From: Christa Grillmair, President

Communique #7: November 2, 2019

Dear Sisters-in-Christ and Father Alfredo:

The leaves that have showcased their many colours are now blanketing our lawns. The Thanksgiving turkey has been repurposed into soups and casseroles and the Halloween goblins have come down from their sugar rush. Ah, November: the in-between month, the month to catch up on things before getting ready for Christmas. So, here it goes; happy reading!

1. Diocesan Interim Meeting Recap

Thank you to the 57 members of the Victoria Diocesan Councils who participated in our Fall Interim Diocesan meeting at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Esquimalt on October 28th. We are grateful to the hosting team for their wonderful hospitality and the amazing goodies they provided. The Minutes will report on the meeting but here are a few highlights:

We reviewed the communication recently sent to all the Councils by National. This communication must be distributed among all parish council executive and chairs. If the electronic notification is too difficult to separate or print, may I suggest that you forward the complete email package to the whole team? Sharing the information is most important because there are some items that require action.

Pat Darling spoke about the annual ecumenical Season of Creation that starts with the World Day of Prayer and ends with the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (September 1-October 4). Pat encouraged councils to prepare for this feast for 2020. She also shared highlights of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Pan-Amazon region. In October, Pope Francis launched the Extraordinary Mission month with the theme: Baptized and Sent, an opportunity for us to become more authentic missionary disciples.

Fr. Alfredo gave a thoughtful reflection on Pope Francis’ key word to mission: Witness. He told us that each of us, through our baptism, is called to be a missionary disciple to those among us, to witness cheerfully through our lives to the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus. “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” (St. Francis of Assisi)

We took a quiz about leadership styles, learned about servant leadership and the importance of building and nurturing relationships in order to motivate and inspire others to achieve their potential.

We walked through Year One of the Strategic Plan, provided the background of the strategy, goals and timelines. (See item #2 below)

We also learned about our Councils’ outreach initiatives, distributed the updated Policy & Procedures Manual, provided highlights of the 2019 Provincial and National Conventions and learned about plans for the 2020 Diocesan Convention.

2. Strategic Plan Presentations

Those who attended the Diocesan meeting participated in The League of the Future – Year 1 presentation. It is our objective to provide the workshop to all Parish Councils in Canada so that we are all part of the plan and fully informed of the scope of the project. The presentation provides a review of the strategies and objectives, provides an update on what has been accomplished to date and the framework for monitoring the progress. If your council has not purchased copies of The Catholic Women’s League of Canada Plans Strategically, you can order copies from National at $2.15/copy (price increases to $2.50 in 2020). This booklet is our guide for the five-year plan.

We have divided the task of presenting among three of us – Kathy Weswick in the south (Victoria and area), Laurel Phyall in the north and myself in mid-Island. Ascension has already booked me for November 14th. We would like to complete the task by the end of January.

ACTION: To book a presentation, please contact us:

Victoria area Councils: Kathy Weswick at weswickk@telus.net or 250-381-9090

Mid-Island area Councils: Christa Grillmair at cgrillmair@shaw.ca or 250-585-7148

North Island area Councils: Laurel Phyall at lphyall@shaw.ca or 250-923-6477

3. Reasons for Apathy

One of the areas of great concern is the fact that we lose about 10% of our membership annually to members who choose not to renew. In 2018, councils in BC/Yukon attracted 573 new members but 890 members chose not to renew their membership. Please help me understand why.

ACTION: At your next Council meeting, please ask your members to provide their opinions as to why they believe that members would not renew their membership. I would appreciate if you could share your findings with me (cgrillmair@shaw.ca).

4. Best Practices

I had already sent this out to you and have received some feedback, so this is just a reminder:

The Strategic Planning Affirmation Working Group is seeking information from Parish Councils to identify “Best Practices” and “Engaged Membership” and ask you to reply to the following four questions.  PLEASE give as much detail as possible. This Working Group will compile the responses and they will contact and/or visit Councils to get more information.

 

1.     Does your Council have an established Welcoming Program for new members? Please give details.

 2.     Does your Council have regular contact with members? In what way do you contact your members?

 3.     Does your Council have an established program to recognize members? Please give details.

 4.     What is your total membership? How many attend meetings? How many attend events?

ACTION: Please forward your responses by Friday, November 22, 2019 to: info@cwl.ca If you have any questions please contact: info@cwl.ca

 

5. Change of Date

To help Fr. Alfredo with his busy schedule, the date for our Spring Diocesan Interim meeting at Christ the King in Courtenay has been changed from March 2 to Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Thank you, Christ the King for your flexibility. Also, please note that the 2020 Diocesan Convention dates are April 23-24, with the Executive pre-convention meeting on the evening of April 22.

ACTION: Please make the necessary adjustments to your calendar.

6. Annual Reports

We are a national organization and we need to share our accomplishments and provide our opinions. The annual reports are one way to ensure that our individual initiatives are collected. The September 30, 2019 package of information that was sent to all Parish Presidents included a memo from Ingrid Taylor with instructions on how to complete the annual reports. Please read the memo carefully for the instructions on how to complete the survey. Each position in the Parish Council has been assigned a designated number