National Council of the United States
Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Inc.
Official Minutes of the 2016 Midyear
Business Meeting
St. Louis, MO April 23, 2016
The National Midyear Business meeting of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul National Council of the United States was opened with a prayer by President Sheila Gilbert in St. Louis, Missouri at 9:00 am CDT. Board members present included Margarita Galindo, Mike Nizankiewicz, Dave Barringer, Barbara Slaven, Bill Migley, Brian O'Donnell, Dick Reimbold, Patricia Sickinger, Bill Henckler, Mike Pazzaglini, Ralph Hassel, Ray Sickinger, Tom Fahl, Jack Murphy and Dom Visco. Absent board members were Ben Vaissade, Ron Guz, Richard Morin, Linda Strasburg and Jeanne Harper.
ITEM: President’s Report Sheila Gilbert
· Sheila introduced Al Bannon, National Council Member - Diocese of Pittsburgh and Andrew Hoerner, National Council Member - Diocese of Sioux Falls who relayed the story of how we are One Society. In South Dakota we want to say thank you to the Diocese of Pittsburgh who supported us financially with the Native Americans in our Diocese. In turn, our Sioux Falls Council will be financially supporting our newest Council in Rapid City.
· Prayers are requested for Ben Vaissade, Jeanne Harper and Ron Guz, Board members who have had surgery recently. We also ask for prayers of kindness for Richard Morin and his wife Pauline; Richard has been placed on hospice care.
· International Presidential Elections will take place in June in Rome. Renato Lima de Oliveira and Maria Geralda Ferreira, both of Brazil, are the candidates. Maria is the Brazil National President, one of the largest councils with twice the membership as the United States. There is also a resolution to be voted on to try to get the canonical status of the Society reestablished, which was established in 1926. Since then Canon Law was revised and that status was not included. We have been operating on the assumption that our status is still there which guarantees our independence from the church in everything except morals. It needs to be approved by the Vatican, after approval by the International Council.
· Sheila reported that there are 122 National Council Members, with 88 Council Members/Proxies present, which exceeds the number required for a quorum. The New Council Members and Proxies introduced themselves:
New Council Members / ProxyDiocese
Mark Schwartz / Diocese of Rapid City / Todd Coulter / Diocese of Biloxi
Crystal Chatelain / Diocese of Baton Rouge / Rosario M. Klude / Diocese of El Paso
Ed West / Diocese of Tucson / Ron Costanzo / Diocese of Oakland
Steve Meaney / Diocese of Fall River / Robert Zabloudil / Diocese of Columbus
Pauline Manalo / Archdiocese of Baltimore / Rita Peters / Archdiocese of Omaha
Jim Gauntt / Archdiocese of Seattle / Mary Ann Hunter / Diocese of Phoenix
Jim Alphonso / Diocese of Fargo / Lynn Tracy / Diocese of Superior
Peter McDowel / Diocese of Evansville / Jim Hafenstein / Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Robert Meekins / Diocese of Rockville Centre / David DiPietro / Diocese of Green Bay
Judy Marquie / Diocese of San Diego / Charles Mazza / Archdiocese of Indianapolis
Bob Hagan / Archdiocese of Louisville / Maria Simmons / Diocese of Orange
Tom Mittler / Diocese of Tyler / Jim Werle / Archdiocese of Miami
Bart O’Leary / Diocese of St. Augustine
Mark Bataillon / Archdiocese of Atlanta
Brendan Butler / Diocese of Sacramento
Unrepresented Councils
1
April 23, 2016
ADCC of BostonADCC of Mobile
ADCC of San Francisco
ADCC of St. Paul Minneapolis
Diocese of Albany
Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown
Diocese of Charleston
Diocese of Charlotte
Diocese of Gaylord
Diocese of Grand Rapids
Diocese of Great Falls-Billings
Diocese of Honolulu
Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux
Diocese of Jefferson City
Diocese of Knoxville
Diocese of Lafayette
Diocese of Lexington
Diocese of Little Rock
Diocese of Metuchen
Diocese of Monterey
Diocese of Nashville
Diocese of Orlando
Diocese of Palm Beach
Diocese of Puerto Rico
Diocese of Saginaw
Diocese of San Bernardino
Diocese of Santa Rosa
Diocese of Spokane
Diocese of Stockton
Diocese of Wichita
Diocese of Youngstown
1
April 23, 2016
1
April 23, 2016
ITEM: The Consent Agenda, including Minutes of the 2015 National Assembly Business Meeting was moved, seconded and approved.
ITEM: Treasurer’s Report Mike Nizankiewicz/Tom Pelger
· We really miss Richard Morin, he was a great asset to the Society and helped us convert to accrual based accounting. The February financials were prepared by Laura and Mary, and reviewed by Mike Nizankiewicz, Dave Barringer and Richard Morin. A thorough Audit was completed in time for this meeting with the help of a revitalized Audit committee, including the nephew of Terry Wilson a forensic auditor. Mike Nizankiewicz, Sheila Gilbert, Ben Vaissade, Althea Graham, Bill Henckler and Tom Pelger, participated in the December Budget meeting, thinking outside the box.
· In terms of the balance sheet the total assets are just over $6 million; current liabilities just over $6 million. We are just north of $300,000 to the good over last year.
· We are very happy with the $800,000 gain in investments since we transferred our account to Buckingham in 2010.
· Development income is up; solidarity income has continued to grow.
· We reviewed the budget results from early operations. The Board approved moving $300,000 out of reserves to accelerate completion of the strategic plan goals in the next eighteen months.
· National staff is at 20 full time employees with one part time accounting assistant. No increase in personnel next year is foreseen at this time.
· The solidarity plan we put in process has been adequately funding what we need to do.
ITEM: Resolution 132A Amend the 2015-2016 Budget
Resolution was motioned, seconded, and approved with one abstention. Going forward the Council will be kept informed of the budget adjustments.
ITEM: Resolution 136 Approve the 2016-2017 Budget
Resolution was motioned, seconded and approved.
ITEM Governance Report Tom Fahl
· The Governance Committee has striven to get Society governance organized and easier to manage. If you have good governance, all of it will fall into place. Your meeting registration packet included information regarding good governance. There is a Governance Training DVD available for $10, which covers legal structures, board responsibilities, audits, IRS, board duties, etc. The Q & A in the EGazette and the Governance in a Box on the website are good resources to help you with governance.
· One topic the committee is working on is enforcing our logo, name and trademarks. If you are aware of other organizations using our name, please let us know. If we don’t defend our trademark we will lose it.
· We are looking at Part III of the Rule and Bylaws to make changes. Please let us know if you have any issues we should be aware of.
ITEM: Resolution 26A Conciliation Process
Resolution was motioned and seconded.
· The appellate procedure lacked clarity. There are two functions, separate and distinct. The Conciliation Committee acts like a mediation group with proposed solutions and also makes recommendations to the National President. It is an appellate tribunal, if they are suspended they have the right to appeal. Conciliation can affirm or not affirm the suspension. Those are the basic ways that the conciliation process works. The first two pages of the original Resolution in April 2007 are unchanged. The changes are under Policy On Conciliation.
· Amendments were made and seconded:
· Paragraph 1 add the word “made” by National Council President.
· Paragraph 1 under Policy on Conciliation, add the phrase “or when there has been an appeal of a suspension made by the National President.”
· Paragraph 2 amend to read “The purpose of the conciliation process is to review, collect information and (a) recommend to the National President and those involved in the conflict the most appropriate resolution of the matter and to engage all the affected parties in a reconciliation process that will lead to the improved functioning of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and its ability to carry out its mission or (b) to rule on an appeal of a suspension.
· Paragraph 4 amend to read “Use of the Conciliation process should be undertaken only (a) after all reasonable efforts have been exhausted at the local level to resolve the matter or (b) when there has been an appeal of a suspension.”
Postponement of the Resolution until a visual of the suggested amendment could be provided to the Council for clarification was seconded and approved. After viewing the changes the amendment was approved.
Resolution 26A was approved as amended.
ITEM: Resolution 139 Voice of the Poor Immigration Position Paper
Resolution was motioned, seconded and approved.
ITEM: Resolution 140 Guidelines for Donations and Relationships
Resolution was motioned, seconded and approved: with 49 aye, 12 opposed and 16 abstentions.
· A typo should be corrected to move the phrase “Accepting the gift would or would likely cause scandal…” to a different bullet level.
· Major donations are $2500 or more.
ITEM: Youth Start Up Kits Suzanne Markiewicz
· Suzanne introduced Julie Swanger, Membership Services Administrative Associate. The National Youth Committee was set challenging but attainable goals to expand the Society for grade school and high school youth.
· The committee has been meeting every week since January. Our first order of business was to create a Startup Youth Kit to help you get started. Our next project is a revised Youth handbook.
· We are planning a national youth gathering at the National Assembly in Columbus, including formation, video skyping, participating in the general assembly at key note speeches, Mass and the banquet. Ohio has more SVDP youth groups than any other state in the country so we are expecting a large youth turnout. You can still be a part of this; we invite you to think about sponsoring youths to the assembly. To insure success of the expansion of Youth conferences we need a youth contact person for every conference.
ITEM: Presidential Election Process Jim Dodd
· Election Committee includes myself, Ben Vaissade, Eva Pereira, Jack Murphy, Mike Pazzaglini, Pat Sickinger, Don Kany, Ann Schorno, Fidelis d’Cunha, Bill Henckler, Bill Soucie, Joe Manogue, and Melanie Anguay.
· A previously approved Resolution 131 moved the time table schedule for the election back to enable whoever is elected time to get their administration in order.
· Pam Hudson has sent out the Call for Nominations email and can be contacted if you have any questions. June 13 is the deadline for submissions of nominations.
· Qualifications for a Presidential candidate include: Catholic, active SVDP, non-clergy, cannot be working for SVDP with no remuneration. If they are married, they have to have the signature of their spouse indicating their approval. A Council can nominate more than one nominee who does not need to be a member of the nominating council.
· June 20 the qualifications of the candidates will be reviewed to confirm they meet the eligibility requirements.
· A candidate’s reception will be held at the National Assembly. The number of candidates will be reduced to two.
· To vote, the ballot must have two signatures besides the National Council Member’s.
· January 23, 2017 the ballots will be counted in St. Louis by Ben Vaissade, Sheila Gilbert, Dave Barringer and one independent observer. If there is a tie, sealed envelopes containing the committee votes will be opened.
· The results of the election will be reported in the E-Gazette on January 26th. The elected President will be introduced at Midyear.
· There is a requirement of five years of service to be a Formator, is there a requirement for President? Not in the qualifications list.
· Pray about it if you think you are being called. If you see someone who would be a good candidate, speak up, say something to them. Encourage them to allow their names to be put forward. Pray and be open to the Spirit and allow Him to be open to you.
ITEM: Culture Transformation Launch Sheila Gilbert/David Barringer
· As we have gone through the culture transformation process, we have identified four key results based on our cultural beliefs:
1. Increase our membership. We want to expand from 96,000 members to 250,000. To determine what this means to your Council, just multiply your membership by 2.5. Increase and grow conferences 2.5 times. What do you want your Council to look like? Do we want it to look like us, white and over the age of 65, or made up 20, 30, 40, or 50 year olds with cultural diversity? You will not recruit a 20 year-old the same way you are recruiting retirees. Look at what the church says about the demographics in your area and set that as your percentage. Try to be strategic, doing things differently than what has been done in the past.
2. Increase the number of Councils and Conferences using Systemic Change strategies from 20% to 80%. The concept of mentoring and training may mean a lot of collaborating. Where are you right now? Is your community having an impact on poverty? How do you want to position your Conference in your community. In order for the impact to be significant, there needs to be some kind of planning. We will be a poverty leader in this country. The Holy Spirit will give us the grace to get this done. Look for the person who will lead you. Be awake and aware.