Home » 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering » Planning for the Gathering

The Gathering is best experienced through participation in small groups of young people with their adult leaders. Congregations register as a group. During the next few months, congregations will prepare both physically and spiritually for their time in New Orleans. Whether a congregation has two youth or two hundred, nowhere else is citizens with the saints so keenly experienced as within these special groups.

Each congregation will designate one Primary Adult Leader, who will attend the Gathering and be responsible for coordinating registration for their congregation. Registration opens October 9, 2011, with a soft opening on September 9 — Adult Leaders may begin to enter and save data in the registration database in preparation for submission on October 9. In addition, the Primary Leader will prepare and mail registration payments to the Gathering lockbox, and send rooming lists and deposits to their assigned hotel on or after March 15, 2012. The traditional congregational group consists of one Primary Adult Leader and at least two but not more than 9 youth. Statistically, our adult-to-youth ratio stands at one Adult Leader for every five youth.



The Primary Leader’s email address is very important: along with the congregational ID number, it is the key that unlocks their congregational registration account. The Gathering will email the Getting Ready and Bible Study materials to the Primary Leader and other event information may be also be emailed to Primary Leaders as the Gathering draws near. Each congregation’s registration account will contain valuable information related to their on-site experience. Their hotel assignment, daily rotation schedule and Practice Justice experience will be posted to congregational accounts. Primary Leaders can also manage their groups – and add people, make substitutions or even cancel a participant (remember that the $150 deposit is non-refundable!).

Primary Leaders should bring a cell phone with them to the Gathering as an added safety measure. Your cell phone number is requested for registration, but will only be used in an emergency situation.