Relief Society President
You just got called. Here's what you do.
You are responsible for the spiritual and temporal welfare of every woman in the ward — attending or not. You lead through relationships, not programs. Start with names. Everything else builds from there.
Day One

Do These Things First

Your Role

What the RS President Actually Does

The Relief Society President is responsible for the temporal and spiritual welfare of every woman in the ward — active and less active alike. You lead the largest auxiliary organization in the ward, and your reach extends to every household through the women you serve and the sisters who minister alongside you.

Your work falls into four core areas:

Lead with names. Know your sisters — their situations, their strengths, who's carrying something hard right now. No program, activity, or lesson is more important than any individual woman in your organization. When you're uncertain what to do next, ask: whose name comes to mind? Start there.
Your Presidency

Your Core Team

The RS presidency is a team of four. You lead it, but you don't carry it alone. Know what each person is responsible for and let them own it.

You (President)
Vision and direction for the organization. Primary relationship with the bishop. You represent Relief Society at Ward Council. You are ultimately responsible for the welfare of every sister in the ward — attending, less-active, or otherwise.
First Counselor
Typically oversees meetings and lessons — the Sunday RS hour. This includes managing the teaching schedule, coordinating with teachers, and making sure the meeting runs well week to week.
Second Counselor
Typically oversees activities and enrichment — the events, service projects, and gatherings that build connection outside of Sunday. She manages the activities calendar and coordinates with the ward activities committee.
Secretary
Attendance, budget, minutes, records, and ministering report coordination. A strong secretary makes the presidency significantly more effective. Treat her as essential — because she is.
This is a common structure, not a mandate. Your bishop may have a different vision for how the presidency functions — follow his guidance and adapt. What matters is that someone owns each area and that ownership is clear.
Weekly Rhythm

Every Sunday

Before church
Check in with your counselors. Anyone teaching today who needs support? Any sister you want to make sure you greet personally before the meeting? A two-minute conversation before church is worth more than a text later in the week.
RS meeting
One hour. A counselor or teacher conducts; you are present and engaged — not running the meeting, but fully in the room. The lesson follows the Come, Follow Me curriculum or a general conference talk; your first counselor oversees preparation and teachers. Your job during the meeting is to be present with the sisters, not to manage logistics.
Between meetings
This is often when the real connection happens — conversations in the hall, checking in with a sister you haven't seen, welcoming a visitor before she slips out. Stay present and available. You don't need an agenda for this. You just need to be there.
After church
Brief check-in with the presidency. Anything come up? Any sister who needs follow-up this week? Five minutes in the hallway is enough. The goal is that nothing gets dropped between Sunday and the next time you all talk.
Ministering

The Most Important Thing You Oversee

Relief Society manages ministering companionship assignments for all adult women in the ward, in coordination with the Elders Quorum. Every sister on the rolls — active or not — should have someone assigned to minister to her. That's the baseline. Your job is to make sure the system works and that real needs don't fall through the cracks.

Your Role in Ministering

You and your counselors set the assignments. Think carefully about who serves whom — match strengths to needs when you can, and consider relational dynamics. The RS secretary tracks assignments and reports in LCR. Review them together regularly. The key question is never whether reports were submitted — it's whether sisters are actually being reached.

Monthly Reporting

Sisters report through the Gospel Library app or verbally to the secretary, who enters it in LCR. You compile a summary and share it with the bishop — not as a performance metric, but as a welfare picture. Who hasn't had contact? Who is isolated? Who might be struggling in a way no one knows about yet? The report is a tool for surfacing needs, not an end in itself.

Companionship Interviews

You or a counselor should meet — briefly, informally — with each companionship several times a year. Not to audit them. Not to review their report rate. Just to ask: "How are the sisters you're serving? Is there anything they need that we should know about?" These conversations are where the real information lives.

A low report rate doesn't mean no ministering is happening. It often means people are doing it and not reporting. Your job is to surface needs, not police behavior. Focus your energy on the sisters who have no contact — not on getting numbers up.
Compassionate Service

Showing Up When It Matters

When a need arises
New baby, surgery, illness, death, family crisis — you or a counselor coordinates the response. Meals, childcare, transportation, yard work, whatever the family actually needs. Move quickly. The window of need is often short, and showing up late leaves a mark.
Meals
A meal calendar — physical or digital — is standard. Know ahead of time who in the ward is willing to bring meals on short notice and keep that list current. When a need hits, you shouldn't have to start from scratch figuring out who to call. Coordinate with the ward mission leader for missionary meals if that's the practice in your ward.
Ask first
Ask the sister or family what they need. Then provide exactly that — not what you assume they need, not what's easiest to organize. Ask. Listen. Respond. This is the whole practice.
After the crisis
Check in. A sister who received a week of meals and then heard nothing for a month may feel more alone than before. The follow-up matters as much as the initial response. A text or visit three weeks later, when everyone else has moved on, can mean everything.
Ward Council

Your Voice in the Room

What to bring
You represent Relief Society at Ward Council monthly. Come prepared: attendance trend, ministering report summary, any sisters or families who need attention, any requests RS has from other organizations. The other leaders have information you don't — and you have information they don't. That exchange is the point.
How to show up
Ward Council exists to coordinate care for individuals, not to report statistics. Come with names. "We have a sister who just moved in and is struggling to connect" is more useful than "attendance is down." Bring the person into the room, not just the number.
Bishop relationship
The bishop has stewardship over Relief Society. Meet with him regularly. He'll want to know what you're seeing in the ward that he might not see from his position. You have access to the hearts of the women in a way he doesn't. That information matters to him.
EQ President
Your closest organizational counterpart. You share more of the same work than any other two auxiliary presidents — ministering assignments, compassionate service, Ward Council follow-up. When you coordinate well, the whole ward benefits.
Budget & Activities

The Practical Side

Your ward allocates a budget for RS activities and supplies. The secretary tracks it. Know your number early and check in on it regularly. Submit receipts promptly — don't let reimbursements pile up and don't spend money the organization doesn't have. When in doubt, ask the bishop before committing.

Activities are overseen by the second counselor. Don't let activities become the organizing focus of the calling — they serve connection, they don't replace it. A well-attended activity that no one talked about by Wednesday is less valuable than a genuine conversation in the hallway on Sunday.

The secretary tracks attendance weekly in LCR. Use that data the way you use ministering reports — not to produce a statistic, but to notice who's been absent and follow up. A sister who stops coming to RS usually has a reason. The attendance record points you toward who to call; the relationship you've built tells you how.

Quick Notes

Operational Notes

Log your presidency meeting schedule, RS room number, annual budget, and anything worth handing off when you're released.

Key Contacts

Who You Work With Regularly

1st Counselor
↗ text Typically oversees the RS meeting hour — teachers, lesson schedule, class tone.
2nd Counselor
↗ text Typically oversees activities, enrichment events, and the compassionate service calendar.
RS Secretary
↗ text Attendance, ministering records, budget, and minutes. Invest in this relationship. Keep her informed and ask regularly what she needs from you.
Bishop
↗ text Your reporting relationship and genuine partner. Keep him informed on welfare needs and anything that touches families significantly.
EQ President
↗ text Your closest organizational partner. Coordinate ministering assignments, compassionate service, and Ward Council. Stay aligned before you walk in.
Primary President
Coordinate on families with children. These two organizations see the same families from different angles.
Ward Mission Leader
Missionary meal calendar and fellowshipping women being taught. When someone joins the ward, she needs sisters who reach out — not just a seat.
Executive Secretary
Scheduling bishop appointments, settings apart, and Ward Council logistics. Route bishopric requests here first.
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