Brother Holland Leaves Public Affairs

Above: Adelle Barrette and I say good-bye to Dennis Holland

Area General Authority Elder Frank V. Trythall was present at our quarterly multi-stake meeting in Sacramento last Sunday. The reason? To announce that Dennis Holland would no longer be our director, and would be replaced by Richard Montgomery. Elder Trythall made it a point that in Public Affairs people aren't sustained or released as in other callings. It is just "announced." Brother Holland plans to spend more time in an area he loves -- living history. Kathy Marshall has worked with him, and will continue to work on some of his projects.
In his final comments to us, Brother Holland said being involved in public affairs is "one of the greatest experiences I've had in the Church." He said he only had two desires during his tenure: (1) That he wouldn't set the church back! and (2) That he wouldn't embarrass his brother! What a guy! We will miss him.

Brother Montgomery (above) was Sacramento Multi-Stake director for ten years before Brother Holland. It was during that time that I was called (or announced as the case may be) to work as DPA in Lodi Stake. I remember being trained by him in Stockton, then having nightmares of inadequacy after getting a glimpse of what was involved.
Brother Montgomery is currently a temple sealer, and will continue to do that as well as direct public affairs. After the announcement he took over the meeting and told us a few things we needed to know. Briefly, here are some of his points:
1. We will no longer bring our "dog and pony" show to the meetings. If we have something we want to share, we can send an email. (Blogs weren't mentioned.) The meetings will be strictly for training.
2. There will no longer be refreshments at meetings. (The Sacramento people always bring boxes of Costco cookies to munch on during the meeting. However, during this meeting, since they knew Brother Holland would be leaving, they went all out with ice cream sundaes.)
3. We in PA resemble the equivalent of a professional in the secular world. It will not be like "teaching a Sunday School class." His words, but I have to agree with him.
4. Conversion is not our main goal. We have to watch that we don't get involved in it.
5. PA is like the marines. We tear down walls, and build bridges. Later, people will be able to walk across the bridges and into the Church.
6. The most important thing we can do is create and maintain relationships with key individuals, or opinion leaders in the community. (Thankfully, we made some progress on that this year.)
6. We should go to the LDS Newsroom on the Internet every day. Understand Facebook, Twitter, etc. The church has asked us to use these social networking sites. He said if we don't know how to use them, go find a 12-year-old kid and learn!

Richard Montgomery's Information
Phone: 916-683-2014 Email: richmont@surewest.com