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1. Executive Director's Reflection
2. Certification Applications for Spring 2009 Interviews
3. Plans shape up for local gatherings
4. Please vote! Send in your Board Election ballot!
5. State Liaison calls
6. Healing Tree: a request for prayers
7. Chaplains in the news
8. Recent job postings
9. Please go to the NACC website for these local gatherings

The leaders of the associations of the Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC) keep looking for ways to learn from one another. On Friday, August 8, I met with Jo Schrader, executive director of the Association for Professional Chaplains (APC), at their office in Schaumburg, Illinois. We find it mutually beneficial to discuss the plans, issues, and opportunities of our respective associations, as well as learn from each other as association executives. I highly respect Jo’s wisdom and the work of the APC. We continue to explore ways of collaborating together.

Also all the executive directors of the six associations have a periodic conference call on common issues as needed. As you might also know, the steering committee of the Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC) has a monthly conference call to explore common projects and learn from one another. While the upcoming Summit 2009 is our major common project, we also recently:

• Completed the 2008 Compensation Survey that will be shared with members in the very near future; and
• Formed:
• A Task Force on Competency Based Certification that will explore how best to gather and share what is being done in metrics and in the area of competence in respective
associations, and to identify overlaps, consistencies, deficiencies, and what we can work on together; and

• An Endorsement Task Force that will explore both specific and common issues on endorsement that our associations encounter and where we can address these together.

I am grateful for this professional partnership, and believe the SCC steering committee is working hard to fulfill its mission: The Spiritual Care Collaborative is an international group of professional organizations actively collaborating to advance excellence in professional pastoral and spiritual care, counseling, education and research.

September 15, 2008 is the postmark deadline for supportive materials for the May 2-3, 2009 certification interviews.

Please note that a NEW Checklist for Supportive Materials Required for Certification Interview has been approved at our recent July 2008 Commission meeting. For those members who already received their Certification Application Packet, please contact Rose Mary Blanco-Alvarado, Certification Specialist, at rmalvarado@nacc.org to request the NEW checklist (dated July 2008).

To best prepare for the certification process, please familiarize yourself with the current Standards and Procedures, which were recently approved/posted to our website in July 2008 and are located at www.nacc.org/certification/standards-and-procedures.asp. Please print out these three documents that pertain to you:

1. Standards: You will write your Narrative Statement citing each of the Standards listed in Section 300 Standards for Certification of Chaplains. You will do this for each Standard STARTING with 302.1 and ENDING with 305.6.
2. Certification Procedures Manual: Chaplain Certification Procedures Part One pertains to you.
3. Ethics Procedures Manual: See Ethics Accountability Statement Procedures. Read thoroughly and sign the Ethics Accountability Statement for Initial Certification which is located within the manual, also available at the NACC website Standards and Procedures page. If you wish to remain a member of the NACC, but are unable to sign the Ethics Accountability Statement because of a recent or a pending complaint, please see Part One for the required process.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the certification process, please contact Rose Mary Blanco-Alvarado, Certification Specialist, at the NACC National Office, (414) 483-4898.

Several local gatherings now have specific plans. Please visit our local calendar for details for the following gatherings: September 19-20, 2008 Portland, OR; September 25-26, Alexandria, MN; October 26-26 Green Lake Wisconsin.

All members eligible to vote should have received the board election ballot. Please vote by completing and sending it today! The postmark deadline is Friday, September 19. Be part of building our NACC board. To view candidates James Castello, Blair Holtey, Rev. Baaju Izuchi, CSSp, Rev. Dean Marek, and Marie Polhamus go to the Board Election page.

We had excellent state liaison calls last week - one with Texas and Oklahoma state liaisons and one with state liaisons of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado/Wyoming, and Utah. These liaisons will be contacting NACC members in the coming days. All NACC members are welcomed and encouraged to contact their state liaisons. Information on state liaisons can be found here. If you want the NACC staff to help set up your state or region calls, please contact cbridges@nacc.org.

Please continue to keep in prayer Teddi Tomsic (major surgery), Rev. Mike Burns, SDS (eye surgery), Sr. Hilda Mallet, MHS (undergoing cancer radiation treatments which followed chemo), Sr. Joyce Troyer, CSC (recovering from surgery), Sr. Albertine Kramer, CSC (recovering from extensive surgery, is in rehabilitation, and is in transition after serving for 18 years at St. Joseph Medical Center in South Bend, IN), Sr. Paula Jacobs, SSM (terminal cancer), Dennis Eldridge (Kathy’s husband, for cancer treatment), and Sr. Mary Anna Euring, OP (bout with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma). Sr. Maria Rios, SMR also requests prayers for the nephew (25 yrs. old, in Mexico hospital) of a sister in her community.

We want to begin including stories in NACC Now about our NACC members that are appearing in the news, whether it be in print media (newspaper, magazines, etc.) or other media (radio, television, web, etc.). We recently received notice of Louise N. Porreca, who lives in West Seneca, NY, and has volunteered as a chaplain at Veterans Hospital for 23 years. Read the story here.

The following positions have been posted in the last two weeks. Please go to our Positions Available page for more information about them.
CHAPLAIN/SPIRITUAL CARE COORDINATOR
     Dubuque, IA – Heartland Hospice
CPE SUPERVISOR
     San Antonio, TX – CHRISTUS Santa Rosa
CHAPLAIN/SPIRITUAL CARE COORDINATOR
     Rockford, IL – Heartland Hospice
PRIEST CHAPLAIN
     Darby, PA – Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital
DIRECTOR OF CAMPUS MINISTRY
     West Hartford, CT – Saint Joseph College
PRIEST CHAPLAIN AND COORDINATOR OF LITURGY (PART-TIME)
     West Hartford, CT – Saint Joseph College
PRIEST CHAPLAIN
     Hollywood, CA – QueensCare

Our local gathering list is growing. Therefore, we ask you to use our NACC calendar for more information on:

Portland, OR, September 19-20, 2008
Alexandria, MN, September 25-26, 2008
Green Lake, WI, October 26-28, 2008
Colorado Springs, CO, October 31, 2008
St. Louis, MO, November 4, 2008
Baltimore, MD, November 12, 2008