Understanding the General Relief Society Presidency Structure and Responsibilities
The Relief Society is the largest women's organization in the world under The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its general leadership operates on a tiered call system that functions differently than most people assume. The general presidency, based in Salt Lake City, doesn't manage day-to-day operations of local wards or stakes. That's a common misconception I see surface repeatedly. Their role is more about coordination, resource development, and supporting the broader organizational direction rather than micromanaging individual congregations. The 2023 presidency consisted of President Brenda M. Baker as the presiding president, with Susan W. Thomson serving as first counselor and Sherrie L. Benson as second counselor. Susan Y. Woodford served as the secretary. These are lifetime calls, meaning they serve until health or age prevents continued participation. That's important context because it affects how materials and messages are rolled out — they tend to be long-term thinking rather than reactive to short-term trends. What people often don't realize when they're trying to work with or reference this leadership structure is how the curriculum and announcement pipeline actually functions. Here's the practical workflow: the general presidency meets with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles' committee to align Relief Society efforts with broader Church priorities. Then their department heads — which include people overseeing curriculum, welfare, youth correlation, and communication — do the actual heavy lifting on materials. The counselors often have specific portfolios. Thomson, for instance, had significant involvement with welfare and self-reliance programs. Understanding who handles what saves you time when you're trying to track down resources or understand the reasoning behind a particular announcement.
I ran into a specific problem a while back when a stake Relief Society president asked me to help figure out why certain welfare materials weren't aligning with what the general presidency had announced. The issue was that the general Relief Society publishes guidance through multiple channels — the Liahona magazine, Church News, the Church website, and direct memos through the stake presidency. Different channels sometimes release information at different times, and local leaders were treating the earliest announcement as the final word. The workaround was straightforward: I had everyone wait for the correlated version that appears on ChurchofJesusChrist.org before acting on anything welfare-related, and I set up a simple tracking sheet where we'd log which channel each piece of guidance came from. It eliminated about half the confusion we were having. Another thing that isn't obvious: the general presidency doesn't issue direct directives to ward-level Relief Societies. Everything flows through the stake presidency and the Mission Presidency structure. If you're a ward Relief Society president trying to reach someone in the general leadership, you go through your stake president, not the other way around. I've seen people bypass this chain, and it never works out well. The stake presidency exists for a reason — they correlate general guidance with local conditions. The 2023 period was notable because it fell during a transition phase where several long-serving general officers were aging out and the Church was placing increased emphasis on self-reliance and mental health resources. You can see this reflected in the curriculum and meeting topics from that year. If you're studying that period for any reason — whether academic, personal, or organizational — pay attention to the shift in language around mental wellness and financial preparedness. It wasn't subtle, but it was also not highlighted in any official announcement. It was baked into the materials themselves.
One counter-intuitive point that beginners miss: the secretary of the general Relief Society presidency, while not a "counselor" in the traditional sense, often has more operational influence than the counselors appear to. The secretary manages correspondence, coordinates meetings, handles the publishing pipeline, and maintains records. When you're trying to understand how a particular decision got made or why something was worded a certain way, the secretary's office is usually where the actual drafting happened. The presidency approves; the secretary's staff often shapes the initial language. There are limitations to how much visibility outsiders have into this organization's internal processes. Decisions are made through revelation and counsel, not through documented policy manuals. What I've described is based on observable patterns, published materials, and how the structure functioned in practice. The Church doesn't publish its internal operating procedures, so there's always a gap between what's publicly known and what actually happens behind closed doors. That's just the reality of working with any religious organization of this scale. If you need current contact information or official materials from the 2023 presidency period, the Church's official website has a Relief Society section with correlated resources. Local stake or ward offices can also pull historical materials if you have a legitimate reason for needing them. Outside researchers should be aware that some internal correspondence and meeting records from that period are not publicly available.
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