FINAL RESULTS

Jim Castello elected as new NACC Board member
We thank all members who voted in the recent Board election. Please join us in congratulating James Castello, BCC who was elected to the open Board seat for 2012. Also please join us in thanking Robert Barnes, BCC for his willingness and generosity to be a candidate, and for all the ways he continues to serve NACC.

My first reaction when I learned that I had been nominated for the Board was to recall St. Francis response when Brother Masseo asked, “Why you?” Francis responded that it was because he was the least worthy of all.

The NACC, and chaplaincy in general, is facing some daunting challenges, from financial pressures leading to lay-offs, to the aging of our membership, to developing career pathways for those in the profession, to recruiting the next generation of professional chaplains, and more. Responding to these challenges will take energy, strategic thinking and creativity. The efforts of our leadership will need to be focused on animating and guiding the efforts of our committed and gifted membership in promoting the profession and our association.

I have had a passion for NACC ever since joining in 1991 and attending my first regional conference that year. Almost immediately after certification in 1992 I began volunteering as a way of contributing back to NACC and promoting the profession of chaplaincy. Since then I have served as a certification interviewer, member of a Regional Leadership Council, conference planner, and currently as an Interview Team Educator for the certification process.

Though I feel humbled at being nominated for the Board I do feel I have something to offer NACC and its members. My gifts tend to be in the areas of analysis, creativity and vision. I have management experience; both within ministry and in the not-for-profit sector where I helped establish a small corporation that serves the poor. I look forward to continued service to NACC.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a candidate for the NACC Board of Directors. This is a very important moment in NACC’s history and mission.

In my opinion, the greatest single challenge facing the NACC today is the critical need to communicate and demonstrate the essential value of professional chaplains to key members of the healthcare market and local communities where our Chaplains live and work. This challenge will require people with marketing and chaplaincy experience and training. It’s one where I can apply my 35 years of global corporate marketing knowledge, training and experience in teaching strategic planning and running two international marketing communications systems. This challenge impacts many parts of the N.A.C.C. Strategic Plan, including Chaplain job retention in a weak economy, compensation, recruitment, inter-disciplinary team membership, professional respect and proactively creating new jobs for younger Chaplains.

I bring a unique perspective to this challenge since I have enjoyed 12 years of clinical experience as a hospital and nursing home Chaplain and Director of Pastoral Care. I have lived this rewarding ministry of compassion, consolation, bereavement counseling, ethics, end-of-life issues and crisis management as a board-certified Chaplain in four healthcare facilities. For the past three years, I have served on the N.A.C.C. Marketing and Recruitment Taskforces helping to write and edit the Chaplain Recruitment Brochure and DVD and have recently joined the N.A.C.C. Editorial Advisory Board. Consequently, I have developed a good insight into the organization, its people, Mission, Vision and, most importantly, its incredible spirit.

It would give me great joy if I could be of service to the Board.