When I was new in the church in the late 80s there was a lot of talk about how a woman, hmm a sister, was the Stake PUblic Affairs Specialist or at least the assistant. I've always wonder what they do. I never saw the or heard them in our stake. Is it even the same thing now a days. Thanks.

Bows their head and says yes to Scott Trotter



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2012 11:08AM by tig.

We had a female PR rep in our stake as well, and I think that was by design. I don't know how common they are in Utah, but just about every stake in the mission field has one. Basically, they do Public Relations work, and they are very annoying to people who just want to go to church, then go on with their regular life for the rest of the week.

They, as the worst morticians in the world, give the most hideous make-up ON the corpse of TSCC and conceitedly feel so freaking good about it.

A Stake (or Ward) Public Affairs Specialist is supposed to generate publicity for the Church. He or she should be trying to get announcements about the Church into local newspapers, on local radio, posters in the library, etc.

If the Public Affairs Specialist attempts to fulfill his or her calling, he or she soon learns that religious announcements are rarely accepted. Case closed. Even when a newspaper has a section for churches to publicize dinners and service projects, the religion editor will tell a Public Affairs Specialist that they "don't take announcements from cults."

A creative ward may attempt community outreach such as blood collection at the church allowing the Church to be part of the announcement. Unfortunately, the Church is so unknown in the Maritimes that they rarely spell the name of the Church correctly. And you know what they say about publicity: there is no such thing as bad publicity - just make sure they spell your name correctly.

In my last ward an editor of the lifestyles page for the largest newspaper in the province and an interviewer on a radio program broadcast on several cities were both very active LDS. Even then, the Church received no mention through major media.

The truth is: when a Public Affairs Specialist is called, the hope is that he or she won't be able to do anything. And they tend to fulfill their role very, very well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2012 11:20AM by idleswell.

I just thought of how interesting it is that the church has a PR person in each stake and, as far as the stakes in my area go, they are the only ones with their own office and phone number,other than a bishop or a SP? But where is the office or phone number to contact the "Charity for the Community Specialist" or the "Ask for donations Rep", I guess those positions do not exist in the lds church. =)

JL - love your comparison to the morticians, LOL.

If you live out here in the mission field -- like I do -- a stake can cover parts of two or even THREE different states!


BTW, I once was assistant to the Stake Public Relations specialist.


We did community projects -- with the primary goal being to get coverage in the local media. What do you think those obnoxious yellow shirts are all about?


One June, when the local newspaper decided to do a big section in the Sunday paper on June weddings, they contacted our Public Relations specialist, and ended up doing an entire article on LDS temple weddings. The local paper initiated that, and the stake PR specialist just made sure that they had everything they needed for the article -- including a nice color photo of a local LDS couple in front of the regional McTemple in their temple whites (but not the temple robes) right after getting married.


Any time normal news items that related to the LDS church naturally happened -- like, for example, spin off issues that might develop from having an LDS guy as candidate for President -- the local media knew exactly who to contact for information. They'd call the Stake Public Relations specialist for background information or answers to their questions. In many cases, the PR specialist would receive packets of information all ready to give to their local media from Salt Lake.


BTW, in training, we were taught that the PR efforts of the church were just an extension of the missionary efforts. Our job as PR specialists was to help community members think about -- and feel good about -- the LDS church, so that when missionaries came knocking at their doors, they would be more likely to open up to them.

I'm not 100% sure this is the same "calling" but my father was the PR for the stake or maybe the region - not sure. I think they usually choose people who have media access and there was NO better person than my dad. My dad has recently quit the calling because he said he wouldn't lie for the church any more. If you go to www.ldsnewsroom.org or is it www.mormonnewsroom.org, can't remember, you can find the latest mormon propaganda. It's amazing how they are trying to get the PR people to spin the lies.I use the term spin loosely...most are just blantant lies that are obvious to anyone who has had a gospel doc class at least once in their life.

Good for your dad that he quit. Interesting that he said he could like for the church ANY MORE. I hope he sees the light.

Oh he has! He also quit the high council at the same time as well as giving the sp his temple recommend as it will expire soon. He told them he has no intention of renewing it because he believes the church lies and that JS was a fraud. He now just goes because my mother is a crazy tbm. Her husband and now all four of the kids in the family are out....it's a little nuts right now to say the least!

Writes faith promoting stories to make people feel better about being in a cult.

my dad has this calling in a California stake. he has business cards he hands out to people and takes it very seriously. they even have regional meetings at places like Dodger Stadium for all the public affair people in the area.

Unsurprisingly there has been a massive upsurge in the importance of this calling recently and I've seem some of the strongest guys (former bishops/SP councillors and High Councillors) called to be the director/PA committee. Which is a big change from when I was called to the role as an inexperienced 20 year old with a busy ward calling and also in full time education (which shows just how low down the SP's priority list this calling was twenty years ago). I did nothing and got released within six months.

Nowdays it's a very different story. I'm still on the mailing list from our current PA Director and we get regular emails and news items at both stake and national levels. Some of the BS is really vomit inducing. I haven't bothered to get my name removed from the list because it's admittedly quite fun to see this stuff as a non-believer.

In our ward, we use to have someone who was very good at this calling. It was all community outreach and trying to do service projects. I was all for it because we often did a huge service project for an organization that helps give presents to kids during Christmas. And it has nothing to do with the church at all, just pure community service. Which I like. However, I'm sure it's not like that for all the other people, but for me it was.