Dear Friends,Many of you have asked why the change in the age requirement for the 2009 New Orleans Youth Gathering. This message from Donna Wiegel, Registrar for the Gathering, offers a helpful explanation: A few years ago Heidi did some research on high school demographics in the US, and throughout the country, those demographics included 9th graders. At the same time, as each Gathering planning cycle came and went, more and more congregations were calling us to ask for a exception to our age/grade policy.  More of that cohort was participating in youth group, especially in smaller congregations that only had a few high school age youth, and with a parent volunteer as leader.  Rather than penalize those congregations, and make them exclude the younger participants (which might also keep the whole group from attending the Gathering), we have added 9th grade to the demographic. This does not mean that larger congregations, with stable, continuous and on-going youth ministry programs, must include this age/grade.  The age/grade guidelines for those groups can be set by the youth leader and/or pastor. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has also announced the same change to their age/grade participation - it was after we made the change, but I don’t know if it was a cause-effect thing.   As a point of reference, I went back to the 2006 data, and of the youth participants, 1920 were 14; 8185 were 15; 8031 were 16; 6365 were 17; 3868 were 18; 267 were 19; and approximately 500 did not give an age but said they were entering 10th grade (this will be required in the 2009 database - all fields will be required). This is the explanation of the change - for inclusion of a demographic that might otherwise be lost.  Annette Kezbers, Assistant to the Bishop for Youth and Family

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