Summary of the Remarks Recorded on Youtube At

April, 2016

SUMMARY OF THE REMARKS RECORDED ON YOUTUBE AT

https://youtu.be/hc3zyscv270.

To: All members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

From: Tom Fahl, Chair of the National Governance committee

I've been Chair of the National Governance Committee since shortly after Sheila Gilbert's term as National President began in October of 2011. And so in this capacity I address you about Governance. To some of you it's a foreign term. To others it's scary, and to still others it's boring. Maybe you even think it amounts to outsiders intruding on your business.

Governance, however, boils, down to this: Good organization while following a set of procedures such as The Rule of the Society, your Council or Conference Bylaws, the requirements of the IRS and Stale Governments. Also keep in mind all of those to whom we owe a responsibility, such as our bishops, our pastors and priests, our parish Councils, our donors, our employees and volunteers, and certainly our members and brother and sisters who come to us for help. I'll bet you can think of others. We accomplish this while seeing that our Mission and Essential Elements of spirituality, service and friendship remain in place.

The Governance Committee members have often commented that with good governance and good leadership - servant leadership I might add - everything else should fall into place. And so with this in mind we've focused on developing tools and initiatives to help you with good governance and leadership.

We recognize that there is often a problem getting members to step into leadership. Some members say "I'm just a Vincentian to serve the poor' and others say it takes too much time. We've put out a paper called "Who Me? Why in the World Should I Become a Vincentian Leader? “This discusses some to the objections. If one of our objectives is to promote spirituality, then consider that leadership offers a unique way of developing one's spirituality by serving other Vincentians so they can better serve the poor. As for the time commitment, consider that there is a need to delegate so that the work load is spread around. Take a look at our paper. It might just offer some insights into the benefits of and need for becoming a Vincentian leader.

We also recognize that there is a lack of succession planning in the Society. Leaders are often drafted at the last minute. Well, that's no way to run an organization. To address this we've developed a paper called "Succession Planning a Plan of Action.” * Here we offer ideas about how to make succession planning a reality in your Conference or Council. Share this with your membership.

·  Since the message was recorded, we’ve retitled this ‘Succession Planning – A Brief Primer

We are a Catholic lay organization and so we should all be committed to the power of prayer. Why not incorporate prayer into your leadership development and succession planning programs. We've incorporated prayers for your consideration as you discuss leadership and succession.

One objection to becoming a Vincentian leader is that members are concerned they won't be prepared or know what to do. With this in mind we've developed a Mentoring program for new Council Presidents as well as for new Executive Directors.

Mentoring will not only help new Council Presidents and new Executive Directors feel more comfortable as they move into their roles but it might just enhance your Council's ability to be successful in obtaining grant money as you demonstrate a higher degree of organization and efficiency.

We recognize that from time to time there are collaborative activities involving different Councils or a Conference and a Council, or even with another nonprofit organization. To lessen the prospect of misunderstandings we've put out a paper called "Rules of Engagement for Collaboration and Partnerships.” Please be aware of this and review it if you ever are considering or conducting an activity with another Vincentian or non-Vincentian group.

A while back a number of Executive directors came to the Board of the National Council to discuss their concerns and what they saw as shortcomings in the way many Councils operated. As a result of this we put together a paper called ''Council Presidents and Executive Directors, A Process for a Successful Partnership. "

We know that there are times when employees of the Society won't work out and that we'll need to part ways with them and terminate their employment. In order that you negate the risk of facing discrimination claims or claims of unfair practices we've developed a sample checklist for you to follow. Of course this will not replace the need for you to seek local legal advice.

We want to see good, knowledgeable leaders at all levels of the Society. One way of helping is by offering governance training to all present and future Council and Conference leaders from presidents and other officers to members of the boards of directors and committee members. While we can present this in person, a more cost effective way might be by self-schooling. With this in mind we've put out a Governance Training DVD. It is worth your while to view this and to ask that a Governance Committee member be available to field questions via a phone hookup. The DVD comes with a "How to Use" pamphlet. It's available to you for the low cost of $10.00 per DVD.

In order that Governance-related material is in one central location we've put together the Governance-in-a-Box site on the National Web Site. From the bar across the top when you go the www.svdpusa.org, click members and under documents find governance-in-a-box in the dropdown. We've made improvements so it is somewhat easy to use. We'll tell you what’s in each of the various categories and suggest what to look at depending on your position in the Society from Council president to Conference member.

If you've ever received the E-Gazette you know that there is a governance Q & A section. Well we've indexed these and saved back issues so that as questions come up you'll be able to learn if they've been previously addressed and hopefully be able to find answers quickly.

One other ongoing project as this is written is an effort to publish is the E-Gazette monthly governance-related themes. It started in January with discussing record organization and then moved to mentoring to Servant Leadership and to Succession Planning. This will continue throughout at least 2016 with a break in one or more of the summer months.

All of our initiatives are meant to help you as Vincentians, whether or not you are in leadership. Please take a look at these and ask your leadership teams and other Vincentians to review.

May God bless all of you in your Vincentian lives and Vincentian vocations.

Tom Fahl

National Governance Committee Chair

P.S. Please Note the following:

The material has a paper called Who Me? Why in the World Should I Become a Vincentian Leader? And separate Talking Points related to the paper. The reason for the Talking Points is to aid anyone who’d like to speak about the paper in addition to distributing it.

There are also separate Governance Talking Points. These are for use by those who do not have the equipment to show the YouTube video.

Lastly there is a Summary of the message on the YouTube video. This can be handed out to members so they can take the YouTube video message with them. It can be handed out whether the YouTube DVD is show or there is a separate presentation using the Talking Points

The goal is to make this as easy as possible for you to promote these initiatives. Remember that with good Servant Leadership and good Governance our mission, cultural beliefs, and essential elements should fall into place.

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