Stake Conference

Stake conference is a semiannual meeting of all the members in a stake, held under the direction of the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. A stake conference consists of the following: a priesthood leadership meeting for stake and ward leaders and clerks; an evening meeting for all the adults living in the stake; and a general meeting for all the members of the stake. Sometimes there might be a meeting for youth ages 12 to 18, as well. Sometimes, when there is not enough parking space or not enough room to accommodate all of the members in one session, there will be two general sessions of stake conference.

The President of the Quorum of the Twelve oversees all of the Stake Conferences. He assigns the general and area seventy visitors as well. When there are no presiding visitors, then the President of the Twelve designates the Stake President as the presiding authority.

Visits from a member of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve are increasingly rare at individual stake conferences and generally only happen when it is time to create a new stake or ordain a new stake president. Even in those cases a General Authority Seventy or Area Seventy may officiate instead of an Apostle.

Other conference visitors beside those assigned by the President of the Twelve may include members of the Mission Presidency and Temple Presidency.

On occasion there might be more than two stake conferences in a year. That may happen when a Stake President needs to be replaced.

Districts in the Church are found where there are too few members to comprise a stake. District conferences follow the same format as stake conferences with the following exception: the Mission President presides over district conferences; the district president does not preside. Sometimes a district participates in a regional or broadcast conference.