Last night's recognition evening

Last night we had a recognition evening for Young Women.  We had seven ladies receive the new medallion.  This is a picture (that I "lifted" from another blog) of the seven of them (with one spare girl in there, just for fun).  Four were receiving the medallion for the first time (left to right, #2, #4, #5, and #6, with #7 being the interloper in the picture). Sister #5 was the first adult in the ward to receive the medallion under this new program that opens up personal progress to all women.  The other three young ladies had already received a medallion under the old program and had completed the requirements for upgrading to the new medallion (left to right, #1, #3 and #8).

I was in charge of this activity, spent a lot of effort on it, am relieved it is over, and I thought it went well. I did have a lot of good help in pulling off the evening.  My secretary spent hours on her part of the program.  My counselor helped with invitations and tags.  We had a good turn out.  The two speakers did really well.  One speaker was sick.  I found out about 5 p.m the night of, so I jumped in and took her place.  Whew.  All in a day's work, right?

My counselor has challenged the Mia Maids to try to complete their personal progress (and for one to earn a bee) before she does, so I hope we have a recognition evening next fall or winter when we have one adult and three young women earning their medallions and one young woman earning a bee.

I need to figure out some way to facilitate this.  I had been trying to hold one personal progress activity per month.  I found that the Tuesday personal progress activities (on Tuesdays when we wouldn't have held YW because of something later that week) were the best attended so I had dropped back to those as they randomly arose but I've been thinking that perhaps this summer I need to make the most of the unstructured summer time and kick things up a notch, maybe? We have a new crop of Beehives and if they can make significant inroads into personal progress while they're Beehives, I think they will go on to earn their medallions.  Most of them need to get acquainted with the program, too.  All the Mia Maids turn sixteen in 2011, and I'm concerned that they earn their medallion by the time they're sixteen--there are too many other things for sixteen-year olds to do after that.

Next, we have Girls' Camp.  L and I are planning Youth Conference, too.  Lots to do between now and Youth Conference but it is coming together.  There's always something with this calling.