Minutes of the Secretariat: December 2009

Minutes from 11/16/09 Secretariat Meeting

Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Marty Smart, Weekend Committee
Melanie Rigney, Communications Committee (note taker)

Absent: Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Mike Green, Treasurer
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director

Also in attendance: Mary Lou Miller

The meeting at Mimi Fitzgerald’s house in Arlington, VA, began at 7:30 p.m. began at 7:35 p.m. after prayer and sharing.
• Cursillo Retreat at Missionhurst. Mary Lou Miller, one of the four spiritual directors for the January 22-24, 2010, retreat at Missionhurst, reviewed the planned schedule. The theme will be “Come Away and Rest A While.” Discussion ensued about a number of topics, including the likely fee ($220 by December 15 with a non-refundable $50 deposit; $230 thereafter); likely number of attendees; meal options; stipends for spiritual directors; and promotion of the event.
• Weekends. Mimi shared that Phil Kiko will be the rector for the Men’s spring Weekend. Team members for both the Men’s and Women’s Weekends are being called.
• School of Leaders. Mary Lou McGonigle shared that the 2010 calendar has been posted at www.arlingtoncursillo.org. She asked that everyone prayerfully consider a term or name that could be used for our SOL discussions; there is some concern that people not in Cursillo leadership roles may find the term confusing.
• Fourth Day. The Lenten Quiet Day was set for February 27 at a location to be determined. It also was decided that on January 9, we will have a School of Leaders discussion in the morning followed by an afternoon session for upcoming rectors, rectoras, wardens, angels, and those interested in service in those roles in the future.
• Weekend Discussion. Marty Smart shared that she is conducting an inventory of the rector boxes and still needs the box from the Fall Men’s Weekend. She also asked for help in storing Weekend materials. Marty also said there is concern in the community that food is becoming too much of a focus for our Weekend retreats. Discussion ensued regarding rotation of cook crew members; expansion of cook crew opportunities; and menus, including the possibility of always offering a fish item on Fridays during Weekends.
The meeting closed at 10:15 p.m. with prayer.
________________________________________
Minutes from 8/24/09 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Mike Green, Treasurer
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Marty Smart, Weekend Committee
Melanie Rigney, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent:
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting at Freddie Wall’s home in McLean, VA, began at 7 p.m. after prayer and sharing.
• Spiritual Directors. Mimi shared that Deacons Jack Ligon and Jim August will serve as spiritual advisers for the upcoming Men’s Weekend. Father Tuck Grinnell will be available as needed. Father John Adams will be spiritual director for the Spring 2010 Women’s Weekend; Mimi will make additional calls for a priest for the Spring 2010 Men’s Weekend. General discussion ensued regarding outreach and engagement with priests to encourage them to make their Weekends and become involved in Cursillo.
• Fall 2009 Men’s Weekend. John shared that team selection is complete.
• Treasurer’s Report. Mike shared that we collected $6,700 on the Women’s Weekend. We have received some nice community donations.
• Pre-Cursillo. Three men have signed up for the men’s fall Weekend. Secretariat members have about seven other potential candidates.
• School of Leaders. Mary Lou shared that the next SOL would be September 12 at Natvity.
• Weekend Discussion. Mary Lou, who was rectora for our most recent women’s Weekend, shared that five talks on Sunday is challenging in terms of keeping to a schedule. She wondered if the final two talks could be combined. Mary Lou will give Carlos, our next men’s rector, and the Secretariat copies of Ken Telesca’s synopses of the Weekend talks. General discussion ensued. It was noted that team formation will be discussed at School of Leaders early next year. It was decided that rector/rectora training would be delayed from September 19 to October or November so that all four leaders for 2010 Weekends could attend. On a related note, Marty will use the time between fall and spring to fully inventory our supply situation.
• Post-Cursillo. Freddie noted that forty people attended the most recent diocesan Ultreya. The next diocesan Ultreya will be November 21 at Holy Family in Dale City. A retreat for the community will be held in January or February at Missionhurst. A half-day day of reflection will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary of Sorrows with Hope Shaw facilitating.
• Octoberfest. Octoberfest will be October 24 at St. John Neumann. RSVPs will be due by October 17. Dan Martin and his wife are assisting with the setup. The Secretariat will pay for brats etc. and the community will be asked to bring side dishes. Mel will look into Arlington Catholic Herald ad rates.
• Communications. Mel encouraged members to complete the communications survey and to encourage others to do so. The Communications Committee will discuss creation of an Arlington Cursillo logo at its October 6 meeting. Also at that meeting, possible new directions for the Web site will be discussed. Articles for the next His Banner are due September 25. About twenty-five people spent time visiting with Mel, Carol Poplin, and Henri Johnson at our booth at the diocesan Catholic Heritage Festival. We will consider information nights at Our Lady of Hope, Holy Martyrs of Vietnam, St. Veronica, and All Saints.
The meeting closed at 9:30 p.m. with prayer.
________________________________________
Minutes from 7/17/09 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Mike Green, Treasurer
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Marty Smart, Weekend Committee
Melanie Rigney, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent:
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The impromptu meeting began at 6:20 p.m. in advance of the Secretariat retreat at Mount Tabor in Vienna, VA. Also in attendance was Deacon John Ligon, who was facilitator for the retreat. Since the meeting was impromptu, there was no formal agenda, and notes are presented in the order of discussion.
• New Communications Chair. Mimi introduced Mel Rigney, who is succeeding Trudy Dervan as chair of the Communications Committee.
• Fall 2009 Women’s Weekend. Members approved unanimously spending $390 for a bus to take candidates and team from Camp Happyland to the Closing at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle.
• 2010 Spring Weekends. The Men’s Weekend will be April 15-18 and the Women’s Weekend March 18-21, both at Missionhurst.
• Fall 2009 Men’s Weekend. There was general discussion regarding the need for an additional novice team member and for a priest.
• Missionhurst. We need to examine our contract with Missionhurst and begin to consider alternate sites for the future.
• Catholic Heritage Festival. The Secretariat agreed Cursillo should have a presence at this August 22, 2009 event at Bull Run Park in Centreville. Mel Rigney will staff the booth with others who volunteer or come by. The cost will be minimal--$30 or so—which Mel will donate. We will provide rack cards and brochures.
• Banner. As an outgrowth of the Catholic Heritage Festival discussion, it was agreed that the Communications Committee would develop a logo for our organization.
The meeting closed at 6:55 p.m. when the retreat formally began.
________________________________________
Minutes from 5/18/09 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Marty Smart, Weekend Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing.
New Business
• Parish special events. It was agreed that, when requested, we could link to these from our home page but we will not use Mimigrams to publicize.
• Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest is scheduled for October 24. John Rausch has been seeking a site but parishes have not opened their fall calendars yet. He will be looking to put together a team to plan the event. Trudy will put a save-the-date notice in His Banner and on the web site.
• Spiritual Directors. Priests for upcoming weekends were discussed, which included a long discussion about recruiting more priests to Cursillo. Mimi will wait to line up other spiritual directors until the priests are confirmed for the weekends.
• Rectors. Mimi asked the Secretariat to bring Rector recommendations to the June meeting. Trudy reported that the Rectors Formation Day has been planned but she is having difficulty nailing down a date that will work for everyone.
Ongoing Business
• Precursillo. There are 12 women currently registered for the August weekend, about half being carry-overs from the spring weekend. Joan is sending out email confirmations as she receives applications.
• Team Selection. The Women’s Team will begin formation on May 31. The October Men’s Team is being called. Discussion took place about how to get into the Team Selection lists the names of new cursillistas who might be called for Team service. It was agreed that these names should come from the various Teams as part of the evaluation process. Mimi will contact recent past Rectors and Angels for recommendations. Marty will contact Pete Roth about how to merge the Team Selection Committee list with the Communications Committee list so a current online resource can be established for Secretariat use.
• Fourth Day. The Spring Quiet Day will take place on May 30. Freddie had questions about whether we were moving forward on the summer picnic with the Hispanic Cursillo. Mimi will check with her contact and get back to us. The Fr. Bill Korpi Mass of celebration with our community has been postponed indefinitely.
• Weekends. Marty requested that everyone use her work email as well as her personal email since she is working long hours. The first weekends of 2010 were tentatively scheduled – March 18-21 for Women, and April 8-11 for Men – and Marty was tasked with confirming these dates with Missionhurst.
• Treasurer.
• Communication.
• Nonprofit status. Trudy asked about the status of the 501c3 application, noting that the PayPal donation button on our website doesn’t work because we have yet to file the appropriate papers. Mimi will check with Mike Green and get this moving.
• Seriously Ill web page. Trudy noted that since the Seriously Ill Weekend organization is wholly separate from Cursillo – much like Kairos – it is inappropriate for us to maintain a page and link for them as a part of our website. It was agreed that we want to continue to support this “Cursillo for the seriously ill” as we have done traditionally, and to do so, we will establish a separate page for them and provide a link on our web site’s Ministries page. They will be responsible for keeping their page current. Trudy will contact Marques Silva to make arrangements.

The next meeting will be on June 15 at 6:45 p.m.
Following prayer, the meeting was adjourned around 9:00 p.m.

________________________________________
Minutes from 3/30/09 Secretariat Meeting

Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
Weekend Committee (Vacant)
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing.
New Business
• Fr. Bill Korpi wants to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving with the Cursillo community. Freddie will follow up with Fr. Bill to get this scheduled.
• Rectors for coming weekends were discussed. It was agreed that there would be another Rectors’ Quiet Day; Trudy will follow up.
Ongoing Business
• Weekends. Mimi reported on the evaluation from the Women’s 128th. The Closing for the Women’s 129th will be at St. Francis in Triangle. Fr. Tuck and Phyllis Byrne will be the spiritual directors.
• Precursillo: Somehow the Precursillo web page lost its information. Trudy will ensure that it gets repopulated. Additionally, it was agreed that Joan should send an email confirmation upon receipt of applications.
• Team Selection for the August Women’s Weekend is in process.
• Fourth Day. The next Diocesan Ultreya will be May 2 at OLGC.
• Treasurer.
The next meeting will be on May 18 at 6:45 p.m.
Following prayer, the meeting was adjourned around 9:30 p.m.

________________________________________
Minutes from 2/16/09 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Tony DeCristofaro for The Daily Tripod discussion
Peter Hadinger for the Weekend Food Service discussion
Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
Weekend Committee (Vacant)
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing.
New Business
• The Daily Tripod. There was a discussion about whether The Daily Tripod should be considered an “official” publication, even though publisher Tony DeCristofaro has not intended that. It was decided that since Tony will retain total control over the content, Cursillo should not in any way imply that it is an “official” publication. It was agreed that (1) the link to The Daily Tripod should be moved from the side navigation bar on our home page and put in an appropriate place on the Links page under Fourth Day; (2) the flyer for The Daily Tripod that is included in the Fourth Day packets for the Weekends should indicate that it is not an official publication of the Arlington Cursillo; (3) new cursillistas will receive an email invitation to sign up for The Daily Tripod, but that invitation will clearly state it is not an official publication; and (4) new cursillistas’ email addresses will not automatically be added to the distribution list for The Daily Tripod.
• Weekend Food Service. There was discussion about the food service at Missionhurst for the upcoming spring Weekends. Peter was commended for keeping costs down while providing excellent menus for last fall’s Men’s Weekend. The final cost was about $4/head, as opposed to the $8/head that was budgeted. It was agreed that Peter should be sensitive to the efforts of those providing the Saturday night party when planning the Saturday evening meal – in other words, the Saturday night meal should not be overly celebratory or sumptuous.
Ongoing Business
• Treasurer’s Report. We have $4,328.52 in the bank.
• Proposed By-Laws were accepted with changes as agreed upon.
• Mary Lou McGonigle will be the Rectora for the August Women’s Weekend at Camp Happyland near Chancellorsville. Emelda August and Laura Lyons will be co-angels. Mimi is still in discussion regarding the Rector for the fall Men’s Weekend. Mimi is still working on the closing site for the March Women’s Weekend, although it is looking like it will be in the multipurpose room at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Vienna.
• Precursillo: The March Women’s Weekend is full with a waiting list. Mimi will double-check the number of beds available at Missionhurst.
• Team Selection for the August Women’s Weekend will begin very soon.
• School of Leaders. It was agreed that the next study materials will be the ones on Spe Salvi that Mary Lou found online. The Secretariat will discuss how and whether to use the Cursillo Manual as a study item at its next meeting.
• Fourth Day. The next Diocesan Ultreya will be Feb. 28 at Good Shepherd. It will be a bilingual gathering. Lu Vega will be giving the witness.
• Communications. Trudy asked again, urgently, that the Secretariat be looking for people who can start stepping in behind our current webmasters.
The next meeting will be on March 16 at 6:45 p.m.
Following prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
________________________________________
Minutes from 1/12/09 Secretariat Meeting
• Minutes from 1/12/09 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Mike Green, Treasurer
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Frank McLeskey for Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)

Absent: Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Weekend Committee (Vacant)
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director

The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing of the commitment cards from the ’08 Secretariat retreat.

Ongoing Business
• 2009 Budget was accepted as presented.
• Treasurer’s Report. We have $6578 in the bank.
• The discussion about food costs that was to have taken place at this meeting has been deferred to February.
• The PayPal account was set up in December and is now working through the website.
• It was decided that there should be another fundraising letter in late spring.
• Proposed By-Laws were accepted with changes. These will be discussed again at the February meeting before being finalized.
• This year’s Secretariat retreat will be on July 17-18. Trudy will reserve Mt. Tabor and find a retreat director.
• A new Weekend Committee Chair and future Rectors were discussed.
• Weekend issues.
• The Weekend Sunday talks and schedule were discussed, and it was agreed that Rectors should be reminded that there is no need to end Missionhurst Weekends early since there is no Mass at Closing.
• In the absence of a Weekend Committee Chair…
• Mimi will check with Bishop O’Connell High School to see if their gym is available to our community for closings. She has been talking with Caterina Tiso about closing sites.
• Mimi will meet with current Angels to be sure their needs are being met.
• Frank McLeskey will contact Jack Finnerty, the last Weekend’s Rector, about helping with cleanup after the March Women’s Weekend.
• Trudy will get the payment envelopes coded for the upcoming Weekends and send the Fourth Day packet information to Carlos.
• The site for the August Women’s Weekend is still not finalized.

The next meeting will be on February 16 at 6:45 p.m.
Following prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
________________________________________
Minutes from 11/17/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
Mike Green, Treasurer
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)

Absent: Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director

The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing over a reflection.

New Business
• Cursillo Leadership Gathering. Mimi proposed a dinner on Epiphany (Jan. 4) at St. Anthony’s with the Secretariat and committee members. She will follow up after discussing with Fr. Tuck.

Ongoing Business
• Treasurer’s Report. We have $6578 in the bank.
• There was a long discussion about food costs and how the food for the weekend should be budgeted. There was unanimous praise for the job done by Peter Hadinger and the cook crew at the recent Men’s Weekend. Secretariat will invite Peter to meet with them in January 09.
• Mike promised to have the PayPal donation system for the website set up by the end of the calendar year.

Committee Reports
• Team Selection. Calls are continuing to go out to prospective team members for the Women’s 128th. The Men’s 118th is complete. John asked for input from the Secretariat for Angels and other team members and will work with Pete Roth to get the list of current Cursillistas up on a password-protected site. It was agreed that the Ultreya coordinators could be helpful in recommending people as well.

• School of Leaders. A detailed discussion about the order and content of presentations at the NoVa SOL. It was agreed that Mary Lou should invite Joan Brown and Ken Telesca to form a panel for the January meeting that would discuss the dynamics of Talk Day and how team members can support the purpose of Talk Day without being overly critical. It also was agreed to delay the panel of recent first-time team members until later in the spring. It also was agreed to pursue inviting Butch Kinerney from Walk to Emmaus to speak about the Epiphany program (Kairos for Kids) for incarcerated youth.
• Fourth Day. Freddie reminded everyone about the Advent Quiet Night on Dec. 10 at Missionhurst with Fr. Mike Hann.

It was agreed not to have a meeting in December and to reschedule the January meeting due to the Martin Luther King holiday. The next meeting will be on January 12 at 6:45 p.m.
Following prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
________________________________________
Minutes from 10/20/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders |
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Mike Green, Treasurer
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 7:00 p.m. with prayer and sharing over a reflection.
New Business
• 2009 Calendar. The calendar for 2009 was tentatively laid out and is included in these minutes as an attachment.
Ongoing Business
• 2009 Budget. The discussion on the 2009 budget will take place at the next meeting.
Committee Reports
• Team Selection. Calls are continuing to go out to prospective team members for the Women’s 128th and the Men’s 118th. Musicians for men’s teams are in short supply.
• Communications.
• Trudy noted that we have a serious need for a team of younger, proficient web technicians who can work with Harry and Pete to keep our web site technologically up to date and train to eventually take over this responsibility. She asked all the members of the Secretariat to help with finding volunteers, since all requests to date have produced nothing.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. The next meeting will be on November 17 at 6:45 p.m.

Tentative Calendar for 2009
Jan. 1 HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION
10 NOVA School of Leaders, St. Mary of Sorrows. Subject: panel discussion with recent “new” team members.
Feb. 14 SOL, St. John the Beloved, with Fr. Scalia, topic of his choosing.
25 ASH WEDNESDAY
28 Diocesan Ultreya [possibly Good Shepherd or Holy Family]
March 7 Lenten Quiet Day
13 Women’s Weekend, Missionhurst (Closing at Nativity?)
21 SOL, Sacred Heart
April 5 PALM SUNDAY
12 EASTER
16 Men’s Weekend, Missionhurst
May 2 Diocesan Ultreya [poss. St. James, St. Bernadette, St. Francis de Sales]
10 MOTHERS DAY
16 SOL, Our Lady of Good Counsel
30 Quiet Day OR…
June 6 Quiet Day
13 SOL, St. Raymond
21 FATHERS DAY
July 4 INDEPENDENCE DAY
11 SOL, St. Charles
17-18 Secretariat Retreat (tent.)
August 8 Women’s Weekend, site TBD
15 SOL, Queen of Peace
16 Hispanic Cursillo Picnic, Bluemont Park?
22 Diocesan Ultreya, St. Raymond’s
Sept. 7 LABOR DAY
12 SOL, Nativity
19 Quiet Day…OR…
26 Quiet Day
Oct. 10 SOL, St. John Neumann
17 Men’s Weekend, Missionhurst
24 Oktoberfest, site TBD
Nov. 14 SOL, St. Mark’s (tent)
21 Diocesan Ultreya
26 THANKSGIVING
Dec. 8 HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION
12 SOL, St. Anthony’s
TBD Advent Quiet Day
25 CHRISTMAS
31 NEW YEAR’S EVE
________________________________________
Minutes from 9/15/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Mary Lou McGonigle, Chair, School of Leaders
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Mike Green, Treasurer
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing over scripture.
New Business
• 2009 Budget. The discussion on the 2009 budget was tabled until the Treasurer could be present.
Ongoing Business
• There was considerable discussion about how to ensure that Rectors are reading/using their materials and paying attention to issues of importance to the Secretariat. It was agreed that the Lay Director should meet with each Rector a total of three times: once when the Rector begins their own personal formation; once before team formation begins; and finally just before the Weekend.
• The scheduling meeting set for Oct. 18 will have to be changed since several members of the Secretariat cannot attend after all.

Committee Reports
• Team Selection. Calls are currently going out to prospective team members for the Women’s 128th and the Men’s 118th.
• Weekend.
• There was discussion about the practicality of storing the weekend boxes at Missionhurst. It was agreed that it is important for the Angels to go through the boxes before their Weekend. The Lay Director will stress this to the Rectors, and the Weekend Committee Chair will stress it to the Angels.
• The Secretariat addressed the issue of the scheduling of the Men’s 119th in the fall of 2009, which had been scheduled for what was thought was Veteran’s Day weekend. However, since Veteran’s Day does not fall on a Monday, it was agreed that Kathy would check with Missionhurst to see if the Weekend could be moved to Columbus Day.
• Communications.
• The Communications Committee recommended that the Fourth Day Chair send a personal note encouraging Cursillo ministry and listing volunteer opportunities to all new babe chicks several weeks after the close of each Weekend.
• It was agreed that this “service letter” should be sent and Trudy will ask to have the babe chick email addresses sent to Freddie.
• It also was agreed that the Precursillo Chair should send a note 2-3 weeks after each weekend to each of the sponsors reminding them of their responsibility to find a group reunion for their new babe chicks and also encouraging them to bring them to the next Diocesan Ultreya.
• It also was agreed that Mimi would contact the Rectors from the past year and remind them to have their teams contact the babe chicks about Ultreyas and group reunions.
• The Daily Tripod is having trouble with its distribution through its email server. Pete Roth will be helping them find another way to get their daily feed out.
• The weekend candidate tally will be moved off the home page and onto the specific Cursillo page (e.g., Men’s 118th). There will be a link under each tally so prospective sponsors can get to the application page easily.
• The Web Team will not continue archiving old Weekend and other photos on our server. As appropriate, photos will be sent to the Weekend’s Rector for disposition.
• Fourth Day
• It was agreed that Mimi should specially invite to the Rectors Quiet Day former Rectors, current Rectors, and those who may be considered as Rectors in the coming years.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. The next meeting will be as initially scheduled on Monday, October 20, at 6:45 p.m., and it will be devoted to scheduling issues for 2009.
________________________________________
Minutes from 8/18/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
Mary Lou McGonigle, Chair, School of Leaders
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing over scripture.
New Business
• 2009 Budget. Mimi requested committee budgets for 2009 by the September meeting.
Ongoing Business
• 2009 Rectors. The Rector for the men’s April weekend will be Tony DeCristofaro.
Committee Reports
• Team Selection. The committee will meet on August 27 to work on the Spring 09 teams. Experienced angels and team members will be sought for our two new Rectors for those teams. The teams will be geographically diverse.
• Weekend.
• A new committee member will be needed to manage the Rector boxes. It was agreed that a person with substantial team experience should be sought.
• The October Men’s Closing will be at Queen of Peace.
• Mary Lou reported on her visit to Camp Happyland and distributed detailed materials on the facility, which will work well for Cursillo if the Spirituality Center is not ready in time for summer. It was reconfirmed that the Secretariat’s intent is to give preference to using the Spirituality Center if at all possible.
• School of Leaders
• The SOL at St. John the Beloved was very successful. The next NOVA SOL will be held at Nativity.
• The issue was raised about so many requests being made of Cursillo lay spiritual directors without coordination between requesters. It was agreed that the October Secretariat meeting will take place on a Saturday morning, Oct. 18, at 9:30 a.m. and focus entirely on scheduling and coordination for 2009. The regular evening meeting on October 20 will not be held.
• Fourth Day
§ There will be a community Quiet Day on centering prayer led by the Baynes on Oct. 13 (Columbus Day) at the Benedictine Monastery in Bristow.
§ There will be a community Advent Quiet Night let by Fr. Mike Hann on Dec. 10 at Missionhurst.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, September 15, at 6:45 p.m.
________________________________________
Minutes from 7/21/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, representing the Team Selection Committee
Mike Green, Treasurer
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee (note taker)
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Peter Hadinger, Cook Team
Susan Vega, National Encounter Liaison

Absent: Mary Lou McGonigle, Chair, School of Leaders
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting started at 6:45 p.m. with prayer and sharing over scripture.
National Encounter
Sue Vega gave an update on the National Encounter, which will begin at Catholic University on July 31. There are 675 registrants, 200 of whom have not yet advised planners of their travel plans. Some of these may be commuters. The registration desk will open 2 hours early for commuters – that is, at 11 a.m. instead of 1:00 – in Caldwell Hall. Catholic U. has waived parking fees during the Encounter. Volunteers will be contacted directly by planners. The Vegas have the responsibility for organizing van transport for attendees arriving at Dulles.
Ongoing Business
• 2009 Rectors. Mimi is hoping to settle on the April 2009 Rector this week.
• 2009 Weekend Sites and Dates. There was much discussion about whether the August 09 Weekend should be a men’s or women’s weekend. It was finally decided to go ahead and have the women’s weekend in August. Thus, the schedule for 2009 now is:
• March 12-15 at Missionhurst (Women’s)
• April 16-19 at Missionhurst (Men’s)
• August 6-9, site not yet determined (Women’s)
• November 6-9 [Veterans’ Day] at Missionhurst (Men’s).
There also was more discussion about Camp Happyland. It was agreed that the facility presents many problems. We will defer the decision about the August 09 weekend site until early 2009, when we will have more information on the status of the Diocesan Spirituality Center. The contract with Missionhurst was approved.
• Missionhurst Work Day. Fr. Hann has advised that the witness room at Missionhurst will be renovated by fall. He was receptive to the idea of a Cursillo work day, but wanted to defer the particulars until after this initial work is completed. It was agreed that Mimi would go ahead and seek a workday coordinator and some volunteers for an unspecified date in the fall.
§ Workbooks and Manuals. Mimi has not completed comparison of the “Big Brown” manual and the Team Formation notebooks. She will report at our next meeting.
§ Cook Teams. Peter Hadinger reported that he believes he has enough people to serve at DRH in August, but of course would use more if he had them. He reported that he can get most of the breakfast food at Costco. He will write an article for His Banner outlining needs for the October weekend at Missionhurst.
• Quiet Day for Rectors. Mimi and Trudy are still looking for a spiritual director to present this quiet day. Mt. Tabor is confirmed for Sept. 27.
• Secretariat Retreat. Details concerning the retreat were discussed. The retreat will begin at 6 p.m. Friday, July 25, and end at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Committee Reports
• Treasurer. Mike Green reported that we have received, to date, $9075 from the last solicitation letter.
• There was discussion around a late fee on the Regional dues. It was agreed that Mike would send the original amount and a letter explaining why the late fee was not being paid.
• There was concern as to whether the installment payments on the DRH deposit had been made. Kathy and Mike will work together to get this cleared up.
• Checks totaling $2500 that had been mailed from Jack Finnerty to Mike were lost in the mail. It was agreed that Mike and Mimi would contact the check writers who had not yet called us to advise them of the status and request new checks.
• It was agreed that the Treasurer’s Report would henceforth be posted on the website.
• Communications.
• Others should have access to the broadcast email system so if Mimi is not available, things like the newsletter can get out in a timely way. Mimi and Trudy will meet with Pete in July to discuss. It was agreed that several Secretariat members should have access to the system.
• It is time to order new brochures, but it is not known if there are funds to cover the expense. Trudy will check with Mike. It was agreed to order the brochures if there are sufficient funds.
• Team Selection. The October Men’s Team is complete; formation begins on July 27. They will begin calling the spring teams at the end of the summer.
• Weekend Committee.
• The Weekend supply boxes are being stored under the stairs at Missionhurst, where we will have easy access to them.
• Kathy expressed her preference for keeping our Weekend sites consistent because it is difficult to adapt the boxes each time to each facility’s particular requirements.
• Dave Lonesome has agreed to furnish the bus and drive it once again.
• Fourth Day packets need to be updated soon.
• The tables still need to be moved from VMZ to DRH. Mike Green will get the tables at VMZ and take them to DRH. Peter Hadinger will take the tables from DRH to Missionhurst at the close of the Women’s Weekend.
• Fourth Day.
• The next Diocesan Ultreya is firm for Our Lady Queen of Peace on September 6. The next one will be scheduled for November 15.
• Communications. The software in which our web site is written will need to be changed within the next year. As this labor-intensive conversion takes place, the Communications Committee will solicit input from the community. A broadcast questionnaire will be sent soon and an article will be put in His Banner.

There was no new business. The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, August 18, at 6:00 p.m.

________________________________________
Minutes from 6/16/08 Secretariat Meeting

Attendees: Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
John Rausch, representing the Team Selection Committee
Mary Lou McGonigle, Chair, School of Leaders
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee (note taker)
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
The meeting started at 6:00 p.m. with prayer and group reunion.
Ongoing Business

• 2009 Rectors. Marilyn Krause will be the Rector for the March 2009 Women’s Weekend. Fr. Mike Hann and Trudy Dervan will be the Spiritual Directors. Mimi is inviting Rectors for the other weekends and will report at the July meeting. Trudy will have the Rector’s Manual for Mimi to give Marilyn in July.
• 2009 Weekend Sites and Dates. It was agreed that the price for a Weekend should stay at $250 in order for us to build up a cushion and also cover scholarships, even though the cost at Missionhurst will be less than that. Mimi recently called John Campbell at the Diocesan Spirituality Center and he told her they are still on track to open early in 2009. While Camp Happyland would be much more convenient for the Fredericksburg community, Cursillo wants to develop a lasting relationship with the new Spirituality Center. After much discussion, it was agreed to table the decision about the site for the August 2009 Weekend until much later in the summer or early fall, after we’ve had a chance to see how the Spirituality Center is coming along. Kathy will find out what the latest date is that we can commit to Camp Happyland and she also will get estimated costs from John Campbell for the Diocesan retreat center so that we have necessary information to make a decision. Dates and sites for the 2009 Weekends are currently as follows:
• March 12-15 at Missionhurst (Women’s)
• April 16-19 at Missionhurst (Men’s)
• August 6-9, site not yet determined (Men’s)
• November 6-9 at Missionhurst (Women’s). This will be a Friday through Monday Weekend, with the Closing falling on the Veteran’s Day holiday.
• Workbooks and Manuals. Trudy is nearly done with updating the Angel Workbook to include information on Missionhurst. The Rector’s Manual needs to be reviewed to include this information as appropriate.
§ There was some discussion about availability of the Spiritual Director Manual. Fr. Tuck has an extra copy, will have some copies made and get them to Kathy to provide to upcoming Rectors; the extra original will then go to the Weekend Committee as a resource. The SD Manual is currently being revised by National and is out of print.
§ There was discussion about whether to continue using the Team Formation notebooks, which are out of date, or to just use the Cursillo Manual (“Big Brown”), which is the authoritative source. Mimi will look at both and come back to the Secretariat in July to address this further.
§ It was agreed that while the Rectors need their Manuals as early as we can get them to them, Angels, Musicians, and SDs generally do not need their books until much closer to the start of Formation.
§ It was agreed that each Rector should receive as early as possible, in addition to their Manual, a copy of the Cursillo Manual, a Leader’s Manual, and Fundamental Ideas of Cursillo. Kathy will order 5 extra copies of each of these to have independent of the Rector’s box.
§ It was further agreed that the Lay Director should impress on Rectors the need to actually read their Manuals. It was suggested that a meeting be held for each Team with the Rector, Angel and Musician and some representatives of the Secretariat to talk about the use of the manuals and workbooks.
§ Cook Teams. Mimi will invite Peter Hadinger to the next meting of the Secretariat. We were advised that there should be 3-4 people for each of the meals we’ll be providing at the Dominican Retreat House, and each meal team should have at least one person who has experience in working with DRH.

Committee Reports
• Communications.
• Others should have access to the broadcast email system so if Mimi is not available, things like the newsletter can get out in a timely way. Mimi and Trudy will meet with Pete in July to discuss. It was agreed that several Secretariat members should have access to the system.
• It is time to order new brochures, but it is not known if there are funds to cover the expense. Trudy will check with Mike. It was agreed to order the brochures if there are sufficient funds.
• Weekend Committee.
• Marylee Girardi, Carol Eager, Peter Hadinger and Kathy toured the DRH and got much of the information needed for the team.
• The contract with Missionhurst is still in process. It will be a two-year contract. A copy will be put in the Angel Workbook.
• Caterina Tiso has agreed to help the Weekend Committee find Closing sites.
• Team Selection. The October Men’s Team is nearly complete.
• School of Leaders.
• Frank McClesky has agreed to coordinate the SoL on September 13 at Nativity.
• Fundamentals of Cursillo is out of print and not available from National. However, Mary Lou found used copies available on Amazon. It was agreed that she should purchase copies wherever she can find them.
• Fourth Day.
• The next Diocesan Ultreya is firm for Our Lady Queen of Peace on September 6. The next one will be scheduled for November 15.
• There was some discussion about the old Thanksgiving get-togethers between Arlington Cursillo, the Episcopalian and Lutheran Cursillos, and Walk to Emmaus. Mimi will talk to previous Lay Directors and do some research about the possibility of resurrecting this event.

New Business

• Secretariat Retreat. Arrangements have been made for an overnight spiritual and team-building retreat for the Secretariat at Mt. Tabor on July 25-26. Jean Sweeney has agreed to plan and present the retreat for us. There is room at Mt. Tabor for up to 8 people. Fr. Tuck said he could stay at St. Mark’s with Fr. Pat Holroyd. It was agreed to do the retreat. Details will be firmed up at the July Secretariat meeting.
• Quiet Day for Rectors. Mimi has tentatively scheduled September 27 for a day for Rectors to come together to share and pray. Trudy will confirm with Mt. Tabor and find a spiritual director to conduct the quiet day.
• Work Day at Missionhurst. If Cursillo is going to have a work day to help get the facility at Missionhurst “spiffed up,” then it needs to get scheduled soon. Kathy will check with Fr. Mike Hann about the need for this – perhaps working on the Shepherd’s Door to clean it up and try to resolve some of the mildew – and, if the reply is affirmative, Mimi will put out a MimiGram to seek a coordinator and volunteers for a work party.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, July 21, at 6:00 p.m.
________________________________________
Minutes from 4/21/08 Secretariat Meeting

Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee and rising Lay Director
Mary Lou McGonigle, Chair, School of Leaders
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee (note taker)
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Peter Hadinger, Chair, Cook Team
Mike Green, Treasurer

Absent: Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee

Ongoing Business
o Nonprofit status. Melanie Rigney has emailed Pete with questions that he is working on answering. Mike Green is going to check with the Florida Cursillo about by-laws.
o Insurance. Mimi has a copy of the certificate of insurance. The original is on file with the office of risk management of the Diocese. Any organization needing a copy can call them and ask for a faxed copy.
o New Lay Director Investiture. Twelve of the priests whom Pete contacted to concelebrate have responded. Eight have said they will concelebrate. Chasubles for the Mass can be picked up from Rector Rippy (703-525-4050) and Mimi will do so the Wednesday before the Mass. We are charged if they are not returned in clean condition. Five of the altar servers are candidates for Holy Orders.
o Treasurer’s Report. We currently have about $5300 in the treasury, but we owe the Village of Mt. Zion more than that, and have the Men’s’ weekend coming up. It was agreed that $250 will be charged for future weekends. Mike and Pete will follow up with Jack Finnerty regarding missing checks from the Women’s’ weekend that Kathy Adams had given to Jack. There was a decision that due to the difficulty in getting candidates to pay on Sunday (Sermon on the Amount was given just prior to dismissing people to go pack), the candidates will be asked to pay as they sign in, and sponsors will be reminded about the amount and to have their candidates bring their checkbooks. Mike is going to try to prepare a cash flow statement so there is a better idea of what annual expenses are. Estimated weekend cost for Missionhurst is $4000, plus the bus cost and a donation to St. Anne’s for the closing. Mike will also see about setting up a PayPal account for Cursillo, so people can easily make donations online. Accounts are free and the money goes directly into the bank.
o School of Leaders.
o Woodstock is set for the next couple of months
o Fredericksburg is set for May and June with Emelda August speaking in June on Road to Emmaus. They have finished the Leader’s Manual and Whom Shall I Send?
o Northern Virginia still needs a leader and the schedule is still under construction:
 May – St. Mary of Sorrows. Beth DeCristofaro will present on Pastoral Care and p. 17-18 of Fundamentals of the Cursillo Movement
 St. Charles in July – Jim Bayne will talk on Kairos
 Our Lady Queen of Peace, St John the Beloved and Sacred Heart all offered to host.
o Mary Lou is thinking that 4 sites is enough to reduce the rotation and confusion for attendees needing to know where to go
o Kitchen Crews.
Peter Hadinger introduced himself as the chair of the Cook Team. Arlington Cursillo currently pays about $7 for breakfast and $10 for lunches, and some locations charge a flat $8 per meal. It was estimated that there is about $1900 for food per weekend. However it was not taken into account that some of what the locations charge is for labor, which will be free when we are providing the crew. Kathy will arrange a field trip to Dominican Retreat House for Peter, Marylee Girardi and Carol Eager, and also to Missionhurst so the Angel Workbook can be amended and Peter can get food prep information. It was suggested that Peter talk to Joan Brown about food at the Dominican Retreat house. Pete will email to Peter contacts for Fr. Mike Hann and Joan Brown.
o Weekend Sites. :
o 2009 - Weekend date and venues decided:
 March 12-15, Women, Missionhurst – Kathy to Confirm with Fr Mike.
 April 16-19, Men, Missionhurst, if possible, with fallback date to be June 25 at Diocesan Retreat Center
 Aug 7-9, Women, Camp Happyland
 Nov 6-9 Men, Missionhurst – this will be over Veteran’s Day weekend and start on Friday night and
closing on Monday
o Pete to talk to Jim August about finding closing locations and arranging bus for all of these.
o Kathy to contact Socky Aponte and Phil Russell to write/update the Angel Workbook on Missionhurst.
o Kathy to arrange field trip to Dominican Retreat House to update Angel Workbook.
o Peter Hadinger and Mike Green have trucks or trailers to transport our tables from Mt. Zion.
o General consensus was not to use Village of Mt. Zion again.
o The idea of a community work day at Missionhurst was accepted with the suggestion that it be done after summer so the humidity is down and the mold containment will be more successful.

After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. The next meeting will be held on Monday, May 19, with Mass and dinner at Missionhurst.
Pending business:
o Selection of 2009 rectors and rectoras.
________________________________________
Minutes from 3/24/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee and rising Lay Director
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Lu and Sue Vega, Liaisons to ‘08 National Encounter (by special invitation)

Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting began at 6:00 p.m. with prayer and sharing of piety, study and action. The meeting continued over dinner.
Ongoing Business
o Nonprofit status. Melanie Rigney is working to get us classified as a 501(c)(3).
o Insurance. Pete has the insurance policy in hand and will transfer it to Treasurer Mike Green at their next meeting. Pete will be checking to see if there is a “certificate of insurance” as part of the insurance package, or try to find out what constitutes such a certificate for Diocesan purposes.
o School of Leaders. Mary Lou McGonigle is the new Chair of this committee. The April 12 Fairfax SoL was cancelled in order to allow some planning time and a search for a new chairperson for the Fairfax SoL.
o Kitchen Crews. It was agreed that a full kitchen crew would probably not be needed for the Dominican Retreat House in August. The Team Selection Committee is in a state of transition and at present time not able to put the kitchen crews together. However, the Secretariat agreed that the right committee to do this is in fact the Team Selection Committee, or a subcommittee of same.
o Committee chairs and members. There was a long discussion about possible chairpersons and committee members for some of the committees. Both Precursillo and Team Selection need chairpersons, and nearly all the committees could use additional members. Pete and Trudy will work together to get online a current list of active Cursillistas that will be accessible by the Secretariat.
o Diocesan Ultreya. A Diocesan Ultreya will take place at 7:30 p.m. on April 5 at St. Raymond of Penafort.
o Weekend Sites. Pete and Mimi will be visiting the Diocesan Spirituality Center on March 26. Kathy reported that the Fredericksburg Ultreya’s preferred dates for Camp Happyland in 2009 are August 7-9 and October 2-4. However, since a weekend is already scheduled at Missionhurst for November 2009, it was agreed that only the August date would be considered. Kathy will check to see if Camp Happyland is completely air conditioned and return to the Secretariat before making any reservations.
o Meeting with the Bishop. Pete and Mimi will be meeting with Bishop Loverde on March 31.
o Communications. Mel Rigney of the Communications Committee is following up with the local TV possibility.
New Business
o New Lay Director. Planning for the investiture in May at St. John Neumann is progressing well.
o 2008 National Encounter. The Vegas reported on planning and involvement of the Arlington Cursillo. May 31 is the deadline for early (and discounted) registration. There was much discussion around how to get people to volunteer if there was to be no consideration given in the price of registration. The Vegas promised to continue to represent our concerns through the planning committee (DC School of Leaders) to National. The Secretariat asked the Vegas to prepare an article for the next issue of His Banner.
o Internet Spiders. Kathy Adams brought up that some of the team members on the Women’s Team had had their email addresses used for spamming, and that the addresses had obviously been taken from our website. Pete, Harry Hardin and Trudy will look for some way to prevent spiders from lifting addresses or, alternatively, remove email addresses from our website.
After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. The next meeting will be held on Monday, April 21 with Mass and dinner at Missionhurst.
.
________________________________________
Minutes from 2/27/08 Supplemental Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee and rising Lay Director
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Mike Green, Treasurer
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director

The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. over dinner and after prayer.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• Ongoing Business
o Cursillo Spiritual Director. Fr. Tuck Grinnell has agreed to serve as Spiritual Director. Discussion took place around the idea of creating a “committee” of Cursillo spiritual directors, both lay and religious, to support Tuck in his duties.
o Nonprofit status. It was unanimously agreed that the Arlington Cursillo should have some by-laws, to include:
• the process and timing for the selection of new Lay Directors;
• that Arlington Cursillo reports to the Bishop, and how;
• the term limits for Secretariat members, how they are chosen, and some basic position descriptions;
• the role of the Treasurer and the requirement for an annual audit.
It was further agreed that, while the Secretariat could create a first draft of the proposed by-laws, it will be necessary to have a lawyer review them. Pete and Mimi will seek one or two volunteer lawyers who can help with this project, as well as review the liability insurance and all our weekend site contracts. The by-laws should be as few as possible and as simple as possible, in plain English. Their purpose is not to constrain Cursillo, but to free it from having to revisit procedures that get lost in transitions.
o Committee Chair replacements. It was unanimously agreed that prospective Committee Chairs, who serve on the Secretariat, should be raised at Secretariat meetings in the same way as rectors are. Committee Chairs should ideally come from the School of Leaders, but if not, then should at least have Cursillo as a primary apostolate.
o Weekends.
§ It was again agreed that previous weekend communities should be called upon to provide support for the Closing reception when held at the Weekend site. When the Closing is held at a separate parish site, then the local Ultreya should provide the support.
§ It was agreed that the Lay Director should send a letter to each rector, advising them of critical elements of their service, including (but not limited to): inviting their weekend community to provide support for the next weekend’s closing reception where appropriate; staying in touch with the new cursillistas for at least a year after their weekend; providing a formation schedule for the website; and being sure to read thoroughly not only the Rector’s Manual but also the Angel Workbook and Team Formation Book.
§ General discussion about Missionhurst resulted in the following general agreements: That Arlington Cursillo might seek the donation of an extra refrigerator for the Shepherd’s Door; that the Arlington Cursillo might seek the donation of a couple of vacuums in good working condition to donate to Missionhurst “retreat center”; and, finally that it might be feasible to have a Cursillo work day at Missionhurst to help with whatever spiffing-up is needed to make the place truly comfortable for Weekend participants.
§ Pete is to arrange a tour of the Spirituality Center for the Secretariat.
o Next SoL: Team Formation Workshop. It was agreed that the whole power point should be shelved for now and the workshop divided up into two parts: (1) the Weekend – mechanics, the flow of the talks, etc.; and (2) Formation – what it is supposed to accomplish and how, the role of the Rector and Angel and each team member, etc. The information should be delivered through talks, followed by discussion at the tables, then summaries.
o Diocesan Ultreya. The Women’s Team has rightly requested a Diocesan Ultreya after their weekend. Freddie will attempt to find a place for April 5.

After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m. The next meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 24 – slipped a week because of Holy Week.

2008 meetings are as follows, if approved by Secretariat:
March 24
April 21
May 19
June 16
July 21
August 18
September 15
October 20
November 17
December 15
________________________________________
Minutes from 2/18/08 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Esther Silva, School of Leaders
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee and rising Lay Director
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Mike Green, Treasurer
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Spiritual Director (vacant)
The meeting began at 7:45 p.m. with prayer and group reunion.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• Ongoing Business
o Weekend Sites.
• Village of Mt. Zion. Pete, Mimi and Kathy met with Angie Sabates at VMZ and were able to obtain a fee list. They were able to negotiate a fee of $300 for our closing (Chapel and reception area), which is in addition to the $209 per overnight participant. The Secretariat agreed to subsidize this expense, keeping the per-person fee for the upcoming Women’s Weekend at $200. VMZ will let us know 6 months in advance of any fee changes. Kathy is not certain we can ever get VMZ to actually sign a contract with us.
• Missionhurst. The October 2008 Men’s Weekend has been moved from the Josephite Center to Missionhurst. We also have reserved Missionhurst in 2009 for weekends in March and November.
• Other 2009 sites. It was agreed that the Weekend Committee should continue looking for sites, possibly Shalom, Camp Happyland, or the Diocesan Spirituality Center, for the other two 2009 weekends, which may include a summer weekend. Esther is going to check on a Secretariat visit to the Diocesan Spirituality Center.
• It was agreed that the Treasurer should keep the original of any contracts signed by the Lay Director.
o Kitchen Crews. It was agreed that the Team Selection Committee should form a subcommittee to organize and staff kitchen crews. The Fredericksburg Ultreya has volunteered to do all Sunday kitchen work since they have to be in the weekend site vicinity most of the day, anyway. Mimi has spoken to Jan Prisco, who has agreed to serve on the subcommittee.
o Cursillo Spiritual Director. The search continues. Several suggestions were made. Esther said she would provide language from National requiring us to have either an ordained priest or deacon, or a vowed religious.
o Liability Insurance. We are covered as of 2/12/08. Pete will receive a “certificate of insurance” for us to use when scheduling Diocesan and other sites that require such a document.
o Nonprofit status. Melanie Rigney is working on getting us registered as a 501(c)(3) entity.
o Team Selection. The Committee is calling the August women’s team.
o Fourth Day. Freddie received concurrence from the Secretariat to schedule a fall day of reflection. She also is working on scheduling another day for ultreya coordinators.
o Fairfax SoL. As a Team Formation Workshop, the March SoL will be conducted by the Team Selection Committee. Updates to the PowerPoint should be sent to Trudy as soon as possible. Esther agreed to reserve space at St. Mary of Sorrows for 2008 SoLs on the second Saturday of each month.
• New Business
o Treasurer. Mike Green has agreed to serve as Treasurer.
o Local TV Opportunity. A few years ago, several Cursillistas were taped for a local TV show. The opportunity has again presented itself. The Communications Committee will help to organize this, working with Mimi.
o Committee chair replacements. Both Esther’s (SoL) and Jack’s (Precursillo) terms have expired, and this was their last meeting. There was discussion about successors for both committee chair positions.
After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. The next meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 24 – slipped a week because of Holy Week.

2008 meetings are as follows, if approved by Secretariat:
January 12
February 18
March 24
April 21
May 19
June 16
July 21
August 18
September 15
October 20
November 17
December 15
________________________________________
Minutes from 11/19/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Esther Silva, School of Leaders
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee

Absent: Matt Caputo, Treasurer
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Spiritual Director (vacant)

The meeting began at 7:30 p.m. with prayer and group reunion.

Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• Old Business
o There was much discussion about how to improve the situation at the Village of Mt. Zion. Cursillo’s round tables are stored there. Pete and Kathy will meet with Angie to discuss menus, liturgical issues, chairs and cleaning issues.
o It was resolved that we should have 2 button makers, if only we can locate them. Esther is going to look into a local company that can produce name tags for Cursillistas who have lost theirs or otherwise need new ones and are willing to buy replacements. Order forms can be taken to Ultreyas and posted on the website.
• Ongoing Business
o Dominican Retreat House: Jack reported by phone that he is attempting to renegotiate with DRH to see if the deposit could be paid in installments.
o The young adults’ focus group took place on October 28 at St. Charles with some members of a regularly-meeting faith sharing group. Pete and Jack sat in on the meeting. Trudy is distributing the notes to the Secretariat. It was generally agreed that a slightly older population – mid-30’s to mid-40’s – was more our target group than 20-somethings.
o We still do not have the Treasurer’s annual breakdown of expenses laid out against what was spent the previous year. Committee chairs still need to develop 08 budgets, due before the next Secretariat meeting. Esther reminded everyone that we used to ask for donations at Closings. Pete will be sending out the annual fund raising letter on December 3.
o The new rack card has been distributed to most identified Ultreya coordinators.
o School of Leaders.
• Fairfax School of Leaders will meet on December 8. The morning Mass will be for the Holy Day.
• Esther, Jean Martin, & Mary Lou McGonigle will meet soon to plan out the coming year’s schedule. The idea is to have all three SOLs discussing the same material every month.
• The February Fairfax School of Leaders will be a Team Formation workshop.
o Rectors Manual. Trudy is sending to the Secretariat for final review. Kathy is reviewing it for concurrence with the Angel Workbook.
o Lay Director Selection. The Secretariat agreed on the following schedule for selection of the next Lay Director:
• vision statements are due to Pete from the three nominees by January 7, 2008, and Pete will distribute to the Secretariat;
• interviews and a regular business meeting will take place as the Fairfax SOL on January 12, with the community invited to participate;
• a special Secretariat session will take place on January 21 to elect the new Lay Director. Nominees who are members of the Secretariat will not participate in this meeting.
o There was much discussion about the 2008 calendar. All decisions will be reflected on the website calendar.
o Team Selection. The March 08 Women’s team is complete. Committee is now calling prospective team members for the Men’s Weekend in April 08.
o Fourth Day. The Day of Recollection on Nov. 12 was a great success. Another is scheduled for March 1 in Fredericksburg. Dates for Diocesan Ultreyas were discussed.
• New Business
o Babysitting at Ultreyas. A special appeal will be placed in His Banner asking for babysitting volunteers who have completed the Diocesan requirements for contact with children. Teenagers under 18 do not need to meet these requirements, but there needs to be at least one certified adult present.

After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m. There will be no Secretariat meeting in December.

________________________________________
Minutes from 10/22/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Joan Brown for Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee

Absent: Esther Silva, School of Leaders
Matt Caputo, Treasurer
Fr. Mike Hann, Spiritual Director

The meeting began at 7:30 p.m. with prayer and group reunion.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• Pete began by reading a letter from Fr. Mike Hann, in which he resigned as Lay Director. It has been three years and he is ready to move on to other things. He is willing to continue serving on one team per year. The Secretariat discussed possible replacements. Everyone expressed deep regret over losing Fr. Mike as Spiritual Director, while also expressing sincere appreciation for his service and commitment to Cursillo.
• Old Business
o Pete reported that the evaluation meeting of the team of the 125th Women’s Cursillo would take place on November 11.
o Prompted by input from the Rectora, there was significant discussion about whether to continue using the Village of Mt. Zion as a weekend site. Apart from being very spread out and difficult for any team to manage, there evidently were issues with food and liturgies. The Weekend Committee will see if there are any other venues available for the March 08 Women’s weekend and report back within the next month.
o There was discussion about when payment should be sought from candidates. Although it was decided several years ago to collect payment upon arrival, the Secretariat voted to resume the practice of collecting only at the Sermon on the Amount on the final day of the weekend, with envelopes distributed at that time (not in the Fourth Day packets). Additionally, it was agreed that the practice of not checking to see who had paid and who had not would be resumed; there should be no urging of candidates to pay at any point. The matter will be addressed in the new Rector’s Manual. If collection of payments falls off, this matter will be revisited by the Secretariat.
• Ongoing Business
o 2008 Weekends: Pete is nearly done finding Spiritual Directors for the weekends.
o Dominican Retreat House: Jack Finnerty distributed copies of the proposed contract. It was noted that a sizeable deposit would be required on Nov. 30, 2007. Joan Brown suggested that Jack renegotiate with DRH to see if the deposit could be paid in installments.
o The young adults focus group planning is scheduled for October 28 at St. Charles with some members of a regularly-meeting faith sharing group. Trudy discussed how the focus group would be conducted and invited members of the Secretariat who were interested to observe.
o We still do not have the Treasurer’s annual breakdown of expenses laid out against what was spent the previous year. Committee chairs still need to develop 08 budgets.
o The new rack card design prepared by the Communications Committee is being printed and should be available soon.
o School of Leaders.
• Fairfax School of Leaders will be doing chapter 14 on Nov 10.
• Esther, Jean Martin, & Mary Lou McGonigle will meet in November to plan out the year. Pete will suggest to Esther that it would be a good idea for her prospective successor also to attend to allow buy-in to the schedule.
• Woodstock School of Leaders meets every 4th Friday evening in Hanley Hall, St John Bosco.
• New Business
o Rectors Manual. Currently out for review by some experienced rectors. Trudy raised some issues that had come up as part of the editing process:
• What about judges of skits on weekends? The issue is whether judges can dress up as church hierarchy (“visiting dignitaries”) and poke fun at them. Over the years, this has been a source of much laughter but also a number of complaints. After discussion, it was agreed that while skit judges would be allowed, parodies of church officials would be discouraged.
• What about funds given to Rectors/Angels? The issue is whether cash is given, whether funds are held for possible use by the Weekend Committee, etc. It was decided that Rectors would be advised they have up to $50 that may be reimbursed for expenses. If there are expenditures beyond this amount, upon submission of receipts, the Rector or Angel will receive an acknowledgement of their donation for tax purposes.
o Lay Director Selection. Pete has received 2 nominations so far.

After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m..

________________________________________
Minutes from 9/17/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee

Absent: Esther Silva, School of Leaders
Matt Caputo, Treasurer
Fr. Mike Hann, Spiritual Director

The meeting began with prayer and group reunion.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• Old Business
o Pete reported on his meeting with Bishop Loverde:
• The Bishop would like to have 2 meetings a year with the Lay Director, one with the Bishop and Fr. Ready, and one just with Fr. Ready (Vicar General).
• The Bishop asked to review the list of nominees for Lay Director when it is assembled, before the election takes place.
o Pete reported on the evaluation meeting of the team of the 115th Men’s Cursillo.
o Kudos to SoL for a successful Rector + Angel workshop. A few modifications need to be made to the presentation before its next use.
• Ongoing Business
o 125th Women’s Cursillo: several issues were agreed on:
• A list of motels in the Village of Mount Zion (VMZ) area will be posted on the website and a PNRGram will be sent to the community about this.
• VMZ has suggested that teams come with telephone calling cards. Weekend Committee will suggest this to Angels, with provided general weekend funds being used to purchase them. Unused calling cards are to be returned to the Weekend Committee.
• Also in the PNRGram, a request for “truck palanca” will go out to help move tables up to VMZ.
o Dominican Retreat House negotiations. Jack Finnerty reported that the contract with DRH was not as simple as we originally believed. After much discussion, it was agreed that he would ask DRH to draw up a contract based on their providing 4 meals (lunch and dinner on Friday, dinner on Saturday, and lunch on Sunday), with cursillistas providing all three breakfasts and lunch on Saturday (as well as the team dinner on Thursday, arranged for by the team as usual). For 30 people, this would come to a per person cost of $293.50, with an additional 15% discount. The difference between that rate and what is currently charged for our weekends will be subsidized by Cursillo for 2008. The Lay Director will explain this arrangement and implications for the cost of future weekends in His Banner. There was discussion about the formation of “food teams” but no decisions were made. This was tabled for a future meeting.
o The young adults focus group planning is under way by the Communications Committee. It will be held at St. Charles with some members of a regularly-meeting faith sharing group. Communications Committee hopes to have this accomplished before Thanksgiving.
o We still do not have the Treasurer’s annual breakdown of expenses laid out against what was spent the previous year. Committee chairs still need to develop 08 budgets.
o Pete still has not received any minutes or proceedings from the spring Region II Encounter.
o The new rack card design prepared by the Communications Committee was approved for publication.
o Trudy Dervan is working on revising the Rector’s Manual as fast as she can.
• New Business
o Lay Director Selection. After some email discussion and further discussion in the meeting, it was agreed that the timeframe for this process would be lengthened to allow more time for the Holy Spirit to work. The new schedule is: September and October, community discernment and nominations. November and December, Secretariat discernment and interviews. January, election.

After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned.
________________________________________
Minutes from 8/20/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Fr. Mike Hann, Spiritual Director
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Laura Lyon, Visiting from Fredericksburg

Absent: Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Esther Silva, School of Leaders

The meeting began with group reunion.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• Old Business
o Pete called attention to the article in last week’s Arlington Catholic Herald.
o Cursillo being included in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is still iffy because of some last-minute issues. Pete continues to work with Tony DeCristofaro to see if they can be resolved.
o The new brochure is now available on the website.
o There was a discussion of how names should be elevated for consideration for teams. After some discussion, it was agreed that names should be sought from ultreya coordinators and POCs and presented by the Team Selection Committee to the Secretariat for review. Mimi will bring the names being considered for the spring teams to the next Secretariat meeting for review.
o Lu and Sue Vega are working as our liaisons to the 2008 National Encounter planning by the DC Cursillo. They will attend the September DC Cursillo meeting and report back.
o Diocesan Ultreya at St. John Neumann in August was a great success with good attendance.
• Ongoing Business
o We have rectors for all the 2008 weekends, although we are waiting for some angels and spiritual directors. There was some discussion about “new” priests who might be available for the men’s fall weekend.
o Following the Young Adults Ministry article on the Catholic Herald, Pete called the coordinator, Mary-Rose Lombard, who referred Pete to Therese Bermpohl. He briefly explained Cursillo and said he’d touch base with her again after our article appeared in the Herald. Trudy presented an idea for having a focus group, maybe more, with some young adults to see how Cursillo might speak to them better. It was agreed that the Communications Committee should proceed with planning for this, probably at St. Charles.
o We returned to our discussion on budget planning. It was agreed that (a) we should have an annual breakdown of expenses laid out against what was spent the previous year; (b) Pete will ask Matt Caputo how long it would take him to prepare such a document [timeframe]; and (c) that committee chairs should begin considering expenses for the coming year so that they may be submitted to Matt for the preparation of a budget for 2008.
o Pete said he had never received any minutes or proceedings from the spring Region II Encounter. The Fall Encounter will be in October and Pete promised to get information out to the Secretariat.
o We returned to our discussion about possibly having volunteers help with the food service at the Village of Mount Zion, an issue that was raised by the Woodstock Ultreya. After some discussion, it was agreed that because Cursillo would receive no price break, it made no sense to do this. Mimi will ask Mount Zion for a list of what is provided and what, exactly, we are expected to provide. It was noted that clean-up is much more involved at Mount Zion.
o Additional copies of the new brochure have been printed. Laura Lyon suggested we look into “rack cards,” which are much cheaper to print and could be provided in quantity to the ultreyas. It was agreed that the Communications Committee would look into redesigning the new brochure into a rack card.
o There was much discussion about where the electronic copies – or even print copies -- of the most recent rector’s, angel’s and team formation notebooks are. Several people agreed to search.
o Pete raised the issue of Camp Happyland as a future site for Cursillo weekends that would be more accessible to cursillistas in the diocese’s outer reaches. Laura Lyon came to the meeting to participate in this discussion. After some discussion, it was agreed that (a) someone would work up an estimate of how much Camp Happyland would cost us for a weekend and (b) Laura will set up a visit by a few Secretariat members sometime in October. Pete, Jack, Kathy and Mimi expressed an interest in going.
• New Business
o Weekend Committee. Kathy Adams had a number of questions. It was agreed that we should provide carafes so coffee in the big urns could be made more frequently. Kathy is looking for someone who can schedule weekends. It was agreed that we should continue using the small metal crosses since we do not have a source for the wooden crosses any longer.
o Communications. There was a short discussion about upcoming parish ministry fairs and the need to make a real push at these since we now have the brochures. It was agreed that Freddie should contact ultreya coordinators and POCs about this and see if they need any support from the larger community.

After a closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned.

________________________________________
Minutes from 7/16/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Matt Caputo, Secretary/Treasurer
Absent: Fr. Mike Hann, Spiritual Director
Esther Silva, School of Leaders
Kathy Adams, Weekend Committee

The meeting began with group reunion.
Treasurer: Currently, there is approximately a $6000 balance in our account, minus about $400 paid to Kwik Kopy.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• ’08 Weekends. Pete has rectors for all the ’08 weekends but the women’s weekend in March. He is hopeful that that rectora will be identified very soon.
• September School of Leaders. Will be at Missionhurst and will focus on training and support for rectors and angels. Some discussion ensued about whether this SoL should instead be focused on possible team members. It was agreed that a later SoL could be focused on team members.
Communications. Trudy Dervan.
• New Cursillo brochure. Trudy is working with the Fourth Day Committee to get brochures to ultreya coordinators for posting in parish information racks. It was agreed that another print run should be done to get the brochures out in the diocese in quantity.
• Arlington Herald. The Communications Committee is working to get an article on Cursillo, perhaps an interview with the Lay Director, into the Arlington Catholic Herald.
Precursillo. Jack Finnerty. There are currently 7 women and 3 men confirmed for the fall weekends.
Weekend. Report given by Freddie Wall. The weekend boxes have been inventoried and are being prepped for the fall weekends. There was some discussion about what the components should be in the Fourth Day Packets. It was agreed that this should not be left to the discretion of the rector or the team. The following items will go in the Fourth Day Packets: cover letter from the Lay Director (Trudy to draft); a list of spiritual directors taken from our web site; current copy of His Banner; weekend community lists; Pilgrim’s Guide and Our Fourth Day; flyer of upcoming Cursillo events; and, Hints for Group Reunion.
Team Selection. Mimi Fitzgerald. The fall teams have begun formation. There was much discussion around the fact that the Women’s team has no female spiritual director, only a priest. It was decided that every team needs 2 spiritual directors and that women’s teams need to have one of those be a female spiritual director. Pete will follow up on this.
Fourth Day. Freddie Wall.
• Diocesan Ultreya in August is shaping up. Since Freddie will be out of town for this ultreya, Pete will back up the local ultreya coordinator.
• Ultreya Coordinators gathering has been scheduled for September 22 at Missionhurst. Details are being fleshed out. Freddie is seeking names of Ultreya coordinators and points of contact.
• Spiritual Offerings. A day of recollection has been scheduled at St. Mark Church in Vienna for November 12 (a holiday). The day is being planned by Mary Lou Miller and Jean Sweeney, and Fr. Tuck Grinnell will say a Mass for the group. Additionally, a Lenten day of reflection has been scheduled for March 1, 2008, but no place or spiritual director has yet been identified.

________________________________________
No meeting held in June 2007
________________________________________
Minutes from 5/21/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Fr. Mike Hann, Spiritual Director
Esther Silva, School of Leaders Committee
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo Committee
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection Committee
Judy Hamilton, Weekend Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Trudy Dervan, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent: Matt Caputo, Secretary/Treasurer

The meeting began with a prayer by Fr. Mike. Group reunion followed.
Treasurer: The Treasurer’s report was provided by Pete Roth. Currently, there is a $4828.60 balance in our account. This is after paying the Region II dues and all monies owing to the Josephite Center. The Combined Federal Campaign application has been approved, which means that people can donate to us through payroll deductions. Pete Roth will attend the informational meeting for implementation information.
Lay Director. Pete Roth.
• ’08 National Encounter. The DC Cursillo is gearing up for the ’08 National Encounter, which will be held at the end of June next year. There is some preliminary information in their newsletter, which Pete is distributing to the Secretariat. The Secretariat discussed and agreed that Pete should appoint someone outside the Secretariat to manage our support for the DC Cursillo’s hosting of the ’08 National Encounter, coordinate volunteers, and serve as liaison with DC Cursillo for this purpose. This person will report to the Secretariat but not serve as a member of the Secretariat.
• ’08 Weekends. Pete has tentatively reserved the following weekends for ’08: March 27 at Mount Zion, April 24 at the Josephite Center, May 29 at Mount Zion, and September 4, October 23 and November 20 at the Josephite Center. Jack Finnerty presented a proposal from the Dominican Retreat House in McLean to host an August ’07 Cursillo for 37 people for $225/person. This is much more than we are charging now, but the facility is in the Arlington Diocese and more accessible than the Josephite Center. After much discussion, it was agreed that Jack would approach the Dominican Retreat House about reserving an August ’08 weekend and investigate other possible weekends for ’08 and ’09. The Secretariat agreed that it would finalize ’08 weekend dates at the next meeting.
• Retreat for Seriously Ill needs support in the form of palanca, food/drinks, serenade 8:30 AM Sunday morning, prayers, for their upcoming weekend. Pete will send a PNRGram to the entire community.
• Our Lady of Fatima statue will arrive at the Cathedral on May 31, and Pete will represent Cursillo at that event.
Communications. Trudy Dervan.
• New Cursillo brochure. Copies of the new brochure were distributed and responded to positively. It was agreed that Trudy should look into posting a non-printable version of the brochure on the website. The brochure does not print well on home printers. Trudy will be working with the Fourth Day Committee to get brochures to ultreya coordinators for posting in parish information racks.
• Website issues. Trudy reported that the website has been experiencing serious problems due to the fact that the site has outgrown Frontpage, the program used to develop it. Cursillo needs to migrate the website to a more current and sophisticated program, such as Dreamweaver. A volunteer to manage and accomplish this process has not been found after repeated requests. After discussion, it was agreed that Cursillo may have to hire a programmer to convert the website to a new web program, which will require considerable funds. It was also agreed that the Lay Director should send a letter to cursillistas asking for funds to support this work. It further was agreed that the Lay Director should send out two solicitations each year – one around the first of June, and the other around the first of December. Trudy will provide Pete with a draft.
Precursillo. Jack Finnerty. There are currently 3 women and 1 man confirmed for the fall weekends.
Weekend. Judy Hamilton. The boxes need to be moved to Judy’s house and inventoried. New “loveable” buttons and Cursillo crosses need to be ordered now. It was agreed that upcoming Cursillo events should be put on a flyer to be prominently included in the Fourth Day packets. Communications Committee will design the flyer and provide it to the Weekend Committee.
School of Leaders. Esther Silva. There will be no summer break for the schools. The Secretariat agreed to a September SoL at St. Mary’s that will be devoted to team formation and education. This will require the Lay Director to quickly get the rectors invited for the ’08 spring weekends, and the Team Selection Committee to assemble a list of possible team members who could be encouraged to attend.
Team Selection. Mimi Fitzgerald. The September men’s team is still not quite complete.
Fourth Day. Freddie Wall.
• Diocesan Ultreyas have been scheduled for August 11 at St. John Neumann and November 3 at Sacred Heart, Manassas.
• Ultreya Coordinators gathering has tentatively been scheduled for September 22. Details are being fleshed out.
• Spiritual Offerings are being scheduled. Sr. Anne Jordan at St. Mark’s has offered to host one in the fall, and another will be offered shortly after Lent begins in ’08. Fr. Mike, Trudy and Freddie will meet to discuss next steps, including recruitment of spiritual directors to plan the events.
________________________________________
No meeting held in April 2007
________________________________________
Minutes from 3/19/07 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees: Pete Roth, Lay Director
Fr. Mike Hann, Spiritual Director
Esther Silva, School of Leaders
Jack Finnerty, Precursillo
Mimi Fitzgerald, Team Selection
Trudy Dervan, Communication (note taker)
Absent: Tony DeCristofaro, Fourth Day
Matt Caputo, Secretary/Treasurer
Weekend Committee (vacant)
The meeting began with a prayer by Fr. Mike. Group reunion followed.
Treasurer. The Treasurer’s report was provided by Pete Roth. The ending balance on the last statement was $5,063.60. The appreciation check for St. Mary of Sorrows has been sent but not yet cashed. The $450 bill for the Cursillo affiliation fee has been received and will be paid tomorrow. Regional II dues of $200 will be paid tomorrow. World Cursillo has sent a packet of material, including a request for voluntary donations. Since this material has not yet been reviewed, no decision was made about a donation. Postage has cost $320. After the following printing expense, there will remain a balance of $3743.60: His Banner for the rest of this year, $350.
The Secretariat discussed and agreed on the need for an annual audit of the Movement’s books. Pete Roth was tasked with finding a qualified volunteer to do the job.
Fourth Day. Report provided by Pete Roth. Freddie Wall will be joining this committee. Everyone agreed that the Diocesan Ultreyas need to get scheduled soon.
Weekend Committee. Report provided by Pete Roth. All the weekend materials were delivered to Pete’s home, where they were inventoried. They will be delivered to the Angel for the upcoming Men’s Weekend. Chuck Tiso has agreed to provide Weekend Committee support for the Men’s Weekend. Pete will be talking with the members of the Weekend Committee about finding a new chairman to fill the vacancy.
There followed a discussion about whether the decision to have Mass at Closings should be left to individual rectors. After some debate, it was unanimously agreed that rectors will be told there will be no general Closing Mass allowed except at Mt. Zion, due to the travel distance involved. The weekend communities will have their own final Mass before the Closing, except at Mt. Zion.
Team Selection. Mimi Fitzgerald. Calls are continuing for the team for the September Men’s Weekend.
Precursillo. Jack Finnerty. The spring weekends are still being filled.
There was general discussion about who is responsible for following up with new cursillistas after a weekend. It was agreed that more was better than none. Pete will ask rectors to ensure that teams follow up with cursillistas at least during the first 6 months after the weekend. Jack will ask sponsors to follow up at least at 3 months and 6 months.
Discussion about Cursillo mailing list. Currently, there are 1000 active, 3000 inactive. Those who are labeled “inactive” have bad mailing addresses. The Precursillo Committee would find it useful to be able to access the database so interested possible candidates could be connected with cursillistas in their parishes. It was generally agreed that it would be useful to have at least one official contact person in each parish, especially in those parishes where there is no functioning ultreya. The database is in Access software. Trudy will continue to seek a database specialist to help us manage and update our mailing list.
Spiritual Director. Fr. Mike Hann. There was much discussion about the need for Cursillo spiritual offerings around the diocese. The recent retreat day at Missionhurst was very well attended, indicating an interest in such activities. It was agreed that we will attempt to provide a one-day “retreat” quarterly, spaced geographically throughout the diocese. Fr. Mike and Trudy will work together to build a team of spiritual directors to accomplish this.
School of Leaders. Esther Silva. The name has officially been returned to School of Leaders from Reunion of Leaders. This brings everything – schools and literature – under the same name. All three schools are operating on the schedule developed earlier and published on the web. After the September SOL, Esther would like to start offering the Northern Virginia SOL at parishes other than St. Mary’s quarterly coordinated with Diocesan Ultreyas.
Communication. Trudy Dervan. The deadline for His Banner is past. Everyone was encouraged to get articles in by COB Friday, March 23. There was general discussion about including articles by cursillistas that focus on the essentials of each of the Weekend’s talks. Trudy agreed to look into this.
It was agreed that Secretariat Minutes would henceforth be published on the website.
Trudy will be seeking a generous donor to professionally print some of the new color brochures.
After closing prayer, the meeting was adjourned.
Next meeting will be on Monday, April 16, 7:30 p.m., Pete Roth’s house

Minutes of the Secretariat

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Minutes from 12/14/09 Secretariat Meeting

Monday, December 7, 2009

Minutes from 3/19/2007 thru 11/16/2009