The National Association of Catholic Chaplains welcomed one new board member and two future board members at the 2014 business meeting, held May 19 during the National Conference in St. Louis.
Board Chair Bonnie Burnett welcomed Bishop Donald Hying, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, to the board as NACC’s new USCCB Episcopal Liaison.
The Rev. Jack Crabb, S.J., invited all members to volunteer their gifts to the association’s mission, and he introduced the two NACC members who are candidates for the two 2015 open elected member seats for the Board – Mary Heintzkill and James Letourneau. Voting will take place in September 2015. Fr. Crabb also announced Beverly Beltramo as chair of the 2015 Conference Planning Task Force for preparing NACC’s 50th anniversary 2015 conference in Arlington, VA.
Executive Director David Lichter recognized all NACC members who currently serve on the NACC board, committees, commissions, panels, task forces, ITE’s, interviewers, site hosts, etc., and members extended a blessing over them. Then David recognized those who have been NACC members for 25 years or certified for 25 years. Again, those present extended their blessings upon those jubilarians.
David then presented NACC membership and financial highlights. The association’s financial status is solid due to sound financial management in the face of shrinking overall membership, mainly due to aging of the group. He shared slides that showed the gradual decline over recent years; the changing profile of our membership; and the profile of those who joined in 2013, which was: lay women, 41%; lay men, 27%; priests, 17%; religious women, 11%; and brothers/deacons, 4%.
The rest of the business meeting was devoted to listening to one another and summarizing for board review responses to the following questions:
1. What is one thing that you are celebrating in your own or your team’s ministry?
2. What is the major focus of your ministry and how has it changed over the past year?
3. What is the biggest challenge of your ministry?
4. As NACC, what should be our focus?
After the business meeting, African and Latino members met respectively to discuss ways to better support these member segments.
