First Week of Planning

September 20, 2014
I had two meetings last week to begin planning the Family History Fair.  The first was with the High Councilman, and the main purpose was to get the two of us on the same page regarding our goals for the fair and to plan the second meeting, which would be with the Family History Consultants from the six wards in our stake.  We started thinking about who all we wanted to come to the fair.  I am in a Student Married Stake, so we knew they would be part of the intended audience, but did we also want to invite the Young Single Adult Stakes?  He also told me that he would take about 10 minutes at the beginning of the second meeting to conduct some business and then turn the time over to me to use however I wanted.

Our second meeting was on Sunday, so that morning, I looked through some of the resources available for classes at the fair, I laid out a possible general schedule, and I came up with a list of things I wanted to talk about with the consultants.  Mainly, I wanted to get their ideas and brainstorm with them about what they felt their wards would benefit from.  Before the meeting the High Councilman came to me and told me he had spoken with the Stake President again.  The Stake President had taken the idea of this Fair to a meeting with other Stake Presidents in the area, and many of them were really interested in participating.  Suddenly our audience had become a whole lot bigger.  This was very exciting to me because I was a little concerned there would be a lack of interest.

At the meeting with the other consultants, I was amazed at their ingenuity and interest in this project.  As soon as I opened the floor to them to start brainstorming, there was a flood of ideas flowing!  They had so many great thoughts about how to help participants really be involved with their family history, not just listening to classes.  I can't wait to get started on implementing their ideas.  I also asked for volunteers and delegated a few responsibilities to other members of this group, who have become the planning committee for this activity.

After the meeting, I registered our Stake online for the Family History Fair.  There were a few technological issues, but I emailed their support team, and these issued were resolved without too much hassle.

It's very exciting to finally really be getting started, but I also now realize that this is a larger undertaking than I realized.  However, with the help I am receiving, I don't feel too overwhelmed.  At least not yet.  :)

Through these first few experiences with planning the Fair, I have learned how important the people involved in the planning are.  The High Councilman has really helped guide me on how to get started, what I should be looking at and thinking about.  He also has helped me connect to the Family History Consultants so that I would have a committee to assist in the planning of this activity.  He has been an invaluable connection to Stake leaders who can really provide the motivation for attendance at the conference.

I was completely amazed by the brilliant ideas of the family history consultants.  I am so grateful for their help and enthusiasm.  I really believe that they, not I, will make this Fair great.  They taught me in this one meeting that a group of people brainstorming and planning together can come up with something greater than one person alone can.

I now know that everyone involved in planning and organizing an activity is important to what the final product will be.  When I plan events in the future, I will make sure I am working with people who really care how the event will turn out, and they will provide the things that will turn what was a good idea into a great activity.