[poll id=”238″]
Would your answer differ from how you think adults should contact each other? Discuss.
Agency, Church Policy, Mormon, Mormon Culture
Agency, Church Policy, Mormon, Mormon Culture
[poll id=”238″]
Would your answer differ from how you think adults should contact each other? Discuss.
Wheat & Tares 
It’s a dance — there is no one perfect answer. What’s important is that leaders talk to youth — and avoid shifting responsibility to the youth.
I’m speaking of leaders talking to youth to keep them informed about and invited to activities and so forth. For ward Young Men and Young Women leaders, personal ministry to individual youth is done within the context of ministry to a larger group of youth. Where personal ministry occurs, it is best done as a friend and neighbor relationship (with church relationship merely incidental), with the full support of the youth’s parents, not as a primarily church relationship.
We have our latter-day Luddites that think that every new techie fad is another tool of the Devil. Still, it’d be best if the good folk at LDSTech develop a means to facilitate this communication through the Church’s apps so that there’s a record. The last thing that we need is some adult youth leader who “freelances” and there are accusations of inappropriate conduct. Let that happen and the folks in Salt Lake will have us back in the 19th century, using semaphore! If there’s a record of communication and per-approved purposes (reminder of activities, etc.), then it’ll stave off these problems.
When I was YM President, I used texting a lot with the kids. It wasn’t specific to any one kid, but had a group set up. Before each activity, I’d send a reminder. It was really the only way to remind them.
We planned an entire ward youth conference with a single 30 minute meeting and email/texts with the leaders. This included traveling 4 hours away to go river rafting, service projects, food, tents, etc. for 90+ youth and 20 leaders. It worked like a charm.
If texting/email were banned, people would ignore it.
Thanks to my divorce, I loathe any form of communication not upheld in courts.
Texting, Emailing, Facebook Messages: Ok. But only as long as parents are also attached. Remind parents if they don’t want to be attached to everything you send their kid, they can always let you know and you will remove them from the text/email/facebook message group.
Phone calls: Never ok.
IM: I don’t know anyone who still uses that.
Accepting Friend Requests: Just say no. It’s improper in the same way as educators accepting students as ‘friends’. You’re not friends. You don’t have anything in common. Plus, anything you need to say as a leader can be said in a Facebook Message/Text/Email.