City Council Meetings - Finally finished!

Bill and I attended the city council meeting in Loganville on Thursday. We don't even live there, but as part of my public affairs calling, I had asked the cities in our stake to issue proclamations naming November Month of the Family. The governor had previously signed a similar proclamation, as he has done for the last few years. We wanted it to have a bigger impact in our local area.


It wasn't difficult to get the cities to agree to issue the proclamations. A phone call and then some follow-up emails pretty much took care of it. I had to send each city a proposed copy of the proclamation, which was the same as the state proclamation except the city name instead of the state in the text. They were all willing to support the family so it wasn't much of a controversial issue.


Where possible, we asked a bishop from that city, or a counselor, to receive the proclamation. We also encouraged as many members as possible to attend the meeting to show support for the family. These things are usually done at the beginning of the council meeting. The mayor introduces the proclamation and invites a representative of the requesting organization to receive it.


We had a total of 8 cities and I participated in three of the presentations. Lawrenceville was unable to add it to the agenda for a city council meeting because the agenda was already too full. That mayor invited me to come to his office and receive it there. He suggested a picture in front of his bookcases of family pictures - that seemed the perfect place for a famiy proclamation to be given.

I also attended the Dacula meeting, as that is my ward. Loganville was the last one and because of some communication problems with the city, we didn't know until late in the afternoon that they were presenting the proclamation. By then, the bishop was unable to attend. So, Bill and I went to receive it. I was asked to explain briefly about why we had requested it and about the importance of families.

All in all, it has been a successful event. The wards that participated have come away excited about the connection with their community leaders. I got a note from the counselor in the stake presidency yesterday about how enthused the bishops were at their meeting the other night. He looked forward to doing it again next year and making it better.

I am glad to have a positive result from this. There were moments when I felt like I was pushing an elephant who didn't want to go. No one refused, but they didn't always seem to be interested. The result for public affairs has been positive all the way around. As a result of visiting with some of the mayors, we have already found some service projects.

Even so, it feels great to have the worry about having someone show up at each of these meetings finally over. I will think about it tomorrow! or next September, maybe.

Food Banks

I had an interesting evening on Thursday. As Director of Public Affairs for the Lilburn Stake, I am involved with community events. My Community Relations Assistant, Briane Adams, has set up a partnership between the wards in our stake and the food banks in our area. The kick-off meeting was held Thursday at the Bishop's Storehouse in Tucker.

We had three of the food banks represented by five people. Suzy Bus, the director of the Gwinnett County Help-Line, was also there. She is the one who has been working with Briane to make the connections with the food banks. In addition, the bishops or counselors from the wards were in attendance to meet the food bank directors. John Hopkins, manager of the storehouse, and President Johnson of the stake presidency, also were there.

We started with an introductory meeting where Briane gave a short talk about the church and our welfare program. He introduced everyone and explained about the initial $500 food donation that would be made to each of the food banks. He also talked about our desires for this to be a successful, ongoing partnership.

John then talked a little more about the storehouse and how things are organized and run. He then led a tour of the facility. We started in the bishop's storehouse where the food bank people could see the kinds of commodities that are available. The drypack cannery was next and we talked a little about our food storage program.

What really caught their interest was the tour into the warehouse where all the foodstuffs for both the storehouse and the drypack are stored. They were amazed at the quantity of food stored. But, they were awestruck at the humanitarian supplies. The stacks of generators got the first comments. The cleaning kits, hygiene kits, tents, tarps, tools, etc., led to a very nice discussion about the things the church does in times of emergency.

One of the men said that he had come to the meeting with some hesitation, not knowing what he might be getting into with the LDS church, but he was blown away with what the church has been doing and with the incredible preparation that has been done. The same man shared later that the night before he had attended a bible study group and when he mentioned the meeting he was going to the next night, he got quite a few negative warnings. He was anxious for next week's bible study so he could set the record straight.

All of the food bank directors seemed excited about the prospect of working with the church members. The bishops that were there, but whose food banks could not attend, asked if they could bring those people for a private tour once they had established contact. Of course, John said they were welcome at any time. Later, John said that this was the first time he had ever been part of this kind of community meeting in the 12 years he has worked at the storehouse and he was so excited about the prospects. Hopefully, this will become an example of what other stakes in Atlanta can do.

We all left really excited about the positive feeling that we felt at the meeting. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of some great relationships. One of our goals is to build our involvement in the community and this seems as though it will be a wonderful way to do that. There are always poor among us who have needs, but we don't really do any kind of outreach programs. By partnering with these groups that are good at what they do, we can share what we do well. I hope the members catch the vision of what an impact they can have just by donating food on a regular basis.