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NATIONAL
Representative Council
The VOTF National Representative Council met in the
Boston area April 27-29 for its spring "in person" meeting.
The Boston-area location was selected partly in celebration
of the fifth anniversary of VOTF's founding. Twenty-two
attendees from across the country met at Our Lady Help
of Christians in Newton and Sunday morning at St. James
the Greater in Wellesley.
Representatives were pleased to meet at these two historic
sites. OLHC was the site where a fledgling VOTF voted
to call for the ouster of Cardinal Law. St. James parishioners
have been in vigil for 2.5 years and their hall is
the site for Council of Parishes meetings, a group
that seeks to reverse parish closings that were conducted
without appropriate input from parishioners. Attendees
also took a trip to the VOTF National headquarters
office in Newton.
Also in celebration of the anniversary, Dr. James Muller,
a leading founder of VOTF, spoke about the early VOTF
days in his presentation to the Council Saturday night.
OVERVIEW
During the 3-day meeting, Representatives began preliminary
assessment of a Lay Synod concept; opened discussions
on the appropriate balance between National- and
Local-initiated actions; and heard reports from Bill
Casey, chair of the Board of Trustees, Mark Mullaney,
interim Executive Director, Mary Pat Fox, President
of VOTF, and five National Working Groups. They also
heard details about the conference planned for October
2007 in Providence, R.I.; got an update on the multi-year
Campaigns for Accountability; continued efforts to
obtain concurrence from the National Officers on
two financial accountability resolutions; and discuss
the proposal on women in the Church.
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS
Dan Bartley, Region 2 (NY) Representative and a member
of the NRC's committee on Membership & Growth,
outlined the preliminary stages needed to assess
the Lay Synod concept.
At its November 2006 meeting, the NRC overwhelmingly
approved a focus on a Lay Synod as a priority for
the Council. Given the years-long lead-in required
for such an undertaking, Dan suggested that a multi-phase
approach would work best, to give VOTF the option
of calling off the effort at several steps along
the way.
Representatives then met in committees -- Membership & Growth;
Affiliate Development; Mission, Goals & National
Impact -- to consider how a lay synod might impact
each of those concerns. Discussion of the option
will continue on the NRC's discussion list. Dan Bartley
agreed to put together a proposal for further discussion
on-line.
Both Bill Casey and Mark Mullaney described the financial
shortfall VOTF will face in the coming months. Although
the number of individual contributors has increased,
in the past year or so the number of major donors
has declined. VOTF must reverse this trend to erase
a projected $100,000 deficit in the next fiscal year.
VOTF also must hire a Development Director who can
focus entirely on bringing in major donors, obtaining
foundation grants and donations, and increasing the
level of giving from both. Mark noted that in the
past, the development function was addressed in the
Executive Director's spare time and also by the PR
person, in his spare time. Obviously this function
requires more attention than is possible from staff
with other major responsibilities.
In addition to the financial crisis facing VOTF,
Bill Casey identified a crisis in leadership. Evidence
of this comes from the low response rates (a range
of 1% to 5%) when members are asked for input on
proposals. VOTF as a whole has difficulty in reaching
closure on decisions, Bill said, as well as difficulty
in respecting others' positions. In the past few
years, rather than leading, many have simply been
engaged in fighting about leadership. The Board of
Trustees is looking for ways to move VOTF beyond
this "stuck position," he said. Their start
on this effort is a revised Identity Statement. The
BOT is asking leaders to review the new statement
and then sign it if they can agree with its content.
The Statement should provide us with a common ground
for moving forward.
Representatives next considered a proposal from the
National Officers regarding national/local balance.
Representatives reviewed the reports obtained thus
far from selected major affiliates and from the officers,
then discussed some of the specific cases that create
tension between an affiliate's desires and National's
intentions. Assessment of the appropriate balance
will continue online. In the meantime, Representatives
identified one area where National action and/or
National support of local action could be improved:
rapid response to "crisis" type situations.
In these cases -- suddenly revealed reports of sexual
abuse or coverups, or unexpected reports of financial
improprieties, for examples -- even if National can
respond quickly, too often the other regions in the
country do not hear of the response. There also is
concern that in many cases, National cannot respond
quickly. With Mark Mullaney, some Representatives
will work on developing a "rapid response team" in
conjunction with the National Office's Marketing & Communications
Group. The team hopes to develop a protocol for responding
to crises as quickly and factually as possible.
Mark also updated the Council on the status of the
search for an Executive Director. Be patient was
the message; typically it takes at least six months
to hire a new E.D.
Rich Moriarty, Region 4 Representative (D.C., DE,
MD, VA, WV) and a sponsor of the women's
role proposal, showed the Council copies of Web pages and reports
from the earliest days of VOTF to underscore his
message that equality for women was always part of
the VOTF expectation. The proposal sponsors are not
demanding that the Church ordain women, he said,
but seek to "establish a collective voice that
would respond to the church's difficulty in articulating
the equality of women in the eyes of God and each
other."
Rich also asked the Council to override its Operating
Procedures and send the current proposal as-is to
the regional members for input. Representatives did
not approve this request. The proposal will continue
through the normal development process set up by
Council Operating Procedures.
Speakers from the National Working Groups updated
the NRC on projects under way, plans for the coming
months, and materials available now for distribution
in the regions. Pat Gomez, newly elected Representative
from Region 1 (New England), described the work of
the Protecting Our Children Working Group. Steve
Sheehan, newly elected Representative from Region
1 (New England) spoke for the Goal 1 Support Survivors
group. Donna Doucette (Region 1 New England) summarized
the written report from John Ryan, chair of the Goal
2 Support Priests group. Margaret Roylance, chair
of the Structural Change Working Group, reviewed
results from the CD and letter the group mailed to
every bishop in the U.S. dioceses. Donna Doucette,
co-chair of the Voice of Renewal/Lay Education group
described the resources available to members from
that group.
In her President's report, Mary Pat Fox said VOTF
is at a critical juncture. Given the financial and
membership resources available to us, she said, we
must do two things in order to continue: raise funds,
and focus our resources on one or two issues. She
described what the current landscape might be without
VOTF and called on the NRC to continue to work towards
giving voice to the laity.
In terms of focus, Mary Pat said it should remain
on the two Accountability Campaigns, which are scheduled
to run through 2008.
In response to Mary Pat's comments, members discussed
the possibility of charging dues, asked for information
about the status of the database listings for members,
and suggested ideas for fund-raising. Reps were reminded
that one of our tasks is to ensure that our own region's
members provide updated information for the national
database whenever they move or change email addresses.
VOTF cannot reach members with all its news and all
its funding requests if it never receives change-of-address
info.
Lisa Kendzior from Texas (Region 10: AR, TX, and
OK) said she will work with a team focused on building
membership and raising money. Several other Reps
offered to work with Lisa and to work with the National
Office in these efforts.
Susan Vogt, Region 5 Representative (AL, KY, LA,
MS, and TN) and the NRC delegate to the Campaign
Implementation Team for the Accountability
Campaigns, reported on the actions carried out so far in the
campaigns and described some upcoming efforts.
Frank Douglas, Region 13 Representative (AZ, CO,
NM, UT, WY) and a sponsor of three resolutions passed
recently by the NRC, asked for input from the Officers
on why they have not concurred on the two of those
resolutions. A process for negotiating concurrence
had been set up to include one officer, one financial
specialist from the NRC and Trustees (Dan Bartley,
Region 2 Rep and an NRC delegate to the Board of
Trustees), and one officer. Frank wanted to have
an additional Rep participate and asked that Chuck
Miller (Region 4 Rep) be added to the group. The
Officers agreed. Those discussions will continue.
Bud Bretschneider (Region 3 PA and NJ Representative)
and Mary Freeman, Treasurer of VOTF, described the
speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and programs
already set up for the VOTF Conference to be held
October 19 and 20 in Providence, R.I. Reps should
begin publicizing this event as soon as possible
in their regions.
As part of its internal business, the NRC voted to
expand its Steering Committee to four persons. This
committee has been operating as if it were a four-person
group for the past two years, because it included
the Moderator in all operational and maintenance
activities needed to support the Council. However,
because there is no need for a single moderator and
because the work needed has expanded so much, a four-person
committee makes more sense.
The NRC then elected the following Representatives
to the Steering Committee for two-year terms: Bill
Culleton, Donna Doucette, Ron DuBois, and Sheila
Peiffer.
The prayer that follows was written by NRC Representative
Bud Bretschneider (Region 3) for Council’s last
session on Sunday morning:
Dear God:
RESPONSE: We felt your Spirit rise up in this place
in 2002. Your Spirit spoke through our voice.
Do not let us abandon the sign your hand has placed
on our hearts in that holy moment
Response
Give us courage to overcome our fears to speak the
voice you have given us to speak truth and reconciliation.
Response
Whenever we seek to brandish our swords against an
enemy, may our hearts burn lest we become whom we attack.
Response
Give us the openness and humility to listen to others,
especially those whom we oppose.
Response
May we hold on to each other, knowing that we are
embraced by Your love, as we stand up for your children.
Response
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