Minutes from the 8/24/10 Secretariat Meeting
Attendees:
Mimi Fitzgerald, Lay Director
Mike Green, Treasurer
Phil Kiko, Weekend Committee
Mary Lou McGonigle, School of Leaders
John Rausch, Team Selection Committee
Freddie Wall, Fourth Day Committee
Melanie Rigney, Communications Committee (note taker)
Absent:
Joan Sheppard, Precursillo
Fr. Tuck Grinnell, Spiritual Director
The meeting at Mimi Fitzgerald’s house in Arlington, VA, began at 7:05 p.m. after prayer and sharing.
• Treasurer’s Report. Mike reported we have a balance of a little more than $8,000 after paying for the Women’s Weekend and making a deposit for the upcoming Men’s Weekend. We have recently received $620 in donations from the community and another $409 in donations via PayPal. We spent $1,332 on food during the Women’s Weekend ($40 per person for the entire Weekend) and $4,065 on the San Damiano Spiritual Life Center, the site of the Weekend.
• Pre-Cursillo: We have one candidate so far for the upcoming Men’s Weekend.
• Team Selection. Mimi will begin making calls for a rectora for the spring 2011 Women’s Weekend March 17-20 at Missionhurst. George Darnell will be the rector and Father Stefan the priest on the spring 2011 Men’s Weekend April 7-10 at Missionhurst. Discussion ensued about possible priests for the Women’s Weekend.
• School of Leaders. Mary Lou reported things are going well at all three locations: Fredericksburg, Woodstock, and Northern Virginia. Discussion ensued about possible successors when Mary Lou’s Secretariat term expires in April 2011.
• Weekend Committee. Phil reported that everything went well with the August Women’s Weekend at San Damiano. Overall, people were very happy with the facility. There was discussion about how to handle Mass if we have one on future Weekends at the facility (the chapel may be a little small for our needs) and about making it easier for those on the Weekend to use the courtyard.
• Communications. Mel shared her privacy concerns about a number of initiatives related to our Web site and use of our database there (public listing of the entire community for prayers, allowing people to update their own information in the database, allowing people to access the database for ZIP code searches and the like). The Secretariat agreed that the database will not be housed on the Web site and that related initiatives should stop. Discussion ensued about the name change for our newsletter to Our Banner. Mel will ask Lyn McGee, the Banner editor and publisher, to provide names of Cursillistas in the Winchester area to Mimi for sharing with the Tisos (Weekend Committee). Lyn also will be asked to give Mimi the number of people in the database so Mimi has it to share with Cef Aguillon of National Cursillo when he visits in September. The Communications Committee will add a link to the Arlington Cursillo home page for people to e-mail Lyn with changes to their contact information. We also discussed ways to let the community know about current and upcoming Secretariat vacancies. Mary Lou and Freddie will provide Mel with job descriptions and Mel will post them on the Web site in hopes of generating interest.
• Octoberfest. John recommended that we cancel this year’s event because many of the people who were critical to last year’s success are not available and only a limited amount of publicity has occurred. The Secretariat agreed to cancel 2010 Octoberfest in favor of providing more time to prepare for 2011 Octoberfest. Mel volunteered to come up with games and activities for children and adults for the next Octoberfest.
• PayPal. Mike is looking into creating buttons for each specific use we would have for PayPal.
• Cef Aguillon. Cef Aguillon of National Cursillo will be in our diocese on September 8. A potluck dinner will be held at St. Charles Borromeo in Arlington at 7 p.m. Mimi asks that the Secretariat members each prepare a brief summary of the status of their committees. Mimi plans to open up the event to our entire community.
• Lay Director Selection. Mimi is willing to serve a fourth year as is her option. She would like to begin the discernment process for her successor in April 2011 by asking the community for their thoughts. We would then have candidates state their philosophies and answer questions in a public forum, with plans for the new lay director to assume his or her responsibilities in April 2012. Mike Green said that also would be a good time to seek a new treasurer.
The meeting closed at 8:35 p.m. with prayer.
