Service projects

Sample letter to a woman I asked to head these up one year:

"As we start looking toward next year, you have a couple options for how to figure out who is going to do the service projects which months.  I would like to have a service opportunity once a month, Sept-April, with Nov and Dec counting as one month (we can coordinate the service with the December family activity if it works out that we do a family activity that month) .  Not everyone can attend each service project, but it will be powerful to have the opportunity to serve so frequently as a group. 
-You can look at those who did it last year and then prayerfully extend the offer to do it to those who didn't;
-you can just prayerfully assign it (which can be a neat way for people to do things they didn't think they would have otherwise);
-or you can have people sign-up to do it.  (We had this sign-up at the family event at the beginning of the year last year.)

We emphasize service in Vanguard because, like King Benjamin, the best leaders are those who are service-minded :). As you share your enthusiasm for service with those who sign-up, it will be infectious and can become a joy to do!  Your role is to contact the person in charge of the month (say, January) in time so that at our mentor meeting the month before (the first Sat. in December in that case) we know when and where the service project is so it can be in the newsletter, or so we can make the necessary adjustments to timing if we need to. 

I have tried to emphasize in the past that this is an opportunity for the youth and their parents or families to organize a group service.  Your job is (ideally!) to just make sure everyone else knows what is planned and if we need to gather any supplies as a group for the project (like collecting food for the poor, material for quilts, etc.)  It would also be a good idea if you had a list of service ideas just in case someone needed an idea.

These projects can also be a great way for the youth to sign off service project requirements for Young Women, Duty to God or Scouting programs.

Thanks for your willingness to do this!  If you could have what you would like to do for the year by that first mentor meeting for the year on August 6th, that would be grand.  That would be a great time to confirm how the scheduling for Baptisms for the Dead are going, as well.

As always, if you have any ideas, suggestions, or changes that you would like to make in your area of mentoring (or suggestions for others in theirs), the mentor meetings are a great time to bring that up, or you can just email me privately, if you prefer.

Have a beautiful day!"