You are here Home ~ USA Council

The Serra Leader Fall 2004

KEEPING IN FOCUS by USA Council President Tony Plaia

Have you noticed how easy it is to get pulled off the track? You start off with enthusiasm for something you want to accomplish and then some other brilliant idea or thought enters your mind and derails you completely; or you get interrupted with a more urgent matter at hand and you are off and running in another direction, never to return to your original idea.

One of the best ways to keep on the track of Serra's mission is to review the mission and vision statements frequently. (See below for these.)  When you plan a program, review our mission statement and ask yourself if you are on target. If not, the mission and vision statements will help you figure out why.

To accomplish our goal as Serrans, we may need to refocus; there is more than one way to achieve our mission, and sometimes we find that the old ways are no longer as useful as they once were. Perhaps a mission statement tailored to your club, in line with the council’s statement, is in order.

When you bring in a new member, review our mission statement and ask yourself if this new member will help you accomplish your goal as a Serra club.

Will your club fulfill its obligation to this member in helping him/her to be part of that goal fulfillment?

When you spend club funds, review our mission statement and ask if the money is being used in the best possible way toward accomplishing our objectives.

When you pray, review our mission statement and ask if we are seeking to fulfill our mission as Serran.

Spending time, talent and treasure in Serra can be rewarding if it is WELL SPENT. Keeping your eye on the rabbit (the mission and vision statements of Serra) will ensure success. The psychic income you will receive for a job well done will refill your coffers of time, talent and treasure. 

USA Council of Serra International Mission Statement 

As Serra International is the lay vocation arm of the Church, our mission is to foster and affirm vocations to the ministerial priesthood and vowed religious life in the USA, and through this ministry, further our members’ common Catholic faith. 

USA Council of Serra International Vision Statement 

We hope:

to affirm the priesthood and religious life as positive lifestyles to invite all men and women to follow their baptismal call s

to educate and inform our members, collaborators and the Catholic community of our commitment to promote priesthood and the religious life

to inspire and call forth a well-trained and dedicated corps of leaders at all levels of Serra by spiritual and practical formation to develop openness to the opinions of others

---

BORING BUT IMPORTANT   The 501(c)(3) dance

The Patriot Act is causing some problems for our club treasurers as they change signatories to add the new officers. Unfortunately some bank employees don’t understand our 501(c)(3) status and have created some unnecessary anxiety for the treasurers.

In a nutshell: Serra International applied to the IRS and received a Group Exemption Number (GEN) stating that Serra International and all subsidiary units are exempt as 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations. This GEN, 1059, covers the USA Council and all clubs in the United States. To be included under this GEN, all clubs have been issued an employer identification number (EIN). This number is unique to each club. If you cannot locate your number, call us at 888.777.6681.

Each year the Council must verify to the IRS the name and address of each club and their EIN number. For ease, because of the ever-changing club officers, we have listed the “official” address of each club as the Council’s offices. Very soon, some of you will be spending quality time with your tax preparers. Generally speaking, because the clubs and the council are 501(c)(3) organizations, contributions are usually deductible less anything of value received. However, you should discuss this issue with your tax preparer.

In order to assist you, the Council will be providing to you “tax letters” during the month of January 2005. This letter will cover all of the Council meetings you attended during 2004, such as Super Weekend, District Governors Training, and the Serra International Convention.

Contributions made directly to the Serra International Foundation must be covered by them because the Council does not have these records. If you happen to be called by the IRS for a review of a prior year’s income tax returns, we can provide you with “tax letters” for the requested period. Please don’t call and ask for a letter, “just in case.”

---

Dear Peter,

I'm looking for all the presidents in the history of my Serra club. Where do I go for this information? Researching Who’s Who 

Dear Who’s Who,

Call, email or write USA Council of Serra International requesting the information you require. We keep the paper files for all the Serra clubs in the USA. In addition, we maintain a computerized database for the Serra clubs in the USA. This database has evolved since 1994 and we have worked to record current and historical information for each club and Serran in the USA. Because we can only record what the clubs have given us over the years, our information is only as complete as what we receive. 

Dear Peter,

Is it more cost effective for me to print out a manual from the web or to ask you to print it out and send it to me? Thrifty Serran 

Dear Thrifty,

Well, this is a matter of personal opinion. I believe that it would be more cost effective for you to download and print the manuals from your own personal computer. We chose to publish the club officer manuals and many other frequently requested club resources on the website in order to reduce the costs associated with producing, warehousing, and mailing these items to clubs. In addition, the online resources offer Serra clubs greater flexibility in how they use the materials. For example, you download the material and save it on your computer for future reference as well as print the manual or selected pages. Finally, changes and new revisions of the materials can be more readily made available online. We do have a few hard copies of all of the online resources available if you decide not to print at home. 

Dear Peter,

In a nearby diocese, the bishop is not interested in having a Serra club, but we would like to help organize a new club in this diocese. What can we do? New Club Builder 

Dear New Club Builder,

First, thank you for your efforts to share Serra with your neighbors! We could request the help of the USA Council of Serra International Episcopal Adviser. Bishop Blase Cupich would enjoy the opportunity to discuss the unique ministry Serra provides and how Serra could potentially serve your neighboring diocese with the reluctant bishop.

---

Falling for Serra, jumping for joy!

Current membership campaign targets enthusiastic members   It has been said that enthusiasm is contagious and can uplift an entire organization. One of the traits that new members can bring to your own Serra club is a real sense of enthusiasm and desire for accomplishment. Certainly those characteristics can be found in seasoned Serra members, but they are especially inspiring when they are found in a new Serran -- someone who can look at your club with fresh eyes and can bring his or her own talents to bear where they are needed most.

As an example of such a new member I’d like to mention a recent addition to our St. Paul Serra Club who already has made some dramatic improvements benefiting all our members. So as not to embarrass her I will not mention her name -- just some of her accomplishments since she joined only five months ago. She has attended virtually every meeting and club event while bringing her skills with the personal computer for the benefit our club. She has agreed to become Communications Vice President and has already started composing our club’s newsletter, e-mailing it to members with personal computers while continuing to provide paper copies to other members.

In addition, she has used her computer skills to provide identification badges for new members as soon as they join, thereby easing their transition into our club while cutting printing costs. Our new member has also started to take evening classes in website design in the expectation of being able to create our club website in the near future. She will also be our contact person for the new Serra International computerized membership information management system. Also in the membership area, her enthusiasm for Serra has resulted in her hosting several potential new members at our club’s meetings, giving us additional hope for continued membership growth.

As you can see, our new member has been a wonderful addition to our club, providing us with all sorts of new assets to assist us in our mission. Let us be on the lookout for those active Catholics who, like our St. Paul Serra Club’s new member, will bring interest, enthusiasm, and talent to our vocation as Serrans. As if that alone isn’t incentive enough, all new member sponsors’ names will be entered into a drawing for a prize of $250 plus a free registration to the Serra International Convention in Bangkok. Two winners will be drawn. Hurry -- the drawing deadline is April 30, 2004!

| By Gary A. Davis, Membership Vice President

---

Expanding our call to the harvest:

Is your club afraid to go outside of its comfort zone and actively invite minorities to join Serra? Can we afford not to?  A nationwide study published in 2003 by the Barna Research Group found that the strong link between the Hispanics and the Catholic Church is weakening. A decade ago, 68% of adult Hispanics said the church they attended most often was Catholic. It has shrunk to 49% today.

Serra club members believe that daily prayer for vocations, the promotion of parish vocation programs, appreciation, and recognition of priests, deacons and religious sisters and brothers, as well as seminarians, will help to increase the numbers of vocations within our community. But in addition to that, we must be proactive by inviting members of our Catholic community to consider the religious life. Part of that invitation process is for Serrans (traditionally older white males) to expand their membership, inviting more minorities to join us in our mission and also to grasp a better understanding of the melding of many of the many different cultures and to appreciate the many differences in our rituals and worship styles that make us a united and unique church, worldwide.

In the National Migration Week (Jan. 4-10) issue of the Catholic New World, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said St. Paul calls all disciples of Jesus Christ strangers in any land that is not the kingdom of heaven. Both our own experience and the gospel for the feast of the Epiphany encourage us to look on migrants and refugees with a sympathy born of faith. The history of immigration to this country has been and is today a story of opportunity and of opposition.

We celebrate National Migration Week during Respect Life Month, and rightly so. Respect for human dignity is based in faith, which teaches us to see a human person in every unborn child, in every elderly and ill person, and in every immigrant or refugee. America has a long history of ethnic and racial diversity. Wave after wave of immigrants found homes here and built the Church and society. Many of them were Catholic: Irish, German, Polish, Italian, Slovak, Bohemian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, French Canadian, Flemish, Dutch, Luxembourger, Croation, Slovenian, and many other European nationalities shaped our archdioceses.

Many left their homelands because of conflicts with civil authorities in Europe as well as for economic reasons. All eventually found a home here and contributed richly. Who are the immigrants today? Apart from their national origin, many are workers. They prepare food in our restaurants, clean our hotel and hospital rooms, farm our fields and nurture our lawns and gardens, work in our factories, do our laundry and care for our children and old people. Their coming here is evidence of the globalization of labor.

More than 13 million immigrants entered the United States between 1991 and 2001. Not all entered legally. Of the roughly 5 million illegal or undocumented workers in the U.S. labor force, one million are employed in manufacturing, 600,000 in construction, 700,000 in restaurants and 1.2 million in agriculture. Government statistics report that 1.5 percent of immigrants receive welfare; 2.1 percent of those born here are on welfare. Over a year ago, the U.S. and Mexican bishops issued a joint pastoral letter, calling upon the officials of both governments to reform immigration laws and procedures.

The present family visa system needs revision, so that families can stay together. The present employment-based visa system does not adequately protect the dignity of workers. A broad-based amnesty for illegal immigrants, which was part of the political discussion before Sept. 11, needs to be discussed again. People should not live indefinitely in limbo; either we should make their presence here legal or face the economic and social and political disruptions consequent to large-scale deportations.            

The Church’s concern for immigrants, however, is not based in economics or politics. Our faith calls the Church a “communion,” a unity of sisters and brothers in Christ. Our faith also helps us to recognize a neighbor in every member of the human family. People are themselves gifts far greater than the magi’s gold, frankincense and myrrh. From this vision of faith comes the moral obligation to respect, accept and welcome others, especially the strangers among us.

During National Migration Week, you might visit the website of the U.S. Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services at www.usccb.org. The question we must ask ourselves as Serrans is, “How are we supporting minority vocations?” and “What are we doing to increase minority membership in our local Serra club?” 

By Janice Pelster, Serra Club of Portland, Ore., lightly edited from “The Serra Club of Portland Bulletin” Jan. 2004 edition. How is your club expanding its call? Let us know! E-mail the Serra Leader editor at adecourtenay@serraus.org or call (888) 777-6681.

---

“Honey, would you like to join Serra?”

Spouses are a new member source  

Has your Serra Club been overlooking potential new members who are already attending many of your meetings? Consider this: Last July in Pittsburgh, Pa., a District 1-S Serran, a spousal member, attended a presentation on membership. The presentation covered strategies to obtain new members, orient them to the mission of Serra and retain existing members. At the end, almost as an after thought, the presenter said, “And don’t neglect the ‘low-hanging new member fruit’ – our spouses.”

On the flight home to the northwest, this Serran hatched a plan, and before she left the Boeing 767 that evening, a goal was set: 100 percent spousal membership by our District Convention in October 2004. That was only three months away!

First, she obtained a current membership list to see how many spouses were already members. Happily there were quite a few, maybe 15%. But 34 spouses (both women and men) who consistently attended meetings and events were not members. They were about to be challenged. Next, she wrote a letter of invitation to each of the 34 spouses. Each letter included a personal handwritten note, an application partially filled out and a self addressed return envelope. This yielded 8 new spousal members.

About three weeks later, a second letter was sent mentioning the goal of 100% by convention time in October and mention of the fact that a spousal members dues are only one half of regular dues. Within two weeks the second letter plus a phone follow up netted another 6 spousal members. So, what has this club accomplished? Obviously, they gained 14 new members, but there are other less obvious plusses.

A man and a woman usually have a different circle of friends and the result can be more and different people to invite to join in our vocation ministry. The most powerful result is dedicated Serran couples bring the energy, talent and skills of two people plus the grace of matrimony which can yield a harvest of 30, 60 or 100 fold. Did she accomplish her goal? If you ask her she will tell you no, not yet.

But, if Ted Williams, one of the great hitters in the history of baseball hit less than 4 times per 10 at bats, her success rate was 41.19%, quite remarkable and an increase in club membership of nearly 15% for the year. Why not give something like this a try? The keys are four - a goal, a time frame, a plan and finally action.

| By Michael Strong, USAC Treasurer

---

Serra club ‘goes public’ in St. Charles, Mo.

The revitalized Serra Club of the St. Charles Deanery rebuilt its club by going public with a new personality. In less than a year, membership has gone from 11 members to 55. Leaders appealed directly to pastors, parishes, and the “Catholic public.” We have gone public, at least to the Catholics in St. Charles.

Our strategy was to let everyone know we are the Serra Club, not the Sierra Club . . . but especially that our club is about focusing on the Church’s serious situation of the priest shortage. Our insistence is that the laity and permanent deacons must get going to promote vocations. Our greatly stretched priests cannot do it alone. After all, it is our Church, too! With a handful of veteran Serrans who had struggled for a dozen years to keep alive a fledgling club in St. Charles, we audited our club’s potential. We saw that the 24 parishes in the St. Charles Deanery determined our boundaries.

The deanery consists of about 85,000 Catholics and over 17,000 pupils in elementary and secondary schools. Thousands more are in public schools. Currently 42 priests minister to this number. Promoting vocations to the ministerial priesthood to such a huge number was certainly a challenge. We needed many more Serrans. We began recruiting.

Fr. James Callahan, Dean of St. Charles and pastor of St. Cletus parish, serving over 2,200 parishioners, agreed to help. He wrote a letter to all the deanery pastors asking them to support the campaign. He told the pastors that the Serra club envisioned organizing a deanery-wide association of active lay people focusing on, praying for, and promoting vocations under the guidance of pastors and priests. This was a win/win proposal. As a result of his support, we have gotten 100 percent help from the parishes so far.

Our revitalized club often looks to the Serra Club of St. Louis next door. Chartered on May 24, 1944, their many years of Serra experience provide a lot for us to draw on. Our club meets monthly on a Saturday morning at one of our 24 parishes. We ask the pastor to host a breakfast meeting at his parish following the 8:00 a.m. Mass with parishioners. At the regular meetings in that parish’s facility, the pastor or associate serves as the program speaker. The talks by the pastors have focused on their own personal discernments and lives as priests. All have been outstanding, and often very moving. All seem to bring similar stories but each one is different and appealing.

Serrans really appreciate and react to our priests’ stories. Associate pastors are also invited to attend the meetings and talk about priestly life. In preparation for the meeting, the club sends out invitations to potential Serrans suggested by the pastor. Pastors have suggested hundreds of potential members. After our meetings we divide into two groups. Our Vice President of Membership, Deacon Don Schiffman, huddles with guests and answers any questions about membership while Vocations Vice President Tony Dunn talks to regular members about accomplishments and plans. One accomplishment he likes to talk about is how the Vocations Committee organized and promoted the “31 Club” program in one parish and got 407 individuals to promise one Mass a month each for vocations.

The St. Charles Deanery is but one of 10 deaneries in the archdiocese, but it is and very likely will continue to be the fasted growing area in the entire St. Louis Catholic church. We have the responsibility to work hard for vocations but we need to build a club that meets the needs of such a challenge. Last month, the USA Council of Serra International honored the St. Charles Serra Club at our regional convention in Davenport, Iowa, with two ribbons for our membership campaign. However, we are convinced that we have just begun to get the attention of the Catholic “public” and we have a long way to go. As Father Serra said, “Always forward, never back!”

by Deacon Russ Butler

---

What is District Governors Training like?  

Here’s a candid report on last year’s event:  I recently attended a meeting of Serra leaders from throughout the United States in Las Vegas, Nev. This was the annual district governor and regional directors seminar. There were about 50 people in attendance and the Friday through Sunday program was action-packed. No time for gambling or shows unless you chose to stay out very late! In my estimation, the main function of this meeting was and is to give knowledge, motivate and train our local, district, regional, and national U.S.A. Council leadership.

Bringing this information down to the local club level means bringing in new members, getting ALL members involved in our various activities so we retain membership, and replacing ourselves plus one so our clubs grow. Involved members become our future leaders. This means that each member who takes on the responsibility for some activity, be it a standing committee or any of the many other functions we do to pray, invite, encourage and affirm vocations to the priesthood and religious life, must encourage other members to work with them.

All committees must then meet at least occasionally to share ideas and give and accept responsibilities. One person may do the job very well, but what happens if he or she doesn’t train his or her successor? When members aren’t involved, they may lose interest – especially new members.

A story was told in Las Vegas that may best illustrate this point. A flock of geese have 71 percent more flying range than a single goose flying alone. When the lead goose tires, it falls back in formation and another goose takes the lead and this continues until they reach their destination.

Another interesting fact is that when a goose is injured or sick, two other geese go to the ground with it until it recovers or dies. God continually amazes me with how Mother Nature works. Maybe this is why Jesus says, “where two or three are present, I am there with you.”

The USA Council of Serra feels that one of the most important events Serra clubs hold each year is its Spring Leadership Planning Conference. This is the time when we can begin to work together as a region, share ideas and train people for their upcoming offices. All our newly elected officers should plan to attend these important meetings, or if this is impossible, have a representative attend for you! 

---By Dan Jones, Serra Club of Portland President, reprinted from the April 2004 edition of the Serra Club of Portland Bulletin

---

Are You? 

Are you an active member, the kind that would be missed?

Or are you content just to know that your name is on the list?

Do you attend meetings and mingle with the flock?

Or do you stay away and criticize and knock?

Do you take an active part to help the cause along?

Or are you satisfied to be the kind that just belongs?

Do you ever push the cause along and make things really tick?

Or leave the work to just a few, and then call them the clique?

Some come to meetings and help with hand and heart.

Don’t just be a member, but take an active part.

Think this over, friend, you know right from wrong. Be an active member; do not just belong!

Return to Top

---