Talk:General Conference (LDS Church)

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Video Talk:General Conference (LDS Church)

Summary of the 182nd Annual General Conference.

I was more than a little concerned when I looked at this page and discovered that a summary of the 182nd Annual General Conference was put on it. My concern lies in the fact that the so-called summary might not be accurate, only coming from one editor. So, my question is, does this section even need to exist? If it does, what can be done to make it more encyclopedic? Please post here with comments. I am leaving this section in the article until some consensus is reached about including it. Thanks in advance for the feedback and discussion. --Jgstokes-We can disagree without being disagreeable (talk) 16:15, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm removing that text from the article completely and placing it here for discussion. I really don't think this level of detail on one specific conference belongs on this general subject article. Nothing makes this particular conference any more notable than other ones, other than it is the most recent. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 19:24, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Also of note is this: Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/182nd Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

It looks like the contributor of this extensive text (Sddaniels (talk · contribs)) was trying to have an article created specifically about this particular conference, but article creation was declined, so the editor dumped that text into this article instead. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 19:28, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

So then, the question arises, what should be done about this content? It seems pointless to include it, as such a section has never been in the article in the past. So what should be done about this? What concerns me the most is that it was just one editor's perspective on it. So this will have to be reedited if it is to be reincluded in the article. I'd be okay leaving it out or putting it in. Whatever the consensus decides is fine with me. --Jgstokes-We can disagree without being disagreeable (talk) 22:32, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I consider a TALK page to be an extension of a WP Article; readers can read and learn more here. Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 03:29, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Maps Talk:General Conference (LDS Church)

My notes on the 183rd April Conference

Not to be included in the Article, but for your interest, here are my notes [1] which I include to assist other WP editors as they look to improve this article on General Conference (LDS Church). Enjoy, Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 11:34, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Another editor told my my notes were inappropriate (even on my own personal TALK page) so I deleted them all. Sorry, Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 03:32, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

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Priesthood Session to be televised.

The Church recently announced that it would broadcast the Priesthood Session of General Conference live on LDS.org and on BYU-TV. For verification of this fact, please see this article. I feel this information should be included in this article, but I'm not sure where or how to include it. Thoughts? Thanks. --Jgstokes (talk) 06:32, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

I understand your point, but personally I don't think the live broadcasting is that notable. The content has been available to everyone in print and archived video for years. Bahooka (talk) 17:33, 3 October 2013 (UTC)

Agreed: it seems to be a natural evolution of communication on top of already existing/parallel transmission methods. ~Araignee (talk o contribs) 19:35, 3 October 2013 (UTC)

Actually, it is more important than you may realize and indicate since the first paragraph of the article herein says "one exclusively for male priesthood holders" but now it is on the public airwaves. Another thing that is monumental (to members) is that the Womens Conference included all LDS women age eight and older. Focus in their conference last weekend was on youth and the responsibility of Moms and leaders to them--among other topics of the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary (for the youngest). Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 03:43, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

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Statistics to improve the article herein

I'll be adding here statistics for Wikipedia editors to edit and improve the Article here, as deemed appropriate. Of high interest is (1) the growth of the Church; (2) International missionary and humanitarian work; (3) new temples, like in Rome; (4) new church leaders; (5) Other.

People worldwide can watch the broadcasts of conference sessions at: https://www.lds.org

Wikipedia editors can validate, authenticate, and reference facts from http://www.MormonNewsroom.org/

Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 13:52, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Here are the statistics (ending December 31, 2013) reported in the 184th General (World) Conference: The number of stakes is 3,050 with 405 missions; 571 districts (within a mission but not big enough to be a stake, yet); 29,253 wards and branches, (a branch is not big enough to be a ward, yet). Total membership is 15,082,028 [adding up the files in the membership computer database. The prophet called it 15million.] The number of children of record added in 2013 was 115,486; and the number of convert baptisms was 282,945 during the year. As of December 31, there were 83,035 fulltime missionaries [young elders, young sister missionaries, and seniors] 34,032 church service missionaries "serving throughout the Church." One temple in Honduras was dedicated during 2013, bring the total of operating temples up to 141 at the end of the year.

The statistical report was preceded by the Audit Report, "to give reasonable assurance" of funds received and disbursed in the year 2013. -- Filling the needs to (1) budget, (2) avoid debt, and (3) plan ahead to save against time of need, same advice to members. [Short and sweet.] -- Charles Edwin Shipp (talk) 23:47, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

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General Women's Meeting not part of Conference?!?!?!?!?

AsteriskStarSplat recently reverted a change asserting that the general women's meeting held the week before General Conference was not part of General Conference itself and was not included in the Conference Report or the Ensign. Oh, really? I would invite him to consult Ensign. If he were to look at pp. 116-128, he would see that the General Women's Meeting is included in the Ensign. A further glance at the "Conference Summary" on page 3 would inform him that the General Women's Meeting is just another session of conference like any others. Just because it is not considered one of the five "general" sessions doesn't make it any less a part of conference. A glance at the page for the April 2014 General Conference on the Church's website would clue him in on the fact that, according to the website, the General Women's Meeting is as much a part of Conference as any other session. Also, in the DVDs of Conference (I happen to have a copy, so I know this for a fact), the General Women's Meeting appears on a disc with the Sunday Afternoon Session. Why would they include a meeting that is not part of conference with official conference proceedings? I would encourage AsteriskStarSplat to do his research before making claims when the proof is not on his side. Anyone else want to uphold this claim? --Jgstokes (talk) 23:00, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

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When conference starts

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Potential source material

When recently doing the research on the beginning conference session, I ran across the following potential references, that have interesting material that might be used to add to the article:

• Walker, Joseph (April 1, 2013), "General conference through the years is different but the same", Deseret News 
• Tullis, Ben (September 29, 2014), "LDS general conference marks 90th, 65th broadcast anniversaries", Deseret News 
• Rees, Arianna (October 3, 2014), "9 Conference Moments No One Saw Coming", LDS Living, Deseret Book 
• Rosner, Jannalee (October 2, 2014), "Passing the Sacrament at Conference (+9 More Things We Don't Do in Conference Anymore)", LDS Living, Deseret Book 

Thanks. ^--Asterisk*^Splat-> 21:19, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I agree that they are very interesting to me, but can we prove their relevance to the article in question? And how are you proposing we use these in the article? Thanks for clarifying. --Jgstokes (talk) 23:19, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Still waiting for clarification on how you intend these sources to be used, Asterisk. Thanks in advance for your response. Look forward to using these sources to improve the article, once we know what you have in mind. --Jgstokes (talk) 07:23, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

With the conflict on this article, I've lost interest in trying to incorporate this material; who knows, perhaps after a couple of months I'll regain interest in it. ^--Asterisk*^Splat-> 16:10, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

I'm sorry you feel that way. I want you to know that I hold no animosity towards you or anyone else who had an opposing view from mine in the previous discussion. I also want to note that disagreements, even intense ones, often crop up on Wikipedia because of differences of opinion and perspective. The key is to try and disagree without being disagreeable. If I crossed a line in that regard, I apologize. It appears that the so-called conflict has been resolved for the moment. Or at least, the discussion has been closed. If you are unable or unwilling to discuss how these sources might potentially be used in this article, perhaps someone else might feel differently. So I am throwing this out to the general public: What are your thoughts on Asterisk's cited sources, and how might we use them in the article? Thoughts? --Jgstokes (talk) 05:14, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

No lines crossed, just not motivated enough to do anything on this right now. Contention eventually saps energy and interest, among other things. ^--Asterisk*^Splat-> 23:33, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Asterisk, now that it seems the Church has resolved the issue discussed above and below this topic to the satisfaction of all concerned (see my comment below), do you think you'd feel up to discussing how and in what manner you hoped the cited sources could be used in the article? --Jgstokes (talk) 06:51, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Adjwilley posted in another topic on this page that he felt everyone was tired of discussion about General Conference for the moment and that I was more than welcome to read the sources myself and add whatever I felt was appropriate to the article. The problem with that suggestion is that I don't know how Asterisk intended for these sources to be used. The first source has great historical value, but I'm not sure how to go about condensing the information in it into one or two sentences or paragraphs that could be included in the article. The records relating to the 90th anniversary of conference radio broadcasts and the 65th anniversary of conference TV broadcasts are worth mentioning, but again the issue is how to do so within one or two sentences or paragraphs without going on too long. The 9 conference moments no one saw coming are significant, but again, how do we mention them without being too long winded? The same issue exists with the final source. Anyone who knows anything about me (as evidenced by my comments on talk pages) knows that I tend to run on long at the mouth, so I'm not sure I would trust myself to be concise enough with these sources. I agree that they can and should be added to the article, I just don't trust myself to do it and I don't think any of you should entrust me with this task either. However, if we can come to some agreement as far as what to say about these sources, I would have no problem being the one to insert these sentences/paragraphs into the article at the appropriate places. I just can't see myself writing them because I am too wordy and hate it when stuff I've written has to be trimmed by myself or others. Can we please discuss this? I promise I will try my hardest not to be as difficult or nitpicky as I have about past issues. --Jgstokes (talk) 07:48, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

Will no one discuss this with me? Don't tell me I've driven all of you away because of the preceding and succeeding topics. I really want to see these sources used, but don't trust myself to write the necessary paragraphs/sentences or to determine where they would fit in in the article. I promise to keep this discussion civil. I see no way this topic could become as controversial as the other one, since the sources are less debatable. Please, can we discuss this? Is anyone out there? Hello? *crickets chirp* Oh, well. --Jgstokes (talk) 01:29, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Levels of interest in particular articles often tend to wax and wane. It may be that the editors involved recently are just burned out or tired with respect to this topic for now. But things change over time. (I've noticed that the interest in this article tends to peak around late March/early April and late September/early October, for obvious reasons.) I've been playing around a bit with the article in the past few days--I think it definitely could use more historical information, since conference has changed quite a bit over the years. I myself am a little burnt out with the topic right now, though. Good Ol'factory ^(talk) 07:46, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

I accept that. I don't claim to understand it though. We have had literally thousands of conversations of equal or greater intensity and fervor, and this is the first I've heard of anyone getting "burnt out" on a subject. So it appears I only have two alternatives:

1. Wait until interest peaks again, doing nothing in the meantime. This is not an ideal solution to the problem. By the time interest peaks again, these sources may be out of date, with no replacement sources provided.

2. Take care of incorporating the sources into the article myself and chance the consequences. This is not a good solution either. As I explained before, I tend to be very long-winded, as anyone who knows me well can readily attest. I would be deathly afraid of saying either too much or not enough, and neither would be an ideal situation. I have seen things I've worked on edited mercilessly until I can hardly recognize what of the resulting material I have contributed, if anything.

So I'm stuck between a rock and a very hard place. I will have to spend some time considering which would be the lesser of two evils. Whatever I decide, I will post here. Unless the issue is resolved while I wrestle with my options. --Jgstokes (talk) 08:06, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

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Facepalm

<incredulous> Ok, so are Church employees reading this talk page? </incredulous> This is getting even more weird than it was ...

• Stack, Peggy Fletcher (October 30, 2014), "About-face: Mormon women's meeting now part of General Conference", The Salt Lake Tribune 
• Walch, Tad (October 30, 2014), "LDS Church confirms women's meeting now part of general conference", Deseret News 

We have our answer, finally, after we reached the completely opposite conclusion. I'm honestly a little very stunned. ^--Asterisk*^Splat-> 23:33, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Heh, it makes one wonder what was going on behind closed doors. Was all the back and forth and confusion a result of a disagreement higher up? I can't imagine what Wikipedia would be like if we had to have unanimous consensus in order to make any changes. Speaking of which, I've changed the article to reflect the new info. ~Adjwilley (talk) 03:36, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

I applaud the Church's clarification of this issue. I will say I do feel we could have avoided a lot of misunderstandings and contention if we'd taken Uchtdorf's words as official enough. I recognize, however, that until this "official" word came down, the evidence suggesting it was not part of conference was compelling. I will admit, I was still blown away that this clarification came sooner than the next general conference. And things would have been cleared up so much sooner if I had paid attention to how the meeting was termed in the PDF version of the November Ensign. There the answer was, right in plain sight in three places: in the table of contents, on the conference summary page, and on the page where addresses from the session were featured. I'm sorry I missed that. At any rate, it's official now. And now this issue can be put to rest for good. I again apologize if I was unduly difficult in pushing my POV without anything but Uchtdorf's words to back me up. I hope, Asterisk, that now that the issue is resolved once and for all, you will feel up to explaining what you thought the sources you mentioned in an earlier topic could contribute to this article. My thanks to Adjwilley for making this change so promptly after the proper sources verified the truth. As far as the issue of a disagreement at top levels of Church government, I suppose it's possible. Differences of opinion have been known to happen at Church headquarters. And it has usually only been once the prophet has officially decided the matter that such differences are put aside. However, I refuse to believe that Uchtdorf would have made such a game-changing statement without some consent from President Monson. As I understand it, the text of all conference talks has to be approved by the president of the Church before they are given in general conference. This is to ensure that what is said is truly "scripture . . .the will of the Lord, . . the mind of the Lord, . . the word of the Lord, . . the voice of the Lord and the power of God unto salvation." (D&C 68:4) How else could the prophet state with confidence that "They have sought heaven's help concerning the messages which they will present, and they have felt inspiration regarding what will be said."? Each time he is able to state this unequivocally. I know Uchtdorf's talk in question was given before this guarantee was offered last conference, but I still imagine that President Monson has some say in what is said in general conference. At any rate, I've rambled long enough. What I'm trying to say is, I'm glad the Church has spoken out and resolved this issue now. --Jgstokes (talk) 06:44, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

And also, I don't see how "church employees reading this page" would impact the issuance of a formal statement from the Church. My guess is the First Presidency (and possibly the Twelve?) had been discussing the ambiguity and came to a united decision that Uchtdorf's remarks were in harmony with the Lord's will. Either that or President Monson had been praying for clarity about the issue and had received it. So much for the claims that there is no direct revelation in our day. I'd take this as a direct revelation from the Lord. As I said before, it's good to finally have this resolved. --Jgstokes (talk) 08:44, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Lol, thank goodness there are prophets to resolve the pressing issues of our day.</snark> For the sake of the organization, I hope they didn't spend as much time on this issue as we did ... Good Ol'factory ^(talk) 09:28, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

It's great that whatever determination or coordination took place to formally address this is complete. I would second the notion that we spent far more time on this than they did. It's not practical that the church's president approves all talks given, nor is that necessary for him (or anyone else) to say that those assigned to speak seek inspiration in their preparations. There's been a couple mentions here of contention, which I certainly hadn't seen or felt, but hopefully all is well now. ChristensenMJ (talk) 14:59, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

I can easily believe that we spent more time discussing this than the brethren did. However it happened, I'm glad that we didn't have to wait too long for the Church to officially address this issue. I never said it was necessary for the prophet to say that general conference talks were inspired. What I said was that when he does say that, he endorses all the talks that will be given/have been given. So that should have been our first clue that Uchtdorf wasn't just being inclusive or welcoming. It should have been an indication to us that Uchtdorf likely had the approval of Monson to say what he did. The ambiguity that followed has now been addressed, hopefully to everyone's satisfaction. And now the issue can be put to bed, I hope. Asterisk, this got lost in the ensuing conversation, but I still would like to know if you now feel up to discussing how to use the sources you presented in the other topic. I look forward to the feedback and discussion that will take place regarding that subject. --Jgstokes (talk) 04:20, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

You're certainly free to read the sources yourself and add whatever you see fit to the article. I think people are currently tired of "discussion" on this particular page. ~Adjwilley (talk) 04:41, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

I have read them. What isn't clear to me is how Asterisk intended to use these sources within the article. However, any further comments about that issue should be under that topic, so I will post a comment there in a minute. --Jgstokes (talk) 07:34, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

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