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The Serra Leader Spring 2006

Special Edition

How does Serra’s new policy affect you?
by USA Council President Don DeDecker

By now you've probably heard so much about Serra International's reorganizational plan for the councils and the USA Council's response to it that your head is spinning.

It would have been nice to be able to discuss the plan with the SI Board and come to some kind of understanding or conclusion before mobilizing our communications vehicles and staff to get the news to all of you. But a joint meeting could not be arranged right away due to various scheduling conflicts. (That meeting is now scheduled for May 20.)

Having received the news in January, I didn't want you to remain in the dark as I waited for such a meeting to convene. I'm glad I didn't. It is my responsibility, and my board's responsibility, to keep you informed of what could be a threat to our council and staff. I wanted to get the word out so that you could decide how you feel about it, formulate and ask relevant questions, and weigh options while there still might be room for action.

I also wanted you to know that we at the national level of leadership feel that our council's current structure is worth preserving. Despite the highest ideals and very best intentions, it is not difficult to understand why we feel that breaking up our council will diffuse some of the momentum we've worked so very hard to achieve.
Serrans in the field, in the USA and all over the world, will be the ones most affected by this policy change; and because it was passed as a policy change, that means that the SI board did not intend for any of us to have a vote in the matter.

How, exactly, will it affect you? I’d like to focus on something that will become immediately apparent: Serrans in the U.S. will lose its USA Council staff assistance in Chicago. These are the people you call to update your records or to request things like your tax-exempt ID number. This is the office that ships the merchandise you order, gets the right kind of logo to your printer, and custom-makes certificates for club awards ceremonies. This is the office you call when you need advice starting a new club or designing your club website. Well, Ed, Jan, Peter, Anne and Pat’s duties are to be assumed by Serra International’s office (also in Chicago), including new hires and volunteers. Our www.serraus.org website will likely disappear, as will this newsletter and the serraUSA magazine. The USAC staff coordinates the meetings of our council’s committees -- committees who have worked together with our staff for over a decade to put us on the map as a significant vocations presence in this country. Those dedicated Serrans will need to find a new way to facilitate their work, as the staff was very involved in executing committee-directed projects. National vocations organizations like the NCCV or NCDVD, who have come to rely on the USA Council staff’s assistance, will have to form new relationships with a new staff.

The SI Board has provided very little nuts and bolts information regarding exactly how the new structure will work and why it is so desperately needed. This alone should be cause for trepidation. And frankly, some of the reasoning SI offers - specifically, claims that they can't manage their financial affairs because we are withholding money from them - make our council and staff look dishonest.

There is no use arguing this point back and forth in any fashion, because the bottom line is that numbers don't lie. The USA Council staff's books are audited yearly and are open for review anytime to prove that we have never withheld money due to SI. We not only welcome but we encourage a third-party auditing of both our books and SI's to clear up this matter.

You've heard enough from me on this topic, both here and in personal letters. The rest of this issue of the Serra Leader is dedicated to the thoughts and opinions of others on our USA Council board. I hope you will read them and consider them carefully as you form your own views on this situation, which does affect you. I also hope that you will support our council in its attempt to preserve its staff and structure by voting FOR our amendment to block SI's policy change at the delegates' meeting at the international convention in Spokane. I respect your opinion, whether it agrees with mine or not. Thank you for all you do for Serra.

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Lawful or unlawful?
SI's attempt to disestablish the USA Council
by Ernest Doclar, President-elect-elect

Leaders of your USA Council of Serra are still scratching our gray heads in wonderment. We're trying to figure out why our father organization, Serra International, feels it is necessary to enact such drastic changes as it has regarding USAC structure. These changes are those that you have been reading and hearing about for the past several months. Further, we wonder if the changes offered by the SI Long-Range Planning Committee (from now on referred to as LRPC) and passed by the SI executive board were approved lawfully. We think they were not.

First, some background:
The USA Council was legitimately established in 1994 under the terms of Serra International's bylaws Article IX. It is our contention that to be able to change our legitimate establishment would take an amendment to that effect or to show cause for reorganization/disestablishment. Such an amendment has not been offered. And, if we go by the bylaws, there should be only one justification for SI’s new plan: That "…such council is not conducting its activities in accordance with the duly adopted constitution and bylaws of such council." That justification has never been alleged.

But the real sticking point is that the LPRC report passed by a majority of the SI board was a change to policy, not a bylaws amendment as it should have been. We contend that the reason for trying to change policy is that an amendment that would disestablish the USA Council as we know it would not have passed when submitted to a convention vote. And that the only way SI could effect the changes it seems to desire regarding the USA Council would be to change policy. We further contend that bylaws supersede policy and since there was no bylaws change, the LRPC action passed by the SI board is null and void.

If you saw SI President Dennis Leiber's LRPC Power Point presentation, you may remember Slide No. 4. It supposedly offered legitimacy to SI's action to establish new councils in the USA to supplant present USA Council structure. It refers to Article VI, Sec. 1, of SI bylaws which says: "The [SI] board of trustees shall divide the member clubs into districts and shall determine district boundaries." As you see, this passage has to do with districts, not councils. There is no mention of the right of the SI board to form councils as it has proposed in the LRPC changes of Jan. 14, 2006.

Finally, another reference to Article IX of SI bylaws: Provision is made here of the ability of "…Serrans or the Serra clubs in any particular country…" to create Serra councils. There is NO provision for the Serra International board itself to create Serra councils as it has announced that it intends to do.

As you have seen, the three instances above show Serra International flouting its own bylaws. It cannot do so without the proper, legal steps being taken. If the above matters arise on the floor of the Spokane convention, we hope that you will consider all of the above and other facts in deciding whether the USA Council as we know it lives or dies.

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New Serra policy increases district governor duties
by Betty Monaghan, USAC Communications Vice President

Having served my term as district governor, I would like to reflect a little, and share with you the challenge of that office. Like many officers in Serra, I did my stint while holding down a full-time management position, keeping up a home, a busy life with my family, and my parish work.

I agree that the role of the district governor is very important to the health, vitality, and maintenance of Serra clubs, in the USA Council and everywhere else in our organization. As District 46-E Governor,I was responsible for 13 clubs in four dioceses, in two states, with many miles of travel in very big, busy cities. Getting to meetings with Serra clubs in heavy traffic time was a challenge in itself, especially after a full day of work. Each club invites the district governor to attend their special programs, like dinners with altar servers, priests, and liturgy events.

The district governor is expected to visit each club to review the vocation work they do, give talks, and evaluate the general health of the club. You attend bimonthly district meetings. You prepare, manage, keep, and submit records. Attendance at the spring governors training is a must. Add to that participation at a regional conventions as well as a long weekend for the Serra International convention. WOW! The result is a mighty schedule.

If the SI Long-Range Planning Committee's policy changes come to fruition, the number of clubs for each district governor to manage could double, triple, or quadruple. In addition, the DG would be expected to be an officer on one of the five or six new councils to be formed. This comes down to so many, many more miles to travel, endless numbers of meetings, records, and reports and all this for a two-year term. These obligations come on top of your personal job, family, hobbies, and other duties.

In my view, even a retired person accepting the office of a governor under this new arrangement could not handle all of it. Elimination of our dedicated staff, as indicated in the LRPC report, could only compound matters. A retired man or woman still has a family and another life outside of Serra.

Serra International Board, we in the USA Council have operated successfully for some 14 years. We are not broken. We don't need fixing. Let us sit down like good Catholics and work through the issues facing USAC and SI so we can fulfill our mission and objectives.

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Clarifying some cloudy statements from the Serra International Board and its Long-Range Planning Committee
by Patricia DeJarnett Carden, Incoming USA Council Vocations Vice President

Much frustration and concern has occurred within our USA Council since the Jan. 13, 2006, Serra International Board meeting where the decision was made to dissolve the USA Council as we know it. Having arrived in San Diego for a Serra International Convention Committee meeting following the SI Board meeting, I have experienced these uneasy feelings right from the beginning.

Since then, my initial reaction to the news has not changed. This was an emotional decision on the part of the Serra International Board. When I first heard the news, I was asked not to tell anyone until SI President Dennis Leiber could tell USAC President Don DeDecker about it. This request, which came from an SI board member, certainly piqued my curiosity about how the decision was made. Would one board actually make a decision about restructuring a council without involving the board of the said council? The unfortunate answer to that question is yes.

Having made a decision based on emotions, not facts, the Serra International Board is now trying to justify that decision with faulty logic and half-truths. The following are examples of where one must question their logic and sincerity.

Dennis Leiber, in his address to district governors/regional directors: “…Crockett, DeNike and Plaia (past presidents of USAC) gave thoughtful and prayerful consideration to the status of proceedings as they were and wrote a report that was taken very seriously by the Long-Range Planning Committee.”

^ One might read this statement to mean that the people mentioned above supported the LRPC’s recommendation. The report referred to did not support the recommendation. In fact, along with other board members from the US, these past presidents of the USA Council voted against the proposal.

Dennis Leiber, in his address to district governors/regional directors: “You may be asking yourself, ‘What is this restructuring going to look like?’ And I have to tell you: I don’t know.”

^ One must respond with shock to that answer. Was a feasibility study not completed prior to this decision? Was a cost analysis done? This is one thing the SI board is being honest about, and it appears the honest answer is that they have applied no practical analysis to this action!

Dennis Leiber, in his address to district governors/regional directors: “In addition, all of these papers … were also shared with Justin Cardinal Rigali. … His Eminence knew exactly what was being done.”

^ His Eminence also stated that “the more we fragment the organization, the more difficult it will be for Serra to be effective.” In breaking our one large council in six smaller ones, isn’t the Serra International board doing exactly that -- fragmenting? In a conversation with Bishop Cupich, Cardinal Rigali said that he hoped Serra International would proceed slowly and with caution because it will be much more difficult to put Serra back together than it will be to break it apart. Cardinal Rigali may have known exactly what was going on, but what Leiber fails to mention is that his Eminence also voiced his caution and even disapproval of the policy change advocated by the SI board.

Dennis Leiber, in video on Serra International website: “USAC, over the past three years, has been chronically late in remitting these semi-annual payments due to Serra International. … How much is the arrearage? Well, as of March 18… The closer figure is $100,000.”

^ Of course, all Serrans in the US will react with shock and embarrassment to this statement. The truth is that an arrearage does not exist. This is supported by annual independent audits of the USA Council finances.

Darryl Ross, in video on Serra International website: “Well, in fact, Serra Councils, USAC, for instance, is part of the total Serra International picture. Because Serrans, from around the world, most of them are parts of Serra councils. But all those councils constitute the entire Serra International organization. These wrong perceptions are what we need to correct in our organization of Serra, so Serrans everywhere know, no matter whether they are parts of councils, whether they are United States, or Brazil, or Thailand, or Canada, whatever they may be, we are all part of the total Serra International group, an organization to help further, as a lay apostolate, further our church’s goals in bringing more vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.”

^ “Wrong perceptions?” Every Serran knows that the USA Council is a part of Serra International. We pay $28 per year of our dues to Serra International. Our membership pins and cards say we belong to Serra International.

From the Long Range Planning Committee presentation: “Serra must meet the needs of a world with a changing landscape and emerging technology.”

^ One must question what exactly this has to do with restructuring councils or how restructuring councils will have any effect upon or be affected by emerging technology.

From the Long Range Planning Committee presentation: “The LRPC reached consensus that Serra must: … Mirror the organization of the Universal Church by having Serra district boundaries coincide with diocesan boundaries.”

^ In the USA Council’s case, it already coincides with diocesan boundaries. The USA Council organizes itself according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 14 regions, for which diocesan boundaries are the guide.

From the Long Range Planning Committee PowerPoint: “Any restructuring (of the councils) must achieve the following: … A broader representation on the SI board.”

^ According to the SI Policy Manual, the USA Council already has at least 6 representatives on the board. Thus the restructuring, which gives us one representative per new council formed, may not have any effect on our representation.

As a member of Serra International, I am personally embarrassed that our internal bickering was made public and that emotion, faulty logic, and half-truths were placed on the Serra International web page. It appears that the decision to restructure the USA Council was based on a new management principle a pundit calls EOE -- Egos, Opinions and Emotions.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide Serra in our further negotiations and that our organization can go forward to promote our mission. Blessed Junipero Serra, pray for us.

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Performance and Documentation vs Emotions and Egos
by Doug McRoy, Incoming USA Council Programs Vice President

Most Serra members I have known through my own club, members I have met through the position of district governor and regional director, and Serrans who are members and work on our national committees, are very dedicated to our Serra mission. To paraphrase that mission, we are all about fostering and promoting all vocations; affirming and supporting our clergy, religious and all those who help, right down to our parish altar servers; and we are very aware that our own faith can be very much enhanced through prayer and Serra involvement.

These activities and responsibilities, with possibly the exception of prayer, are best done in groups with like-minded people sharing roles and communicating with one another. It is difficult to do this job alone -- hence the need for Serra clubs! This concept can be taken further by realizing that one Serra club can benefit greatly by being involved with other Serra clubs certainly in nearby areas, but also throughout the country.
Many of our clubs face similar challenges. Many clubs are graying. Some smaller clubs need to recycle their officers, and this often leads to the lack of creativity. To help rise to these challenges, it is my opinion that strong involvement by many clubs in district and regional activities, united by a strong national council, is mandatory for our clubs' success.

Our Serra USA Council and its staff’s performance and activities are well documented. Staff assistance and information is always available to our clubs: live help is just a phone call away; Serrans visiting the www.serraus.org website find it full of relevant, useful and current information; up-to-date manuals exist (downloadable for free on the website) for every Serra officer position; and printed help and instructions are available on Serra activities such as hosting a convention, building a new club and many others. To further facilitate the spread of information, our council's officers, committee members and staff make personal visits to various Serra conventions and meetings to pass on ideas and recommendations that the national committees put forward.

The overall purpose of a Serra council, I believe, is to support the clubs. It is the prime function of the local club to make vocation activities work. A strong club needs to have membership growth and retention, well-prepared and worthwhile programs to foster attendance at meetings, and well-established Programs and Communications committees for everyone's benefit. It is hard for me to imagine success in these areas without a central source.

If we depend on the Serra International Board to replace our USA Council board and staff with a group of two-year term district governors, volunteers, and new staff unaccustomed to the ins and outs of Serra clubs and the Serra year, this seems overly positive at best and terribly naive at worst.

The USA Council's has established a proven track record in effectively and efficiently providing the aforementioned help to Serrans nationwide. The rapport our council leaders and staff have established with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other national vocations organizations is a tremendous benefit to our success and mission.
SI President Dennis Leiber’s remarks at the SI website have raised questions about the financial responsibility of our council. All Serrans should know that the financial records of your council are available for review and they are made available several times during the Serra year. The USA Council's financials are audited once a year, and have been every year since the Council's inception. There is no money being withheld by your council that belongs to Serra International, nor has there ever been. All dues received are disseminated on a monthly basis so the portion of your dues that is earmarked for Serra International is received regularly. The fact that Serra clubs have been invoiced does not create an accounts receivable balance for Serra International owed by any council.

In conclusion, I would ask all Serrans to review and research what is available to you in forms of official records and your own personal experiences with the USA Council staff and anything else that can be established as fact. Put no stock in gossip, half-truths and desires for power based on emotional appeals by some! The report by the Serra International Long-Range Planning Committee, in my opinion, is just that. Not only has it appeared out of the blue, but there are no concrete, identifiable reasons nor plans for what they say their goals are.

May we settle this matter in service to Mary, Mother of Vocations, and the work we all strive to do.

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A proposal from USA Council President-elect Gary Davis

The January announcement that Serra International had taken action, by a narrow margin, that would result in the demise of the United States of America Council, the elimination of its Chicago office, and the creation of five or six mini-councils "staffed" with volunteers, was a surprise and a great shock to Serrans in the United States, especially the many Serrans who have worked long and hard to make USAC the effective organization that it is today.

Many Serrans wanted to know the reasons for the Serra International Board's action. The response was that the board was enacting recommendations made in a report of the Serra International Long-Range Planning Committee. However, a review of that committee's work reveals that the report does not support, in any significant way, the action that was taken by the SI Board.

As a result, at its late January Super Weekend the USAC Board unanimously passed a resolution rejecting the Serra International Board's action and requested that the Serra International Board rescind its action.

Further, at the district governor training meeting in February in Kansas City, after viewing a DVD furnished by Serra International promoting the changes, a future district governor, on his own initiative, circulated his own handwritten petition in support of USAC and its Chicago staff in opposition to the intended Serra International action. Almost all of the attendees signed the petition.

At the Serra International convention this summer in Spokane, the delegates will be asked to vote on an amendment co-sponsored by USAC, districts, and clubs that would substantially limit the ability of the Serra International Board to take such unilateral action in the future without providing a fair hearing to a council, based on a specific standard for the action.

This amendment would also have the effect of making the January Serra International Board action null and void.

Needless to say, the action of Serra International in passing its resolution and the reaction of a proposed convention amendment would be a divisive one, although a necessary one if an effective Serra is to be preserved.

In the closing moments of the district governor training meeting in Kansas City, one of the attendees asked that since open lines of communications are important between district governors and others, "Why don't Serra International and USAC communicate with each other?"

These were wise words and they offer a challenge to both USAC and SI.
I, for one, will take up that challenge when I assume the position of USAC president at the convention this summer. I know that those who have come before me and that those who are likely to come after me feel similarly.

Therefore, I propose the following:

1. That the Serra International Board take immediate action to rescind its resolution of January, 2006; halt implementation of the report of its Long Range Planning Committee; and agree not to take up the topic for a three-year period of time.

2. In response USAC will agree that its proposed amendment be tabled for a period of three years.

3. In the meantime, the two parties will agree to appoint a Joint Conference and Communications Committee made up of the immediate past president, the president, and the president-elect together with one additional board member for each. The JCCC will meet not less than four times per year, at least two of which will be in-person meetings in Chicago. Others meetings may take place via teleconference, satellite or web conferencing.

4. The JCCC shall explore actions which will benefit Serra International and USAC in encouraging and supporting vocations throughout the United States and the world. It shall focus on collaborative efforts to increase effectiveness and efficiency and to promote collaboration and cooperative activities in fostering the purposes of Serra.

The point is that both Serra International and the United States of America Council must begin immediately to foster an open and earnest dialogue that will rejuvenate Serra as a whole, and enable all of Serra to carry out its goals. We owe it to ourselves as Serrans to fulfill Serra's mandate and this is the time to accomplish that objective.

ALWAYS GO FORWARD--NEVER TURN BACK.

Blessed Junipero Serra, pray for us!

Sincerely,

Gary A. Davis
President-elect
United States of America Council of Serra International

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