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Contents:
1. Executive Director’s reflection
2. Want to hear your thoughts
3. NACC Education Advisory Panel and Task Forces
4. Last Call for CHA/NACC Survey
5. CHA audio conference
6. Singers needed for the National Conference
7. Participate in NACC’s first-ever silent auction!
8. World Day of the Sick prayer cards available
9. NACC Chaplain to speak at Duke University Conference
10.NACC seeks input on training volunteers
11. A Future Full of Hope…Chaplaincy
12. Welcome new NACC staff
13. National Healthcare Decisions Day
Over the past months, I am often inspired by the quotes that have accompanied your e-mail name. You can tell a lot about a person by those quotes! Knowing e-mails are public communication, I take the liberty to share some here. Rabbi Len Lewy in Milwaukee has, “Live Generously. Support the things you care about.” Laura Richter of Ascension Health uses, “Let your chief study be to know God. Elizabeth Ann Seton.” Fr. Basil G. Royston of San Jose employs, “. . . As a shepherd once so rightly said, although heaven knows where he learned it, one can show no greater respect than to weep for a stranger. José Saramago (1922).” Linda Piotrowski of New Hampshire offers, “Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. Pope John XXIII.” Sarah Carlson of Alegent likes Confucius, “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”
What if we create a litany of quotes from your e-mails, and house them on the NACC website? It could be a source of spiritual inspiration and encouragement for all of us! If interested, send them to me, and we will begin the treasure building! dlichter@nacc.org.
Want to hear your thoughtsAs you have read, we have several task forces related to membership, recruitment, marketing, and education. We want to get more guidance from you on a few issues, but realize many of you only have a small window of time to give us feedback. Therefore, we want to set up one-hour conference calls for NACC members, and offer them by age categories, under 40, 40-55, 55-65, 65 and up. We will offer two times for each category. Please reflect on the following three questions. 1. What would improve the value of NACC membership? 2. What recruitment strategy for chaplaincy for your age group would be most effective? 3. What one area for professional development most interests you? We hope these calls will also provide you an opportunity to meet other NACC members within your age group that you might not have met! Given our phone conference lines, we will need to know when you will participate. We will then e-mail you the conference call information. If none of these work for you, and you want to participate, please e-mail dlichter@nacc.org with your comments on these questions. Please note: as of February 2008, these calls have concluded. Watch future issues of NACC Now for other opportunities to get involved.
NACC Education Advisory Panel and Task ForcesThanks to those who volunteered to serve on the NACC Education Advisory Panel and the Membership Task Force. To date we have received no member interest in the Website Task Force. Even if your time is limited to serve on this task force, please provide us your feedback and advice on improvements to the Website. How the Website can serve you and the association better is our goal. You can provide us your advice at this page. We appreciate your counsel regarding our website, as well as any comments for the Education Advisory Panel and Membership Task Force.
Last Call for CHA/NACC surveyThe CHA/Pastoral Care survey is available on line until this Thursday, January 31st. It can be accessed at www.chausa.org/pcsurvey, where you will be linked to an overview page with a series of detailed instructions. Thanks so much for participating!
CHA Audio Conference on ChaplaincyPlease note that CHA will be offering an audio conference on Feb. 20 and 22 (repeat). The title is "The Chaplain as Provider of Holistic Care". The CHA site indicates the dates/time and speaker information. Registration for the program will be available on the web. The current link on the CHA website is: www.chausa.org/Pub/MainNav/Events/Programs/PastoralCareAudio/.
Singers Needed for the National ConferenceIn the spirit of "bringing gifts that differ in splendid, varied ways", Chaplain Carey Landry, who is coordinating the music for the national conference, requests your help. He would like to form a small choir of ten people from the NACC membership to lead the music for three Masses and two prayer services during the conference. This will be the first time the music is led by our own membership and we are excited about that! Here are requirements for anyone interested in becoming part of the choir:
Please e-mail Chaplain Carey Landry directly at jclandry@stvincent.org by February 15th, 2008, if you are interested. If you are interested but cannot meet all or part of the above requirements, feel free to e-mail Carey anyway.
Participate in NACC’s first-ever silent auction!Items are coming in! Thank you! Just a reminder that we invite you to share your talents (or your connections with area artisans) by donating to our first-ever silent auction, to be held at the upcoming NACC conference in Indianapolis, IN. We’re looking for items worth at least $50 that showcase your creativity or unusual products from the area in which you serve. Handmade pottery, prayer shawls, books, artwork, nonperishable regional foods, and other, yet-to-be-discovered items all are welcome. If you have an item in mind, please e-mail the following information to auction coordinator Linda Piotrowski at Linda.f.piotrowski@hitchcock.org: name, item, approximate retail value, minimum bid (if desired), address, phone, e-mail address, and the donor’s contact information, if different. (We will want to thank him or her.) Then bring your item to the conference or e-mail Linda for information about special arrangements. Thank you in advance! See you at the auction!
World Day of the Sick prayer cards availableWorld Day of the Sick, “The Eucharist, Lourdes, and Pastoral Care for the Sick,” will be celebrated Feb. 11. As in past years, we have specially written and produced prayer cards available to share with your patients and staff. To download an order form or view samples of the Prayer for the Sick and Prayer for the Caregiver, click here. Please note that although the cards are available throughout the year, orders must be received in our office by the end of this week, Feb. 1 for delivery by Feb. 11.
NACC Chaplain to speak at Duke University ConferenceCongratulations to NACC member Pat Bradley from Cheyenne, WY who has been invited to speak at a jointly held Duke University Health System and Duke Divinity School Conference entitled “Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault: Providing Competent Medical and Spiritual Care” on Saturday, April 12 in Durham, NC. Pat will be speaking on Preaching, Biblical Counseling, and Pastoral Care with people impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault. NACC will post the registration information after January 31, 2008.
NACC seeks input on training volunteersWe would like to learn about how you may be training volunteers in your particular area or facility, and to assist in developing and sharing among members some best practices based on those ideas. While volunteers are no substitute for the trained and certified chaplain, we certainly know you not only minister along side of, but often are responsible for training volunteers. Please send your leadership modules, ideas, curricula, or comments for training volunteers to Susanne at schaw@nacc.org. We hope to be able to provide you with some valuable resources as the result of this.
“A Future Full of Hope”…ChaplaincyThe Pastoral Care Summit Recruitment Task Force had a conference call on Monday, January 14, 2008. As a result of that call we want to invite you to submit the brochures used in your institutions to promote chaplaincy. The Task Force wants to learn and review ways chaplaincy is currently being promoted. Please submit your brochures and other materials in electronic format. We want to collect as many brochures as possible by February 15, 2008, prior to our next task force meeting on February 18. The brochures will later be put on the NACC website as a resource for members to view. Please e-mail them to cbridges@nacc.org.
Welcome new NACC staffWe are delighted to announce to you new members of our NACC staff! Laurie Hansen Cardona will be our new Vision editor. She comes with years of experience in Catholic press, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Catholic Herald, both as journalist and later managing editor, and with Catholic News Service. Rose Mary Blanco-Alvarado joins us as our new Administrative Specialist/Certification. She brings many years of administrative and office experience from both the professional service and non profit sectors. Please join me in welcoming them! Also we are appreciative of Jeanine Annunziato who is offering us 18-20 hours of week of interim project support administrative assistance. She has been very helpful to us while we rebuild our staff. Jeanine worked for several years with David Lichter at his prior company.
National Healthcare Decisions DayThe National Association of Catholic Chaplains, along with other national, state and community organizations are leading an effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making-an effort that has culminated in the formal designation of April 16, 2008 as the inaugural National Healthcare Decisions Day. To learn more about this effort visit the website.