I've taken my time to respond to this, as I've wanted the think about things.
It finally dawned on me that the church has successfully tackled this problem on the spiritual side. Witness this past weekend - General Conference. The church, at considerable expense and effort, every 6 months produces 10 hours of programming where they effectively collapse the structure and Prophets, Apostles and Seventies speak directly to the membership. Usually of very basic subjects. Things found in the Gospel Principles manual. And yet it re-affirms things such that the chain of leadership that normally exists between the Prophet and the individual members has no chance of altering, "tilting" or "flavoring" the teachings in anyway. This has done a great deal in keeping us as "one church".
However on the temporal side, things don't seem to work quite that way. While we have manuals, the communication isn't as good. In many cases the members with a particular calling have banded together in self-help groups. A common cry from them is for more communication. The church has made progress in this area. This forum, and the new STS site is a good start. But then why am I reading about
this exciting talk third hand from some personal blog?
My suggestion would be more talks from our leaders on the nuts and bolts of our callings. With better understanding, many questions would be answered before they were asked or at least answered before it bubbles up to a higher level. It may also cut down on the number of times that I have received different answers to the same question. It hardly instills confidence in support when that happens.
Anyway, that's my 2¢ - more communication from our department leaders. With the death of Elder Faust, there was a vacancy in the First Presidency. And yet the members knew the procedure for filling it. They didn't know who, but the only question on when it would be announced was "Saturday morning or afternoon session"?
That's quite a significant statement. I'd like to see the department leaders be inspired by the example shown from the top and keep everyone informed in a timely, consistent and predictable way.
Oh, and that traveler that's now in Utah - Please tell me it's a modern form of transportation and not a handcart.