So the Morg proclaimed that it was "raising the bar" for those entering missions. Obviously its been used as an excuse by Morgbots as to why the number of missionaries entering the field has been dropping over the years.

HOWEVER, is there any CONCRETE EVIDENCE that this was actually implemented?

Before "raising the bar" was announced the church already had strict guidelines about young men & women being worthy of entering the mission. If you had sex you had to wait a year and you were supposed to be free from playing with your little factory.

How EXACTLY did they raise the bar? And were there any special guidelines that were issued to Bishops & Stake Presidents that differed from what was already being followed?

I think a few strong mormon's grabbed "the bar" and lifted it up a little higher than it was before. It was difficult, they sweated, strained and groaned, but through perseverance and faith, they were able to accomplish the task.

I believe that anybody who (i) admitted to having more than 2 sexualartners AND (ii) wasn't the son of an influential member of the church was disqualified.

This was not a slow trickle-down in the number called. It was clearly an administrative decision to simply drop the number of calls to a level of 52,000 missionaries, down from 62,000. (Actually closer to 61,000 to 51,000, but 62,000 is easier to divide by 2)

In 2003, the number of missionaries dropped from 61,000 to 56,000, and in 2004 dropped another 5,000 to 51,000 and it has stayed pretty close to that ever since. That kind of straight-line drop of 5,000 a year for two years and then no more drop is precisely what you would see as the result of cutting staffing by administrative edict to 26,000 per year back in 2002. It would take 2 years for the existing staffing levels of 61,000 missionaries to be released, so it would take 2 years for the new staffing level to stabilize at 51,000.

Those are the facts.

Now for my speculation on why they did that.

I think they saw the handwriting on the wall, and that there weren't going to be enough young bodies coming up through the ranks to sustain a rate 61,000 missionaries. Rather than have the number bouncing up and down based on how well bishops did at recruiting each year, thereby letting outsiders know how many kids were going, or, more importantly, not going on missions, they lowered staffing to a level they knew they could meet every year. That way, with the number of missionaries solid at 52K, give or take a bit, we couldn't use that as an indicator of youth activity.

The kicker is that activity levels may be dropping faster than they predicted back around 2000, when they must have hatched this scheme. If they can't meet staffing levels of 52,000, then the jig is up. We will be able to use total number of missionaries to gauge activity levels.

The reason I think there is some trouble meeting their quotas of 26,000 mission calls per year is that there seems to be a louder drumbeat to roust out more senior couples. Could that mean they are falling short on 19 year olds? That's my guess.

I know the number has dropped but what specifically was the directive from above that was different from before 2002? What different did they tell the Bishops & Stake Presidents?