North Star is a peer-led, community-driven organization.
North Star is a grass-roots effort with a mission to empower men and women who experience same-sex attraction and gender identity issues, as well as their friends, spouses, or other family members, to more authentically and healthily live the gospel of Jesus Christ. North Star is successful because of the efforts of many individuals who contribute their time, talents, and hearts to various aspects of its mission.
Helping to coordinate these efforts are North Star’s Executive Committee and Leadership Council. The Executive Committee is comprised of a revolving body of eight men and women whose responsibilities are to manage the North Star organization and facilitate community contributions, and the Leadership Council is comprised of a host of others who have expressed a desire to assist in realizing the mission and vision of North Star.
We ultimately want to help support and enable ideas that come from within the community itself, rather than being directed top-down. Some men and women are simply happy to find support and encouragement with others who share this particular aspect of their life experience; others, however, also feel a strong desire to reach out to others who may be struggling and to help in the creation of other resources to bless others. If you find yourself in the latter catagory, please consider joining us on North Star’s Leadership Council!
How You Can Help!
The Leadership Council is open to believing and committed Latter-day Saints who sustain the doctrines and teachings of the Church and who feel a sense of mission around strengthening and educating members of the Church with regard to same-gender attraction, gender inentity incongruence, and other related issues. Because of the breadth of our audience, we need men, women, parents, spouses, family members, friends, and interested priesthood and auxiliary leaders who are willing to share their perspectives, visions, and talents with us as we seek to jointly create a safe, loving, and integrated place in the Church for individuals and families dealing with these issues.
There are several areas in which we could use additional help. These include:
- Fundraising/grant writing
- Graphic and product design
- Writing/editing website content
- Resource development (youth, men, women, spouses, family, etc.)
- Events planning/coordination
- Public relations/outreach
- Media development (podcasting, video)
- Video/Audio interviews
- Web programming
- Language translation
- Blogging
If you have either a skill set in any of these particular areas or simply a desire to further North Star’s mission and to help in any way you can, continue on!
Parenthetically, it’s also important to note that if you would like to share your experience or perspective through participating in the Voices of Hope Project or writing Community Voices feature piece, or by submitting a guest blog post, you don’t need to join the Leadership Council. The Leadership Council is primarily for those who would like more in-depth involvement in the long-term work of North Star.
How the Leadership Council Works
Each year, North Star holds its annual Leadership Retreat for everyone on its Executive Committee and Leadership Council. At this annual meeting, North Star leadership discusses goals and projects and events for the upcoming year. To continue the work accomplished at our annual Leadership Retreat, Leadership Council efforts are conducted via an email list-serve and periodic conference calls among various project and event committees.
Even if you’re unable to attend the annual Leadership Retreat, or if you join the Leadership Council during other parts of the year, we will immediately add you to our email list-serve and, based on interests identified via the registration process, connect you with others involved in the areas in which you would like to help out.
How to Join
To join, we’d like you to fill out a registration form with your identifying information, any experience or skill-sets you feel would be beneficial, as well as any particular areas of interest you may like to help with. In addition, to help alleviate the financial burden of North Star administrative and project costs, we ask that all leadership be monetary contributors. You can do this through either a minimum $25 annual donation or through a monthly recurring donation of $5 or more. If you are able and willing contribute more, we would be very much appreciative, but that is all that is required.
Once you’ve submitted your donation, you can register online.
