Young Men General Board Meeting Minutes Available Online
The Young Men General Board Board meeting minutes from 1898 to 1954 are now available for research. Learn more about how this collection came about below.
The Church History Library has added a collection of meeting minutes from the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA) to its online collections. The newly digitized and released records span over fifty years of YMMIA General Board meetings, covering from 1898 to 1954. The minutes include YMMIA board meetings, joint meetings with the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association (YLMIA) General Board (renamed the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association or YWMIA in 1934), and YMMIA general conferences.
YLMIA/YWMIA General Board (1891–1954) and Primary Association General Board (1889–1954) meeting minutes were previously digitized and released online in 2022 and 2023. The YLMIA/YWMIA General Board minutes include planning for the MIA Jubilee in 1925, merging the Young Woman’s Journal and the Improvement Era, and the creation and implementation of many iterations of the programs for young women, like the Bee-Hive Girls program and the realignment of age groups in 1950. The Primary minutes include the creation of The Children’s Friend, publishing the first Primary Song Book and first Handbook for Officers and Teachers, and service projects, such as Primary children in the United States collecting clothing and toys to send to Saints in Europe after World War II, and the Primary’s worldwide dime campaign that raised money for construction of a new Primary Children’s Hospital.
Today’s Young Men General Advisory Council began with the organization of the YMMIA Central Committee on December 8, 1876. An address issued on February 16, 1877, reported the formation of the Central Committee, indicating that Junius F. Wells had been appointed president with counselors M.H. Hardy and Rodney C. Badger, and other officers.
A year and a half earlier, in June 1875, President Brigham Young initiated the creation of the YMMIA, calling on Wells to organize the young men of the Church. Later that month, Wells called a public meeting at the Thirteenth Ward in Salt Lake City and officially organized the YMMIA, which he documented in his “Historical Sketch of the YMMIA” series, published in the Improvement Era. Even though President Joseph F. Smith wrote in the October 1907 Improvement Era there had been earlier informal organizations for the young men and young women in Utah, and as early as Kirtland and Nauvoo, the YMMIA was the beginning of a Churchwide association for young men that was authorized and supported by the First Presidency.
Edward H. Anderson reported that in the 18 months between the founding meeting and the establishment of the Central Committee, about 100 associations were formed and spread throughout towns and settlements. Wells travelled extensively to direct the creation of additional associations. When he left on a mission to the Eastern States in November 1875, the First Presidency appointed others to pick up his work.
Until the formation of the Central Committee, local associations had operated independently. In the 1877 address, Wells and John Nicholson explained the new committee’s purpose was to “act at the head of all the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations throughout the Church, as a body of reference that could be applied to for information relative to the management and conduct of the several societies coming within its purview.” The committee united local associations Churchwide by providing a common purpose, defining standard practices and policies, and offering support and direction.
As the YMMIA organization continued to expand, the administrative structure changed to accommodate the growth. Beginning in the summer of 1878, President John Taylor sent Wells and Hardy to organize Stake Central Committees that would coordinate and supervise the YMMIAs within their stake or territory and act as a link between local associations and the Central Committee. Wells remembered, “Throughout the season 1878–1879 considerable missionary work was undertaken. I recall a trip in Weber county [sic] when the snow was upon the ground. I spent a week there going in sleighs.” When he arrived, they held three meetings a day for six days, and he reported that as many as 20 sleigh loads of officers and members followed him from ward to ward. A history printed in the Contributor reported that Hardy and Wells traveled more than 1,800 miles and held 115 meetings in 100 days. As reprinted in the September 1925 Improvement Era, Wells reported to President Taylor and the Council of Apostles that the YMMIA had grown to 230 associations with more than 9,000 members.
The presidency of the Central Committee wrote a letter to President Taylor and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in March 1880 with their recommendations for the future of the YMMIA. Wells included the letter in his history of the YMMIA, printed in the Improvement Era. The presidency felt that the YMMIA had not yet gained recognition as a permanent and important Church program. “We feel that the interests of the organization require the sanction and direct recognition of the Presiding Authority of the Church.” As a result, at the spring 1880 YMMIA conference, an Advisory Committee was announced with Elder Wilford Woodruff nominated as the General Superintendent, Elders Joseph F. Smith and Moses Thatcher as his counselors, and Heber J. Grant as secretary, supplying the YMMIA with the attention and authority of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Superintendency called men to act as assistants, many of whom had been members of the first Central Committee, including Wells, Hardy, and Badger. The group of men eventually became known as the General Board.
General Board members were involved in the planning and implementation of many projects, including creating handbooks for local leaders, publishing the Contributor and the Improvement Era, providing curricula and lesson manuals, managing YMMIA libraries, and facilitating recreation and athletic programs. The June 1, 1903, minutes reflect a report and discussion focused on the 1903–1904 manual. Elder B. H. Roberts reported, “We have been gradually building up a course of study in ‘Mormon’ theology and ‘Mormon’ organization and government. We have had number one, a Manual on the ‘Life of Jesus;’ number two, on ‘The Apostolic Age;’ numbers three and four, ‘Dispensation of the Fulness of Times;’ numbers five and six, ‘Principles of the Gospel.’ We shall now publish two on the Book of Mormon, and one on modern revelation (Doctrine and Covenants).” Later that same day, the Board was authorized to also “prepare and publish a handbook of instructions for Mutual Improvement Association workers.”
Wells wrote that the Central Committee held semi-annual conference sessions for YMMIA leaders at the same time as General Conference, every spring and fall. In a letter from the General Superintendency read at the October 1887 conference, it was announced that beginning in 1888, the YMMIA conference would be held annually in June. Although the YLMIA General Board had been holding their own General Officers’ conferences and annual General Conferences, YLMIA minutes included an invitation issued by the YMMIA to combine their annual meetings in 1896. On April 8, 1896, YLMIA President A. Elmina Shepard Taylor spoke to the board, presented the invitation, and explained, “A committee had been appointed by them to confer with us and arrange with us for a conjoint program.” After some discussion, the YLMIA board members decided to accept the invitation. President Taylor formed a committee of women to meet with the secretaries of the YMMIA and prepare the program for the first Conjoint Conference. The MIA annual conference, later known as June Conference, was planned, organized, and executed by the YLMIA (YWMIA) and YMMIA General Boards until 1975. The men and women on the General Boards worked together on many other programs and projects over the years that are documented in the YLMIA (YWMIA) and YMMIA General Board minutes.
Major changes for the YMMIA General Board were proposed and approved at the annual conference in June 1909. A board committee drafted a resolution and received approval from the General Board in May 1909. The declaration, presented by the General Superintendency at the June Conference described, “the systematic work now being done by the quorums of the priesthood provides our young men with the necessary teachings in formal theology, and trains them in the duties that pertain to their callings in the priesthood.” The General Board was directed to create committees with a new focus. Board members would be assigned as committee chairmen and members for eight committees: class study; athletics and field sports; music and drama; social affairs; library and reading course; conference and conventions; missionary; and debates, contests and lectures.
YMMIA General Board minutes documented the choice to affiliate the YMMIA with the Boy Scouts of America, beginning with a discussion in a March 8, 1911 meeting. The Board formed a committee to explore participation in the Boy Scouts of America program. B. H. Roberts, George H. Brimhall, and Benjamin Goddard returned with a report. Although the committee praised the purpose and goals of the Boy Scout program, the report asked the General Board to recommend that “we are provided with organizations that cover and provide for the good work proposed, and that it would not be in the best interest of our own organizations to take up the scout movement and organization.” In the spring of 1913, two years after the first report, the board reconsidered an affiliation with the Boy Scouts. On March 5, 1913, board members voted unanimously in favor of formal affiliation and passed a Resolution proposed by the Committee on Athletics. The implementation of the partnership and its expansion is documented throughout the rest of the minutes.
The YMMIA General Board also worked to establish associations outside of the United States. C. R. Savage, serving a mission in England, sent a report to Salt Lake City, printed in the Millennial Star, on March 3, 1879. “Our Mutual Improvement Associations are doing first rate.” Their meetings were well attended, and their associations were growing. Savage outlined the power of the MIA lessons. “The principles of our faith, the teachings of earnest scientific men, and the wonderous growth of general knowledge, are all brought home to them in these meetings.” Returning missionaries brought reports back to the board. In a MIA conference session on June 8, 1930, several attendees shared their testimonies. Brother H. W. Valentine, recently released President of the German-Austrian Mission, shared that the program “was assisting greatly in carrying on missionary work on that mission.” Additionally, “Ralph Davey, recently returned from the Netherlands mission reported progress being made in M.I.A. work there.” The next year, in a board meeting on March 25, 1931, Elder John A. Widstoe, then President of the European Mission, shared “that the M.I.A activities are very important in the European Mission and that they were a powerful means in prosolyting [sic], and a wonderful medium in bringing unity and harmony in Branch social development.” The board’s work contributed to sharing the gospel and supported members worldwide.
In addition to documenting YMMIA leadership changes and program development, social and political issues also appear in the meeting minutes. The effects of World Wars I and II were witnessed by the board and experienced by YMMIA leaders and members. The records document how the board’s work continued amidst worldwide turmoil. At the October 7, 1917 special officers’ meeting, Elder Levi Young stated that he had been in contact with over 70 of the Church members who were in the regular army at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City. There were over 300 “Mormon boys” stationed there and he was trying to reach all of them. Later in the same meeting, Brimhall reported there were only about five boys left in the Uintah Ward because of the draft. In a session of June Conference on June 6, 1919, YLMIA President Martha H. Tingey spoke of the problems MIAs had faced in the previous year, including war and the Spanish Flu epidemic. Following Tingey, Superintendent A. W. Ivins “emphasized the fact that conditions had developed this season which had never before existed in the shape of war, pestilence and famine.”
A little over twenty years later, Europe was at war again. After North American missionaries and other Church leaders had been evacuated, local leaders and members in Europe continued the work and reported their progress and needs to Salt Lake City when they could. Hilmar E. Friedel, YMMIA President in the Norwegian Mission, reported the status of the members in a letter to the board that was shared in the October 2, 1940 joint meeting, “The people there were suffering from a shortage of food and that many of our members had lost all their possessions, but they were happy to report that none of the Saints were killed or wounded.”
After the United States joined the war in December 1941, the tenor and focus of YMMIA–YWMIA board meetings shifted. For instance, the January 14, 1942 joint board meeting minutes documented changes to upcoming plans and included a letter sent to all unit and stake MIA leaders that provided instructions and encouragement. Board leaders expressed, “Our greatest concern is, naturally, for our young people. They are the ones most vitally affected; their way of life is being changed; our young men are being called from their homes to national service; our young women must find their work and their pleasures among new lines; plans of both are being interrupted or postponed. Many are bewildered; questions affecting their immediate future are constantly troubling them.” The youth needed to prepare for change. Local leaders, many who had lived through the First World War, had to find the resolve to help guide them, and the joint YMMIA–YWMIA committee provided support.
At the end of a joint YMMIA–YLMIA board meeting on April 16, 1930, board members stood and paid silent tribute to Junius F. Wells who had died the day before. Wells had built the foundation of the YMMIA and worked for almost 54 years to continue developing it. At the following meeting, on April 23, 1930, Elder Melvin J. Ballard announced that the Executive Committee of the YMMIA had voted unanimously to purchase Wells’s casket. Board members voted to accept and publish a resolution honoring him. “May his shining example ever live in the hearts and memories of the Youth of Israel whom he loved so dearly.” They remembered his many callings and projects, highlighting his work with the young men of the Church, “inspiring them to great effort and grander accomplishments of the great work of God in the coming years.”
The Church History Library can provide many other resources for research related to the YMMIA. For research guidance or more information, please consult the following resources:
Young Men Organizations Church History Topics Essay
Adjustments to Priesthood Organization Church History Topics Essay
The Contributor 1879–1896
The Improvement Era 1897–1970
Young Men and Aaronic Priesthood Quorums (current)
Youth Resources (current)