April 23 - "Shadows"

Every committee at General Conference is convened by either a bishop or a key General Conference officer. They describe the function of the committee, introduce them to each other, and conduct the elections necessary to determine the officers for the group. Then they leave.

The Reference Committee was convened by the General Conference Secretary. He introduced himself and the Petitions Secretary. Then he introduced two young staffers that he called their “shadows.”

Not being one to waste a moment, he immediately explained.

“I believe in the ‘Mac Truck Rule.’ In an organization such as ours, we have to be able to function no matter what. So I have made sure each staff member in my team has a person assigned as a shadow that gets to know the job well enough that if someone is run over by a Mac truck, the organization will not miss a beat,” he said.