Keeping Up The Momentum
It takes renewed attention and imagination to maintain a thriving Leadership Night that involves some 45 people focusing on parish goals and action steps for the good of the parish.  The co-chairs and staff resource persons need to continually assess what will keep the process moving forward and the commission members energized.  Creating a positive image for commissions and setting up yearly traditions will help.
Maintain the Image
The ideal is that each key aspect of a Catholic parish – worship, community-building, formation, outreach and administration – has a coordinating and visioning group that provides a focus and structure to that critical area.  We call these organizing groups “commissions.”  Each commission not only connects with every group and ministry operating within its sphere, but also constructs goals and actions for what else is needed.  To be successful, parishioners must know what the commissions do and how this makes a difference in the parish.  People experience greeters at all the doors of every weekend liturgy as a result of the worship commission’s efforts.  Every newcomer is welcomed into the parish because of the community commission’s focus.  A new parish website is created by a communication committee which was formed by the administration commission.  The image of the commissions, in other words, is that they are doing worthwhile work for the good of the parish.  Parishioners know who are on the commissions and what good things they are accomplishing.   

Yearly Traditions
Gathering of Ministers:  Throughout the year key events take place that keep the commissions operating at full potential.  One event is a gathering of those who are active in any ministry, committee or group.  They assemble each year for an overview of how the parish structure works and then divide into the commission areas to learn what has been accomplished, what is being planned for the coming year and to nominate people from the ministries and parish groups to serve on the commissions.  At the next Leadership Night, with the list of nominees in hand, each commission discerns who the new members will be based on a balanced roster of men/women, old/young, new and seasoned parishioners.  The new candidates meet with those they will be replacing for an orientation session.  They go through the Covenant Booklet (leadership manual) about how the structure works and what will be expected of them as members of a commission.

Evaluation and Goal-setting Meeting:  All those on commissions, including those who are finishing their term and the new recruits, join together for an extended session, perhaps on a Saturday morning in April or May.  They evaluate the previous year, discover what could be done better in the next, and identify the one goal each commission will be working on, along with action plans for reaching this goal.  At the Leadership Night following this session, the commissions choose their co-chairs for the coming year and discern the one new person who will be serving on the pastoral council for a two-year term.  This is also the time that the staff determines who among their number will be the resource person for each commission, either the same as the previous year or someone new.  The pastor and administrator also determine at this time, in consultation with staff and council, who the facilitator of the Leadership Night will be for the coming year.  This is the one who sets up the meeting space, gets the meeting started on time, makes sure each commission has quality time together, keeps the commission reporting to under two minutes, and then gets the pastoral council meeting started on time.  These are things that keep people coming back for more.

Tom Sweetser, SJ & Wendy Rappé

www.pepparish.org
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Parish Newsletter - January, 2010
A Service of the Parish Evaluation Project

Milwaukee, Wisconsin