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The Serra Leader Winter 2005

The simple ministry of invitation

by USA Council President Don DeDecker

First, I’d like to wish an early Happy New Year to all you loyal Serrans!

Our Serran year still has six months to go and I want to ask each and every one of you to help our great organization swell its ranks by getting out and bringing in new members. Serra is a sleeping giant. It's the greatest secret in the Catholic Church. Let's be visible in our church activities, like our fellow Knights are. Spreading public awareness of our mission and work can only help to attract joyous new members to our organization.

How long has it been since you brought a guest to a meeting or even signed up a new member? I was speaking on this topic at a club meeting recently and an older member came up to me afterward and said, "We all should bring in our replacement before we die." I don’t think our situation is quite that dire, but his humor really stuck with me. Death isn’t exactly my favorite motivator, but it is true that we need new members if we want Serra’s work to continue.

Why are you a Serran? Why did you join Serra? Who asked you to join? Would you have joined if you hadn't been invited?

Not too long ago, I brought in a new member. He is a lector in our parish and is in his forties. We were having lunch and I said, "Bill, do you know what Serra is?" "I think so,” he said. "So why aren't you a Serran?" I asked. His reply was, "Nobody asked me."
Much like the Catholic vocations we exist to support, to be a Serran, too, is a calling. We often hear of priests who didn't seriously consider the priesthood until someone suggested it to them. It is just the same with some of the potential Serrans out there.

Don't be afraid to simply invite someone to join; you may have found the person who was just waiting to be asked!

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Who wants to be on your team?

To attract and keep winning members, keep your club in all-star condition

by Ed Husler,
USAC Membership Committee

Remember the sometimes brutal practice of “choosing teams” during childhood phys ed? Every potential player in the line crossed his or her fingers and prayed not to be humiliated by being picked last.

But suppose that you could choose what team you want be on instead of the other way around.

And suppose Team A has nice new uniforms, accomplished players, a positive team ethic and several trophies in a case. Plus they go out for a well-earned pizza after daily practice.

Team B, on the other hand, has shabby uniforms, if they remember to wear them at all. They’ve got one or two players who do all the work and know it; a few players who hardly ever show up to practice, and several others who just criticize everyone else. If they have any trophies they’re from years ago when they were a different team altogether. And don’t even ask about pizza.

In the world of volunteer organizations, new members get to choose what team they would like to join. Is your Serra club more like Team A, mentioned above, or Team B?

Stock your trophy case by focusing on Serra’s mission.

In order to attract new members and keep the members they have, a club must display vitality and be able to show that it has completed worthwhile accomplishments. People join and stay in organizations that strive to complete the work they believe in. If a club has little to show for, that club will be hard pressed to convince people to get excited about joining (or staying). A good, long, honest evaluation of your own club should tell you whether or not you are in the game or sitting on the sidelines.

Most people, especially younger people, are far too busy to join another socially oriented club that does not actively strive to solve society and/or church problems. Most people have far more things to do than they can comfortably accomplish and priorities must be set. These priorities are usually set unconsciously by the pressing needs of family, etc. But people will adjust their priorities if they feel their membership will be worthwhile as far as doing good works for the church and if they feel they can make a difference. The internet and TV rob so much of our time and it takes a strong incentive to pull us away from these daily entertainment routines. If a club can gain high visibility especially in churches and church-related activities, and show that it has completed many worthwhile deeds, more people will want to become active members. This will also help in creating new clubs because these active clubs can be used as examples when talking to the potential members of a proposed club.

Encourage bona fide teamwork.

Too many clubs, whether they are fraternal, business related, or other, tend to fall into a mode of being mostly socially oriented and end up with a few people who do all the work. Around this dynamic, sometimes cliques are formed. These cliques tend to ignore input from newer members or members whose ideas do not seem to fit their thinking, resulting in disgruntled members who will probably leave because they feel their ideas do not matter. The clique mentality also leads to crusty, dated club programs with no opportunity for fresh ideas in sight because no one is allowed to have a crack at the job. Naturally, this affects the club’s membership potential as a whole, because stale programs are not exactly attractive to potential members.

As if all this weren’t bad enough, members who do all the work (whether it’s because no one else wants to help or because the workers refuse it) tend to get “burned out” and lose enthusiasm. With no relief waiting in the wings, suddenly club operations come to a halt. This is a crisis that can be averted. You just have to be astute enough to see it coming and brave enough to point it out.

Don’t waste all that work you did recruiting new players just to have them warm the bench!

Another well publicized problem is losing new members, usually in the first couple of years. For example, when I was much younger, I joined an organization because of aggressive recruiting and good salesmanship. I later dropped out because I felt that I was getting nothing from my dues. The organization had good goals and accomplishments but I never found out enough about them because of lack of follow-up on my part and on the part of the people who recruited me. This is a common problem and many clubs tend to forget that new members can’t possibly know much about the club’s accomplishments, let alone higher levels of the organization. The onus of keeping them informed is on the club.

Sometimes new members don't show up at meetings because they feel awkward, especially if they haven't been exposed to the other members and customs of the club. Therefore it is critical that an existing experienced member “buddy up” with the new member for a few meetings, introduce them to the members, and get them involved in some meaningful way so the reasons that they joined can be fulfilled. Asking the individual at orientation what they would like to be involved in helps the officers know how to approach them to ask for help. A good start is to get them assigned as a co-chairman or committee member so that they can work with someone else and have time to learn about the assignments before taking on full responsibility.

Practice makes perfect. Invest time in crafting quality meetings.

Some new members leave because they come to a few poorly conducted meetings that are allowed to exceed the scheduled time and/or have no apparent goal. For people on tight schedules this is very important for obvious reasons. Committees should be formed to discuss and solve lengthy problems outside the main meeting to keep the meetings concise. As officiator, the president should be aware that he or she has to move the meeting along at all times and not allow it to be hijacked by any one topic.

In summary, a club that is dynamic, active and shows a record of worthwhile accomplishments will succeed in all facets of membership. None of these ideas are new and have been heard many times. The important thing is to keep a vigilant eye to spot these tendencies, act on the shortcomings, and constantly strive to be a better club. If, like a great sports team, the job is distributed among the many members, this is not a great burden and many of the membership problems will be resolved.

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Dear Peter...

Sound advice from USAC Membership Coordinator Peter Cunningham

Dear Peter,
Our club wants to invite Serrans who resigned to join us again. We no longer have their contact information. Can you help us?
---Welcome Back

Dear Welcome Back,
The USA Council of Serra International retains in its database current and past Serran membership records. We can query the database for inactive Serrans by club number, district or zip code and send you a report for those who have retired from your club. This report can include retired Serrans from other areas who have relocated to your area. However, once a member becomes inactive, we are unable to guarantee an up-to-date mailing address for them. Your “welcome back” program is wonderful idea; not only can it increase your membership, it is also great a way to renew old acquaintances and friendships.

Dear Peter,
When is the best time to nominate our district governor? We have always done it at our spring leadership and planning conference in April.
---Contemplating Nominating

Dear Nominating,
We need the names of your district governor and governor-elect now, in December (at the time of this printing), so we can prepare for the Training/Planning Conference in February. That means your district should have already nominated and selected your governor and governor-elect by now. The district governor’s term traditionally starts July 1. So, if you have always nominated your governor in April, that should work.

Some of you reading this may ask, “But do we really need a district governor-elect?” Well, yes, mainly because the governor’s job is no cake walk. The USA Council recommends that districts have both a district governor and district governor-elect serving simultaneously throughout the Serra year. This way, the governor-elect will have the opportunity to learn the ropes of the office by shadowing the currently serving governor.

This year, the District Governor and Regional Director Planning and Training Conference takes place in Kansas City, Mo., from Feb. 24-26. This session is a great opportunity to orient new district and regional leaders to what may seem to be the nebulous and daunting tasks of their office. We feel it is essential to the formation of an effective district governor or regional director. Don’t let your governor and governor-elect miss it!

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Boring but important:
Honoring consecrated and religious life

by Ed Verbeke, USA Council Executive Director

The Serra International Foundation gave a $5,000.00 grant to the USA Council's Vocation Committee to promote the National Coalition for Church Vocation’s National Vocation Awareness Week by providing planning kits free to any club that requested them. The response was exceptional! Hopefully, this will be the beginning of an ongoing campaign by our clubs.

Speaking of vocations awareness, the current Catholic Directory lists the following 2005 grand total statistics for the U.S.:

Diocesan Priests 28,826

Diocesan Seminarians 3,509

Religious Order Priests 14,520

Religious Seminarians 1,676

Brothers 5,517

Sisters 69,963

These data can be manipulated in many ways, but what is clear is that we have a very large number of men and women religious working in our dioceses and parishes. We sometimes forget that many of our parishes are staffed by priests from religious orders.

Now we are ready to offer you another parish planning opportunity. Many of you are aware that in 1997, Pope John Paul II called for consecrated life to be promoted throughout the universal church. He declared that February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord to be observed as the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. When February 2 is not a Sunday we celebrate it on the Sunday after the Presentation. That is why it falls on February 5 this year.

Buoyed by the success of the collaborative Vocation Awareness Week effort, the NCCV has prepared kits to assist in planning for the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. The USA Council has purchased some of these kits and can sell them to you for $3.00 each plus postage, a substantial discount of the ordinary price. These are available on a first-come, first- serve basis by e-mailing or calling our office.
So, what exactly is “consecrated life"? People living a consecrated life live in Christian community and dedicate themselves to God by their commitment to celibate chastity, poverty, and obedience.

Is consecrated life the same as “religious life”? Not exactly. Consecrated life has two components: religious life and secular institutes. Religious life is the term that we traditionally use for communities of sisters and monks or friars. Secular institutes were formed about 1948 for people to live unobtrusively in the midst of the secular world but still to live lives of celibate chastity, poverty, and obedience. Religious take vows of celibate chastity, poverty, and obedience. Persons in secular institutes usually make promises of celibate chastity, poverty, and obedience.

And, your parish can plan even further ahead in the national vocations calendar: In 1963 Pope Paul VI designated the Feast of the Good Shepherd as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It will be celebrated on May 7, 2006. The NCCV has produced planning kits for this day as well, and the USA Council has purchased some of these kits and can sell them to you for $3.00 each plus postage, again a substantial discount of the ordinary price. These are also available on a first come, first serve basis by emailing or calling our office.

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