their careers and get married pretty regularly.

Anyway, the zones task was to update the zones and figure out new leaders, which has been done, and done again, a couple of times, and is now ready for another round. I think the last time we called leaders it was May, and of those seven, one is married, two are engaged, and three have moved. Well, summer is over, people are going back to school, so the zone members would have needed updating anyway.

It is a rather Sisyphean task, but it is important. We’ll want to know how people are doing, and who needs help, and without having some kind of plan in place it would be total chaos. The plan just ends up having to stay fairly loose. Realizing that a smaller number is easier to track, however, is a big part of how my sisters and I decided to start praying people married. Yeah, I’ll explain.


28 minutes walking outside
Rest
Luke 11 – Luke 16