It's amazing (but maybe very common in the church) how fast we can adjust to change even when that change comes much sooner than we may expect. I was comfortable teaching the boys in Primary each week and Relief Society once a month. Maybe that was the problem. I was getting too comfortable. But I wasn't quite ready for an extreme change. I was called to be Primary president. I just couldn't see myself being a leader ... of anything. I had been a counselor before in several other organizations but never president. I have always been uncomfortable interacting with people, but I learned to handle smaller numbers. And I did enjoy teaching because it gave me the opportunity to learn. You've heard it said that a teacher learns more than her/his students. That is so true. I had learned how the scouting program works and I had two boys coming up who would soon be in that organization, so that knowledge would be very helpful. Teaching doctrinal lessons in Relief Society helped me to better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm sure I would learn additional skills (specifically leadership skills and how to survive working with large groups of people even if most of them would be children). I did love children and had had some experience with my own "gaggle" of them. So I just dove in and tried to let the Spirit guide me as to what I should do. About my only achievement was organizing for the first time a centralized filing system for visual aids to be used for each class. Before, each teacher received a packet of aids for her class that came from Salt Lake. The aids would get lost over the year and would have to be re-ordered. Now they would check out what they needed each week and then return them to our central primary "library". It worked out great. Wouldn't you know, the next year the church changed its' library system to include all visual aids. We had the idea first. (not really).
When Jim was called into the bishopric of our ward, I was customarily released from Primary. But because I had had experience now with scouting and the primary program I was quickly grabbed up by the stake Primary. Back in those days the stake primary presidency include a scout leader. That was my calling. I was called to be the scout director for the Primary. As I mentioned previously, not only were the cub scouts under the direction of the Primary but also the Guide Patrol, the 11year old regular scouts. But now they wanted me to get the same formal training as prospective scout masters. I think they thought that would give me more "legitimacy" when training new scout leaders in the Primary. That was part of my new calling. This was really intimidating because most of the leaders of the 11 year old scouts were men. And ... women had never been included in district held Scout Master training.
You should have seen the look on the faces of those aspiring Scout Masters when I walked into that class that first night. They told me that I was in the wrong class on the wrong night ... that cub scout training was on a different night. When I said I wasn't here for Cubs ... that I was here for Scout Master training, some men started laughing while the teacher of the group politely informed me that women were not allowed to be Scout Masters. Even when I tried to explain how the LDS program of scouting worked, and that I would only be teaching scouting skills, he hesitantly let me stay while he "looked into the matter'.
The first thing I realized was that I needed a uniform. But only blue Den Mother's ones were available. So I made a skirt in the proper color, bought a a size "small" mens shirt, and added the necessary scout masters decals. At that first meeting we were divided into patrols. Of course nobody wanted me in their patrol. When I offered to make the patrol flag for any patrol that would take me, I received several offers. I don't think they really thought I would follow through or even show up at the next meeting because I had been so humiliated . But show up I did with the most awesome flag of any other patrol. I was now getting my foot in the door. Each meeting after that I brought homemade cookies, cinnamon rolls, and speciality cakes and breads. I volunteered to make or bring anything my patrol was assigned. By now my petrol loved me and all the rest were jealous. I finished my training and still have a certificate to prove it. I still may be the only trained woman "Scout Master" in the church.
I was now also responsible for the Cub Scout program in our stake. That included organizing and carrying out a yearly day camp for these boys. When I tried to find some guidelines for these camps or perhaps someone who knew what had been done in the past, I came up empty. So I had to start from scratch. I talked to other stakes, to mothers of cubs and to my fellow presidency members. All they could tell me was that it was different every year. So..... I developed my own ideas as to what a day camp should be for young aspiring scouts. And I did put all my plans, including maps and names of potential qualified and experienced men that could be asked to help into book form. At least there would be one reference book that could be used another year. I later learned that that book became the standard guide for all future day camps in that stake. I'm not bragging. I just realized that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ uses whatever talents we my have to further Their work. I am an organizer. I love order and I love to organize things .... anything. Just ask Jim. He hates it!!!
One of the perks of this calling was that once a year I was able to go to Salt Lake at conference time where they gave training sessions during the week before conference for all stake leaders of all the various organizations in the church. I don't remember how I was able to get away from family responsibilities in order to go, but I really did enjoy being with all the sisters in these sessions. Oh, yes. nI just remembered that my older girls would have been in high school at this time so I had "built in" baby sitters.
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