I really enjoyed working on various reinterpretations the Newsroom’s “Lay Leadership in the LDS Church” infographic. So I decided to try my hand at reinterpreting lds.org’s infographic about General Conference. Here is what I came up with:
Click to view full size.
Here is the original: “Mormon Leaders Speak”
I didn’t see any inaccuracies, and the information is clear and presented in a visually pleasing way. Still, something felt missing. The Lay Leadership infographic seemed very, very concerned about accounting for the gender of each participant, showing each as a blue or pink silhouette. But this General Conference infographic doesn’t convey this apparently crucial-to-emphasize information! I thought, what if I were to add a segment to the infographic that would explain what is done in each session–and by whom–all in a clear visual package?
That led to my blue and pink version. I included the same header, so you can imagine mine as a new segment alongside all the existing segments. I filled in the information for each of the 5 sessions mentioned in the top header (Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Priesthood, Sunday morning, and Sunday afternoon).
You’ll notice this doesn’t include the once-annual Relief Society broadcast, nor the once-annual Young Women broadcast, held the weekend before General Conference weekend. We could go back and forth about that issue, but in the end, who am I to question the lds.org infographic’s definition of General Conference as being precisely 5 sessions all in one weekend?
I welcome your comments and reactions.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
I love General Conference. And this isn’t relevant in any way to your point. Still, with those two givens, I had to smother a grin at the representation of Conference as “talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.”
And they say it’s women who do all the chattering.
And this doesn’t even take into account which talks are worth staying awake for if you are over the age of 12 (sorry, many women GA speakers have very… Grating voices)
Ditto to everything Ardis said. And yes, we brethren know how to chat it up. In my branch Priesthood is always getting out ten minutes late because we cant keep our mouths shut.
Goose!
I assume that “people” working at LDS Public Affairs keep up on what’s posted on the blogs, but could you please also send this to the newsroom? Maybe offer for them to use it in one of their next newsroom posts?
Wow. The snark never stops when it comes to these Newsroom infographics.
What’s snarky about this infographic?
Hey! You left out the other way women participate in Conference! You forgot all the Choir numbers! And the Congregational Hymns! If you include all of the participants in the Congregational Hymns, I’ll bet women end up outnumbering the men in the end. :)
Why put the prayers up there? We all know those are the left-over boondoggles for members of the 70 who aren’t invited to speak.
Cynthia, a far higher percentage of the global female leadership speaks in General Conference than the comparable percentage of men.
We need to stop privileging women over men in General Conference.
:-P
“a far higher percentage of the global female leadership speaks in General Conference than the comparable percentage of men.”
Adding that caption to this graphic would make the leadership gender-gap more glaring, not less.
I notice that you chose to omit the YM/RS general meetings, even though are included in the Conference Ensign … I wonder why someone would chose to omit something so important… maybe an ax to grind…
Lol, unknown, I notice that you chose to omit reading the post!
Unknown,
If you go to the Church’s OWN infographic, THEY don’t include the RS/YW meetings — a point that Cynthia explained in the OP. Take a minute and click the link and see for yourself. So, as much as THEY try to convince the women that these meetings are part of Conference, it’s pretty clear that they don’t really believe it themselves.
Cynthia I love love your brain. I just love it.
Tell us how you really feel, Jacob.
Jacob and I are competing wannabe polyandrous husbands to Cynthia’s brain.
Brad, I know this is a Mormon-themed blog, but every once in a while I am compelled to bow in awe and wonder at the magical appearance of a comment that illustrates our Mormon-ness in an indelible way.
This is such a moment.
You and Jacob realize, I’m sure, that your comments are appropriate only if you aren’t Cynthia’s Priesthood leaders and likely to meet with her alone for just about any reason.
I know, Ardis. The whole infographic makes me want to wash dishes or put up chairs or something.
Bonnie, I’m sorry, but putting up chairs and stacking chairs is the men’s responsibility. Unless “chairs” is autocorrect and you actually meant “put up cherries,” in which case, carry on.
No way. Some priesthood holder owes me like 20 years of washing dishes.
I’m confused. Only two Republicans spoke and the rest were Democrats?
Not to quibble, but the first female speaker actually wore a purple outfit. The color you used to represent female speakers actually matched Julie Beck’s outfit quite well.
As far as I could remember all the men wore black or dark charcoal suits. I suggest you update the infographic with black figures for the men speakers. Maybe if the newsroom did this too, they could make people think we have lots of black people speaking at general conference. Only those in the know would be aware that the infographic represents the color of the suit, not the color of the skin. :)
You could also differentiate between those that use teleprompters and those that don’t by stamping the word “Teleprompted” diagonally across the figures that represent those who availed themselves of the teleprompter.
Anyway, there are so many things we could do to communicate the spontaneity and the inclusive vibe we all feel at General Conference, and so few infographics that can be put on the church website. What is a PR person to do?
Oh don’t worry Ray. I’ve been effectively trained not to offer her a ride in my car in the pouring rain while she’s walking alone. I have my standards after all.
Cynthia, can you offer some details on how you created this chart? what software do you use? thanks
It’s a combination of Microsoft Paint to get pieces of the original image, and PowerPoint to combine them, add colored boxes to fill in gaps, and add text. Not real fancy. You’ll see there’s some really uneven edges etc.
Nice work, Cynthia! You should turn this into a series. As long as the newsroom puts out misleading infographics, you can put out more entertaining and more correct ones!
Thank you! You made my day! :) So funny
#21
Well… I get to do a lot of chair/table setting out and stacking, piano moving in our ward…
#10
He he! Love the humour.
#9 “…left over boondoggles for 70s who can’t speak in conference”
I completely buy that this *might* actually be the explanation for why men continue to be the only ones to say prayers in conference. Unfortunately, this would be even sadder than if it was a sincere belief that you needed the priesthood to open and close the meeting. Given the real impact of such symbolic exclusion of women from prayers has had on many women in the church, refusing to consider changing it to provide a boondoggle to a few 70s seems particularly disrespectful of over half our members. Sigh…
#13, unknown I notice that you chose to omit the YM/RS general meetings, even though are included in the Conference Ensign … I wonder why someone would chose to omit something so important… maybe an ax to grind…
I think unknown was sneakily accusing the infographic designers of ax-grinding. I see what you did there.
I wonder what wonders Cynthia L. would work with this material:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/auto-industry-resurgence
http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/gasprices
rah, you’ve only made explicit what I was implying, my friend!
Politicizing FTL, Mansfield. With a last name like that, it’s understandable why you might shift the discussion, though…
Not FTL. That would be anti-science.
I don’t get it.
Incredible.
Where do the hymns go?
CL, I love your brain, too. And I’m allowed to give you rides in my car when you’re walking alone in the pouring rain. And I know where you live (mwahaha!). The powers that be should probably start counting the Women’s Session as part of conference before we have a real problem on our hands.
Sorry, y’all, but my brain is already betrothed to Jay Smooth‘s brain and Rachel Maddow’s brain.