When and How do you count attendance in sacrament?

[TinMan]

Other than March, June, September and December, how accurate do you need to be?

[jwtaber]

That depends on what the ward and stake leadership want.

[TinMan]

Really? You are saying some bishops and Stake Presidents look at sacrament meeting attendance numbers every month?

I wish I had that kind of time.

[aebrown]

Really? You are saying some bishops and Stake Presidents look at sacrament meeting attendance numbers every month?

I wish I had that kind of time.

It would take approximately one minute of the bishop's time to tell the ward clerk: "Please count sacrament meeting attendance each week. If you see any unusual changes, let me know." The rest is up to the ward clerk -- the bishop should never have to worry about it again, unless his trusty ward clerk finds something unusual.

Or if the bishop wants to see the actual numbers, the clerk can present those numbers to him once a month (or whenever the bishop wants), which could consume another minute or so of the bishop's time each month. Bishops are busy with their ministry, but if a bishop thinks this is an important metric to stay on top of, he can afford a couple of minutes a month to review it.

[TinMan]

Perhaps aebrown.

For me, it is just easier to review the "key indicators" graphs in the leadership section at the end of every quarter. I can see like 10 "trends" all at the same time. Takes about 2 minutes once a quarter.

Isn't it why those key indicators are there?

[aebrown]

For me, it is just easier to review the "key indicators" graphs in the leadership section at the end of every quarter. I can see like 10 "trends" all at the same time. Takes about 2 minutes once a quarter.

Isn't it why those key indicators are there?

Those key indicators are based on the quarterly report, and as such contain statistics from only the last month of the quarter. I was responding to a discussion of why and how a bishop might request statistics for the other two months of the quarter.

But if a bishop wants a nice visual representation of the trends for the information on the quarterly report, then I agree with you 100% -- the Key Indicators section of Leader Resources is an excellent choice for that.

[TinMan]

Besides. Monthly sacrament meeting attendance fluctuates so much because of farewells/homecomings, baby blessings, vacations, Christmas programs, Primary programs, and so on, I would think checking every month would be rather useless.

but that is just me.

Go ahead and pour over the numbers every month if you wish.

[davesudweeks]

I agree with AEBrown's point. If a Stake President wants the information reported monthly, it is within his authority to instruct his wards to do so. Our past Stake President did just that while I served on the High Council - each ward reported the same information as on the quarterly report on an Open Office Spreadsheet to the Stake Clerk who compiled the stake numbers. The Stake President reviewed the information with the High Council and asked for specific actions when an unexplained trend began to surface.

Later as serving as Ward Clerk, I found that a monthly process was easier to keep going than a quarterly process with the Ward Organizations.

Our current Stake President abandoned that practice. Not to say the first Stake President was wrong - just that he had a different focus.

[TinMan]

I don't disagree. The Stake President can ask for anything he wants. I just don't see a one month drop or rise in Sacrament meeting attendance as "a trend." That's all.

[davesudweeks]

I don't disagree. The Stake President can ask for anything he wants. I just don't see a one month drop or rise in Sacrament meeting attendance as "a trend." That's all.

1 point does not a trend make. However, by the time a quarterly report identifies a trend, over half a year has gone by which can make a difference at the ward level. One does need to be careful to not overreact to single points above or below the norm without understanding why.

Putting the data in a spreadsheet allows one to do a quick trend analysis to avoid overreacting to individual points of data.