"[3] The purpose of the organizations is to help "plant and make grow ... a testimony of Christ and of the Gospel.
[5] While serving as the church's president, Smith further stated: We expect to see the day, if we live long enough ... when every council of the Priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will understand its duty; will assume its own responsibility, will magnify its calling, and fill its place in the Church, to the uttermost, according to the intelligence and ability possessed by it.
When that day shall come, there will not be so much necessity for work that is now being done by the auxiliary organizations, because it will be done by the regular quorums of the Priesthood.
Like general authorities, these officers are "accepted and sustained" by the church members as leaders in their respective areas of stewardship, which are set out by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The church announced in October 2019 that the presidency of the Young Men at the ward level was being discontinued.