I am the 2nd counselor in our Ward's YW. We are always trying new ways to cut our opening exercises a little shorter to make more time for  lessons. I have included a few of the things we have done which were  successful for us.

1. We write the announcements on the chalkboard, or you can put them on a board that fits on an easel. You can do the same thing with class  announcements. Point them out to the girls and then move on.

2. We make out 2 calendars for each girl, which include all of the upcoming activities and announcements...we found that we actually need one for each of  the girls, and one for the parents. We need to see that the parents get the calendar as the girls frequently forget to give it to them.

3. We have been asking one of the girls, or if necessary, a leader to play  some prelude music as the girls enter, which has helped them to settle down  and get reverent a little sooner.

As to the "Missionary Moment", I think that sounds like a GREAT idea, which   goes beautifully with this year's theme, "Stand as a Witness."

Submitted by:  Jane in AF, UT  bigmamajane@juno.com

We were worried about shortened lesson time because of opening exercises and came up with a plan that you might get some ideas from:

We have our normal agenda (from manual)

Welcome

Opening Hymn (from Resource guide this year)

Opening prayer

Recitation of theme & Monthly value with scripture & meaning (read from poster)

Announcements

Then the change for us where in the manual it says you can have an OCCASIONAL BRIEF talk we have a BRIEF but different item each week to meet our needs.

1st week - Introduce lesson theme for month (The headers in our lesson manuals.) Read scripture that relates. Tell how our activities will tie into that and pass off monthly value at PP night  (By the way, we set aside 10 min for testimonies after a group lesson onfast Sunday)

2nd week - We have a parent or leader tell about a YW and how she has been standing as a witness for Christ

3rd week - Song practice (because we all are to memorize all verses of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives"

4th Week - Birthdays for the month and any "getting to know you" (if we have a new girl or leader we have her bring a bag with things in it that would tell all about her. She pulls things from the bag and introduces herself)

Our opening has been cut 10 minutes by sticking to this schedule.

Of course, we have our monthly calendar with all our activities listed for 3 months.

Hope it gives you some ideas.

Submitted by:  Christine   HALLFAMLDS@aol.com

We have also had lengthy OE's and we have worked to cut them shorter. A couple of thoughts we have  done are:

Printed up sheet for class presidencies which contains Sunday info (ie:  Date, Who is conducting [we rotate on a monthly basis between members of the  Laurel Class – Jan. Laurel Pres, Feb. Laurel 1st Cnslr, March Laurel 2nd  Cnslr, Sec (if decided to assign this by the Laurel Class Presidency) then  start all over again],

Opening Hymn from Resource Guide,

Title of lesson for that week.

Each class takes turns throughout the year to be responsible for decorating the bulletin board with announcements, birthdays, value, etc for that month. That same class is responsible for setting up the classroom - chairs, tablecloth, value info, etc. The class presidency in charge for that month  takes turns getting the info for opening exercises (prayer, person to lead the theme, scripture, value, etc) and we tell them this needs to be done (we  have a form for them to fill out) by the Saturday before so that we aren't wasting time getting started. By doing things this way, each class is only   responsible for 4 months out of the year. The class in charge for the month is also the ones who plan the activities for that month (except YM/YW  activity which rotates throughout the year).

We really work with the Sunday School teachers to let them know how important it is for our YW to be in class on time. Our problem is getting the YM to go to their class and not chit-chat with the YW when we need to be getting started.

We have been trying to implement these things but still having a few bugs to work out as it is a new routine for the girls.

Leadership

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