How to Build an Effective Lay Organization:
Standard Lay Agenda
The Lay Agenda should look like the following:
- President calls the meeting to order
- Chaplain leads the body in devotion or prayer
- Minutes of the last meeting are read
- Treasurer's Report
- President's Report
- Director of Lay Activities Report
- Standing committees' reports
- NEW BUSINESS
- OLD BUSINESS
- Announcements
- Adjourn - Lay Benediction
No later than the first meeting following the election of officers, the President should establish along with the members, goals and objectives for the year and appoint committee chairpersons. These committees shall function as needed throughout the year. The chairperson should always be prepared to provide the members with an update on committee activity.
The officers and committees must be about the business of the organization during and between meetings. It is what you accomplish in between your meeting that gives importance to your meeting. If there is nothing to do from one meeting to the next, you are wasting time and have no purpose. The meeting is a time to give an accounting, gauge progress and adjust the agenda to the needs of the organization.
In addition to the regularly scheduled meeting, the organization must have a mission that is accomplished through the PROGRAM of the lay organization spearheaded by the Director of Lay Activities. Next to the President, this position requires a talented, committed Christian. It should be clear to all that the mission is to ORGANIZE AND TRAIN THE LAITY SO THEY MAY USE TO THE FULLEST THEIR GOD GIVEN GIFT(S).
Two types of training our needed: first, to educate and provide leadership to the members of the organization and secondly, to assist in the teaching and training of the laity in general.