Elders Quorum President

It occurs to me that if this is my blog then I can post whatever I like, and includes thoughts I have had recently on some church callings.  I'm not being critical, the Lord said, "Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence." (D&C 107:99).  My goal is to figure out how I could serve better.  If anyone comments then I reserve the right to update this post to include the enlightening ideas.

Some callings I have thought about, but will likely never openly express my opinion, for reasons that are obvious to me.  But I would like to muse over the scope and potential of the Elders quorum president  (as I am currently and EQ Councillor).   This is spurred by one simple question:
How can I tell if the Elders quorum is functioning well?

I've determined the answer to that question requires this pre-question:
What is the function of the Elders quorum?

The obvious correct answer is "To bring souls to Christ".   I get that, but let's assume that everyone is always seeking to be more Christlike, and yet falling short, and that would be true in an Elder's quorum that was functioning well, or one that was completely non-functioning.   So my question really is:

If there were two wards, one where the Elder's quorum presidency was doing everything they could, and one where the Elder's quorum presidency did nothing, how would you be able to tell which was which?

My first  idea is to say that the functioning Elder's quorum would do the ward's grunt work.  In my ward that means a lot of moving college students in (August) and out (May).  Sometimes there's duties like setting up chairs for conference or chopping wood for a widow, but if you took away moving college kids then there's maybe four or five other times a year that the ward needs the muscle.  So what role does the Elder's quorum presidency play?  They shouldn't be expected to be the ones that show up every time (although surely they would show up more than typical) but they are the ones that announce the need and make sure people show up.  Just saying what the job is in Elder's quorum is natural, but not enough since not all the Elders are in the meeting.  So I have my first duty:
1) Keep a current email list to inform Elders of work (like moving) that needs to be done.
2) Be willing to step in and assist in the work (like moving) as much as possible

As for ensuring that the duties are covered that is tricky.  If someone is moving Friday morning at 11am that directly conflicts with my work, and asking (or requiring) me to be there would be inappropriate.  If someone needs help at a specific time then they will simply have to be content with whomever they can get.  I think the duty of ensuring that Elders are not abused (by someone who needs 10 hours of help moving) should really go to the bishop.  Some duties, like setting up chairs for stake conference, don't have specific schedules and so the Elders Quorum Presidency should plan for when that can get done.
3) For flexible assignments determine when/who will get the job done

One duty which ought to be mentioned simply because it has scriptural backing is "an elder...[is] to administer bread and wine—the emblems of the flesh and blood of Christ—" (D&C 20:38-40) which is normally an Aaronic priesthood function, but if for some reason the Aaronic priesthood was not able to do their duty then the Elder's should be willing to step in.  It deserves special mention, perhaps, because this is one of the duties which requires personal righteousness.  Specifically the Elder's quorum presidency may need to assign other Elders to do this.

4) Be willing to step in and perform Aaronic Priesthood duties if needed

5) Assign Elders to fill in Aaronic duties if needed

So far we've talked about things that are infrequent, and mostly things that can simply be assigned to other Elders (like those two guys in every ward that end up doing most of the work).  When I think of what work the Elder's quorum does regularly I think of home teaching.  While the presidency should certainly do their home teaching, the hard part is in organizing and reporting the home teaching that happens.  Rare families have special needs (sometimes personality conflicts or they only accept one connection to the church) which can make organizing home teaching tricky, but for the most part it's simply a matter of putting it together.
6) Set an example of good home teaching
7) Assign Elders to do the home teaching

How often should home teaching routes be changed just to shake things up?  In my ward it's a moot issue since so many students move in and out regularly that the routes have to be redone every September anyway.  I suspect there is more that could be done here, however, in terms of finding companionships that don't function.  We all know there are Elders who get the ball moving, and Elders that only do work when someone else gets the ball moving.  Unfortunately I've found this task is a lot like trying to recreate the Mona Lisa with living ants.
8) Redesign the home teaching to improve companionships

The hardest part of home teaching is the reporting.  That's mostly because other Elders are impossible to get a hold of.  With modern technology I would expect the presidency to design something that could make the reporting easy, and then to chase down (to a reasonable degree) those who refuse to report.  I've heard of Elder's quorums where there were men called specifically for this, but in our ward there aren't that many extra people.
9) Set a system for reporting home teaching
10) Attempt to contact those who have not reported their home teaching

What else does an Elder's quorum do?  The thoughts are usually "home teaching " and "lessons on Sunday".  Assigning someone to teach (even if it's another member of the presidency) is easy if it's set on a schedule.  The problem is (in my experience) often the teacher shows up having forgotten they're supposed to teach.  Let's not bring up how much preparation a teacher puts in even when they knew it was their week.  I think assigning teachers isn't enough - the presidency also needs to call them the day before to make sure they remember it.
11) Assign teachers for Elder's quorum
12) Call the teacher on Saturday to make sure they remember they are teaching
13) Be ready to step in and teach if the instructor flakes

All of these duties are functional - there's a job to do and the Elder's do it.  The real goal of an Elder's quorum should be to bring souls to Christ.  That being said it's inappropriate for Elder's to conduct worthiness interviews, so what can a presidency do to improve the spirituality?  I've given this a lot of thought, and I'd love ideas, but there's really only two opportunities I can see: When teaching, and during PPI's (Personal Priesthood Interviews).  While the presidency only teaches once a month the idea is straightforward, teach by the spirit what the quorum needs to hear.  I think one item that the list should include is how to do home teaching by the spirit. The list above makes home teaching sound like a checklist, which would be very offensive to the Lord.
14) Teach by the spirit what the Lord wants the quorum to know
15) Teach about loving your home teaching families

Personal Priesthood Interviews (PPI's) confuse me.  It's not a worthiness interview, and it's not a lecture, so what is the purpose?  I think the ambiguity is one reason why my quorum has struggled to keep up with PPI's. The stated purpose is to report about home teaching and the home teaching families, but my ward does not have great home teaching percentages.   Is the PPI meant to lecture them about not home teaching?  When they report their home teaching they mention if there are special needs that the quorum needs to be aware of.  Is the PPI meant to fix holes in the home teaching reporting?  Since this instruction to conduct PPI's come from church administration I assume there is greater value to these which we have not tapped.  I'm open to thoughts on the problem.
16) Conduct Personal Priesthood Interviews

This one comes from a friend who suggested that an important measure of a good Elder's quorum is  having acivities regularly (he says monthly).  He says this makes a big difference in how unified and social the Elder's quorum is.  Monthly seems like a lot to me, but I can agree that camaraderie within the Edler's quorum should be a priority.
17) Schedule regular quorum activities

So I count 16 duties that fall under the Elder's Quorum President
1) Keep a current email list to inform Elders of work (like moving) that needs to be done.
2) Be willing to step in and assist in the work (like moving) as much as possible
3) For flexible assignments determine when/who will get the job done
4) Be willing to step in and perform Aaronic Priesthood duties if needed
5) Assign Elders to fill in Aaronic duties if needed
6) Set an example of good home teaching7) Assign Elders to do the home teaching
8) Redesign the home teaching to improve companionships
9) Set a system for reporting home teaching
10) Attempt to contact those who have not reported their home teaching
11) Assign teachers for Elder's quorum
12) Call the teacher on Saturday to make sure they remember they are teaching
13) Be ready to step in and teach if the instructor flakes
14) Teach by the spirit what the Lord wants the quorum to know
15) Teach about loving your home teaching families
16) Conduct Personal Priesthood Interviews
17) Schedule regular quorum activities
Since I'm a statistician I instantly want to create a data frame for this based on the characteristics.  Unfortunately a table is difficult to fit in the blog, so here's some variables I'll assign:
W:  Done weekly
M:  Done monthly
D:  Can be delegated to a councilor

S:   Requires personal spirituality

Duty	W	M	D	S
1			X
2
3			x
4				X
5			X
6		X
7		X	X
8				X
9			X
10		X	X
11			X
12	X		X
13	X		X	X
14			X	X
15			X	X
16			X	X
17		X	X

And so  I return to the original question: If I showed you two wards where one was functioning well, and the other had an Elder's quorum that was not  functioning well, how would you pick out which one was which?

It's not fair to say "which one is more spiritual?".  Everyone has a spiritual level between 0  and 1, and a great Elder's quorum president could be working with Elders who are struggling, and a bad president could have a quorum full of men in tune with the Lord.  I accept that a good Presidency will increase the spirituality, but I don't think you can measure the spirituality, nor use it as a tool to evaluation how well the presidency is working.

So I have some ideas, but for the most part I do not feel like I have a good answer, and I would love to have thoughts on it.
A) Elders are informed of service opportunities, and those needs are fulfilled (except in unusual circumstances)
B) A good EQ presidency has assigned home teaching to all active (and some inactive) men in the ward.  Each family (not assigned to the High Priests) has a home teacher assigned to them.  New families or Elder's moving will only cause a hole to last a month.
C) Home teaching reports come in every month with most of the Elders being contacted.  Those whom are not contacted are noted, and if they are not able to be contacted for several months the presidency will reach out to them
D) Each Sunday the lesson has an assigned teacher who was contacted to make sure they knew about their turn to teach so they could prepare (whether they actually prepare or not is beside the point)
E) Seek the spirit so that they can instruct the quorum on improving spirituality and receive inspiration on what can help bring their quorum to Christ.

The obvious next step is to ask whether MY Elders quorum is functioning well.  Obviously I have purposely avoided saying anything about how we are doing - This isn't the right place for that, but suffice it to say I think we are doing not-too-bad in some areas, and there are some areas where we could improve.  Just writing this blog post has helped me to organize my thoughts which I hope will plan how I can perform my sacred calling better.