Young Women, Relief Society Schedule Annual General Meetings

The First Presidency has announced that Relief Society and Young Women annual, general meetings will be held, beginning in 1980—two-hour sessions in the evening, originating from the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

The Young Women annual general meeting this year is March 22 from 6 to 8 P.M. Mountain Time. The Relief Society annual general meeting will be September 27. Both meetings will be transmitted worldwide, just as the women’s fireside has been for the previous two years, and as the priesthood session is at each general conference.

The March 22 meeting is for all Young Women and their leaders. The September 27 meeting is for all women eighteen and older.

Preceding the meetings, at Church headquarters and at transmission locations, will be displays and a small reception. The meeting presentations, which are likely to include addresses by general Young Women and Relief Society leaders and General Authorities, will be instructional as well as motivational.

Norma Smith, first counselor in the general presidency of the Young Women, explained the purpose of the Young Women annual meeting: “We hope to uplift and encourage girls and help them make valid decisions. We hope they will hear the clear, strong voice of the gospel. There are so many angry, strident voices calling out to women today.”

Throughout the Church, Relief Society members or young women will meet a half-hour before the starting time of the meeting transmission.

Local displays will pertain to either the Relief Society or Young Women’s program, and may include things of interest to either age group. The Young Women displays, for example, might be on personal progress, camping, sports, standards night, personal record keeping, music, family relationships, standards, manners, dating, grooming, peer relationships, leadership training, activation, mother-daughter events, use of time on the Sabbath, use of the ward activities committee, or service.