Standard of Performance

The idea of a Standard of Performance for the Youth Guides turned out to be a brilliant one. Setting standards of performance and requiring members of the program to report on them each week allowed the leaders to have a gauge they could use for setting and achieving goals. It was a measurement of how well we were doing personally and as a program on the four or five activities most important for our success. In addition, we found that when we required a Weekly Report from each Youth Guide on the various items in the standard we had greater compliance and we reached our goals more consistently. If we did not require a Weekly Report, it wasn’t long until everyone was having more trouble getting the standards of the program done, and failure to reach our goals usually followed.

The first item in the Standard of Performance was Gospel Study. We were required to study for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, which added up to 210 minutes a week. We encouraged the Guides to read in the Standard Works, especially the Book of Mormon on a daily basis. To make compliance as easy as possible so that each could meet the standard, we also included the Ensign, New Era, or Friend; books by General Authorities, any of the Missionary Library of books, the Missionary Guide, and they could listen to tapes of the talks of General Authorities. Music tapes or CDs were not counted as part of the standard. Later, when they received their endowment prior to leaving on their mission, I would count the time they spent doing a session in the temple as study time. They were familiar enough with the temple to know that there were copies of the Holy Bible and Book of Mormon, bound in white leather, in one of the drawers of a cabinet in the Celestial Room. I remember many times they would come into the Celestial Room, go immediately to the scriptures, and pour over the pages searching for added meaning to the temple experience.

Most of the Guides studied late at night after they got home from whatever they were doing. Many told me they fell asleep with their scriptures on their chests. Those who had the busiest schedules would listen to tapes to and from work or school, bring a Church magazine to read during breaks at work, etc. Often their study time would reap opportunities to invite nonmembers to come to the Gardens when those around them would ask questions about what they were reading or listening to. Many found 30 minutes a day was not enough and doubled and trebled it as they studied for their missions. Since they were studying the scriptures so much it wasn’t long until they were using them in their daily lives, and testifying to how much they meant to them as they struggled through their teenage years. It was a thrilling sight to me to see them sitting together on the planters in the gardens with their scriptures open, talking about what they were reading with each other. Many of the Guides also participated in the Easter Pageant as members of the cast. During practices they would sit in large groups of 20-30 and read the scriptures in a type of “round robin.” That way they could all get their gospel study time at once!

The second item was usually attendance at meetings. Since the program was a completely volunteer effort, and since we were dealing with teenagers from 28 stakes and 100 wards, in order to sustain the shifts in the gardens we had to make sure the Guides could be depended upon to be there on their assigned night. We allowed them to review their schedule and pick any night of the week Tuesday through Saturday that was good for them. Once this was done, we required them to be there that night. If they could not, then they had to arrange for their own substitute and make sure that their District Leader was aware of what was happening. Therefore, the standard read something like this: “Attend your District Night and the Sunday Night Training Meeting, unless you have an important family or Church obligation. If you cannot attend, your District Leader must be notified.”

They had to be at the SNTM because it was the “pump” meeting for the week and the only meeting where everyone gathered. I suppose it might be compared to a mission conference, only since we were on such a rapid time frame, we needed them every week. A mission president could depend on having his missionaries around for two years, but we sometimes only had the Guides for a few months. Missionary work is hard work and there has to be a chance to let off steam, sing, testify, train, and talk about the work. We found that the SNTM was the most important meeting we had. It was at this meeting that we created the idea of unity and that each person in the program was an integral part of the whole. Of course, much of the training occurred in the District Meeting, which was the 30 minutes before each night in the Gardens. However, in both meetings, the training was peer initiated and peer run and centered on the Garden Tour, Missionary Guide skills, and techniques for inviting nonmembers to the Gardens. It was surprising how much preparation by the youth leaders went into this training and how well it was done.

A third item was usually concerned with invitations to nonmembers to come to the Gardens for a tour. The standard was usually at least 5 invitations a week. We used what we called “Temple Mall Cards” that had a picture of the temple on one side and a map on the other. After establishing a rapport with the person by talking about his/her family, occupation, and what he did for recreation we would deliver the message about our participation in the Gardens and invite them to come for a tour, and give them a card with the date and time agreed upon written on it. We called this process F.O.R.M. and using it made it easy to talk to others. In order to make this activity more fun and to create a spirit of competition that would help them rise above their fear of talking to others, we created special awards that were presented in the Sunday Night Training Meeting. One was the Sword of Laban, given to the Zone that had the best statistics. The other was the Ammonite of the Week award which was given to the person who invited the greatest number of people to the Gardens.

We tied the Standard of Performance to our goals and knew that if the program as a whole was reaching 90% of the standards, we could expect the Lord to work miracles for us in the Gardens and in our personal lives. The faith developed by adherence to this standard was rewarded in the ability to set Heroic Goals and accomplish them month after month. There is nothing that will infuse an organization with life greater than setting a Heroic Goal. The kind of goal that means we would have to make great sacrifices to reach. We found that youth of the Church cry out for opportunities to sacrifice in the cause of missionary work. An example of sacrifice is that instead of getting together and going to a movie or some other activity, instead they would get together and go someplace public to invite people to come to the Gardens for a tour. Another sacrifice might be less T.V. and more scripture study, with a personal goal of 300 minutes a week, instead of the regular 210. They picked and they did the sacrifice.

When I came to the program we were receiving about 7 referrals a month whether we tried to or not. Soon our goal was 40 a month and we were achieving it on a regular basis. During Easter and Christmas we would set much higher goals and almost always achieved them. Alumni went all over the world knowing how to set and achieve goals, through their faith and reliance on the Lord.

From time to time the standards changed, but as long as we made sure we had a Standard of Performance, and we reported that standard on a weekly basis, we were successful. If this has inspired you to examine your standards and set them at a higher level, then the Youth Guide Spirit lives on in the lives of members of the Church.

Bro. P.