Getting Started
in the new National Representative Council
Report
prepared by Frank Douglas, Region 13 (AZ, CO, NM, UT, WY)
Our first
meeting on July 8, 2005 was a first in two ways – being recently elected,
we had not had a “real” meeting other than our e-conversations and, more
important, many of us had never met each other personally. So our hours together
in Indianapolis were a getting-to-know-you opportunity as well as a time
to get some business done.
After the
members of the new National Representative Council (NRC) introduced themselves,
the Council was briefed on VOTF history (founders, steering committee, council,
working groups, trustees, governance committee, executive director, officers,
and staff).
We discussed
our representative roles in our regions and that while the NRC will be making
VOTF policy in collaboration with officers and trustees, implementation will
be the work of the affiliates.
Board of Trustees
chair David Castaldi briefed the new Council on the current status of the
draft by-laws and distributed a draft of basic responsibilities and authorities
of all key VOTF top-level members.
Three NRC
members were identified as NRC reps to the by-laws committee.
In a memo
to the new NRC, Jim Post identified seven issues internal to VOTF for the
NRC's consideration: growth, local autonomy/national coordination, leveraging
capabilities, coordination of national action, resolving disputes, budgets
and financial resources, and partnering with other organizations.
Two NRC reps
(Jim Jenkins and Mary Collingwood) were identified in our Friday meeting
as spokespersons for, and then participated in, a press conference on Saturday.
On Saturday
evening the NRC identified and prioritized numerous candidate policy issues.
These issues included: the nine draft resolutions that convocation participants
came to consensus on in their small group meetings, three each across three
areas of the convocation: lay accountability, bishops' accountability, and
accountability of finances; the seven issues identified by Jim Post; and
additional issues identified in small groups as well as some identified by
NRC members.
Donna Doucette,
Sheila Peiffer, and Frank Douglas were identified as members of the new NRC's
Steering Committee.
The new NRC
listserv is up and running. We will post additional information about the
listserv shortly.
GET
IN TOUCH with your new VOTF Council representative:
(By the way,
if you’d like to be part of a post-convocation discussion group, send an
email to concon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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