CAUTION: OUR FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETY IS NOT IRREPLACEABLE

While doing some on-line surfing I came across an article written by Matthew Swyers1 for Inc. Magazine, which talks about how indifference by business owners and employees push away our customers to our competitors. Mr. Swyers wanted to buy a cake but the store would not be open for another 10 minutes; although he saw employees behind the counter, not one would show him the courtesy to open the door and take care of him. He was in a hurry to get the cake; he was a customer that was recognized by the employee but the employee’s indifference drove him to another bakery with inferior products but one that served him when he needed a solution to his need.

Upon reading this article I could not help think about the continuous struggle of retaining our hard earned new members. Have we ever stopped to think how often:
· a rushed and un-prepared first degree ceremony,
· an unceremonious new member presentation,
· a joke of poor taste told in the middle of the Council meeting,
· a Grand Knight who allowed the meeting to go totally out of order,
· a sick brother who no one contacted after several months absence,
has driven away a potentially great member to make him an ex-member in less than a year? How painful it is to find this ex-member only to hear how he lost all interest in the Knights of Columbus and how not even his sponsor reached out to find out what happened.

Successful Councils use a simple but very effective tool: they keep their members interested, enthusiastic and active. To achieve this every member must be invited and asked to be personally involved in the life of the Council.

The Supreme Council representatives have seen the problem of retention not only in every Jurisdiction of the United States, but in every jurisdiction that the Order is or has been active in for any length of time. That is why they developed an effective retention strategy and program which include a number of well defined action steps that start at the new member’s first degree such as:

· Take the newly initiated member and his family under your wing. See that he learns council procedures (such as meeting times, committee assignments, etc.) and meets other council members.
· Telephone members and remind them of meetings.
· Offer to provide transportation to members who would like to attend council functions, but don't have the means to get there.
· Answer questions. Members will ask why council activities are done in a certain way and if things can be changed. Provide them with sufficient information.
· Inquire about the particular interests of the members through membership surveys.
· Help new members make new friends in the council by introducing them to all fellow Knights.
· Be aware of personality conflicts and try to avoid them as much as possible.
· Do all you can to help members feel important to the Council.
· Get members' names in the council's newsletter, both when they join and as they begin to take an active role.
· Be sure members' names are always spelled correctly, whether in the membership directory, on a name tag at a meeting or in a news story.
· Accompany your recruit to his Second and Third degree exemplifications and stay with him throughout the day or evening.
· Introduce him and his family at council events. Encourage him to involve his family in council-sponsored activities.
· Always make it a point to contact the new member before each council meeting and bring him to a meeting if necessary.
· If the new member becomes inactive in council activities, try to find out why. Call and ask to visit with him. Explain your concern about his absence and offer support or assistance.
· If the Knight becomes in danger of being suspended, his proposer should work with the retention committee to find out the reasons for his lapsed interest and to work to conserve his membership. With a little personal effort you can help guarantee that your recruit becomes not only an active member of the Knights of Columbus, but a member for life.

In the multi-cultural area, these problems are magnified because of language and cultural differences, lack of knowledge between the relationship of the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus. For example, the Order has had a presence in Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The members we have recruited in Florida come from Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Haiti, Jamaica, Lebanon and Syria just to name a few.

It is unreasonable to expect that new Council can work independently without the dedicated and continued guidance of a knowledgeable and cooperative Knight. In the English speaking Councils it should be achieved with the transfer in of some experienced Knights. With more than 30 Spanish speaking Councils in Florida we now have some experience Knights who can guide new Councils. The Creole and Arabic speaking Councils are bringing English speaking “brothers” who are helping them through the early development.

The community service organizations such as Lions, Kiwanis and Rotary have learned this lesson well: they assign a “Guiding” member for a period of up to four years to make sure they don’t lose the Club to indifference.

When a member becomes disinterested and unattended, he like Matthew Swyers, will find the one alternative activity or organization that keeps him interested and gives the satisfaction to replace the Knights of Columbus.

Retention, just like new member growth, is everybody’s business! As we approach the anniversary of the founding of our Order, let’s make the decision and commitment that we will do whatever is possible to retain those members that we brought to our honored Order, the KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS.

Lorenzo A. Rodriguez
Director
Spanish and Multicultural Membership Development

1. Matthew Swyers is the founder of The Trademark Company, a web-based law firm specializing in protecting the trademark rights of small to medium-sized businesses.

MEANING TO OUR LIVES

Anthony Robbins, a leading authority in the field of leadership psychology tells us: "It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute ... that gives meaning to our lives."
You get pleasure from reading a book. You get purpose from teaching a child to read. You have fun going out with your friends. You receive fulfillment when visiting and consoling a sick friend. The most passionate people in life are those who wake each morning with the goal to better themselves and the world around them. And you’ll know when you get there because your life will feel complete - every day.
And what are those actions if not everyday actions of the practice of the virtue of CHARITY? The first and principal principle of our Order - The Knights of Columbus.

Saving Lives in the Capital

Congress is on track to support President Obama’s decision to fund abortion with your tax dollars in the District of Columbia. Legislation is coming down the pike that weakens the Dornan amendment, a longstanding policy to restrict tax-funded abortions in our nation’s capital.Tomorrow evening the House Appropriations Committee will have an opportunity to change this decision. Representatives Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and Lincoln Davis (D-TN) will offer a bipartisan amendment to restore the ban on taxpayer funded abortions in the District of Columbia.
Why does this matter? Put simply, laws save lives. When the government isn’t subsidizing abortion on demand, we see fewer abortions.Even the other side recognizes this. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, routinely issues reports showing that when public funding is not available, we see 30% fewer abortions among women who are eligible for Medicaid. That means at least 30% of babies whose mothers receive government subsidized health care survive because of abortion funding restrictions like the Dornan Amendment.This is why it is so important that you act now to support this amendment. We can still save the lives of precious unborn children in the District of Columbia.
Click here now and contact these important Members of the Appropriations Committee and tell them pro-life laws like the Tiahrt/Davis Amendment save lives!
http://www.sba-list.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=ddJBKJNsFqG&b=4179747&aid=12529

Obama Sacks Bioethicists From Bush Years, Wants More Policy, Less Philosophy

WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- U.S. President Barack Obama gave an early termination notice to bioethicists picked by his predecessor for an advisory board.

According to a New York Times report from last week, Obama wants the committee to focus more on "practical policy," rather than discussion of issues.He thus ended the bioethicists' terms a few months early (they were originally to serve in the position until September), and will appoint new members to the board.

According to ethicist E. Christian Brugger, the "push to get practical in bioethical discourse is a bad sign."Writing for the Culture of Life Foundation, Brugger said this shift "signals a turn away from urgent questions such as whether human embryos deserve full moral respect or whether 'human dignity' means that all persons, even the disabled and dying, possess equal value.""It turns discourse from the question of 'should' to the question of 'how,'" he lamented.Brugger contended that the chief virtue of the Bush appointees was "a willingness and ability to formulate and struggle with ethical questions."

He noted that their conclusions sometimes differed from the Catholic view, but that "the commission in general took seriously the kind of people we become as a result of asking the questions. It knew that scientific advancement doesn’t always translate into good moral options."

Bush appointed the council in 2001. U.S. presidents since Jimmy Carter have had a bioethics advisory council, but their leanings depend on the personal outlooks of the president.

START OF THE YEAR OF THE PRIEST

This Friday June 19th, 2009, is the eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The evening will mark the beginning of the worldwide celebration of the Year of the Priest, as designated by Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. The Archdiocese of Miami will usher in the Year with a Mass at 7:00pm at St. John Bosco parish followed by Eucharistic Adoration throughout the evening and early morning hours. The Mass will be celebrated by Fr. Roberto Garza, the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Miami, possibly joined by the archbishop and one or more of the auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese.

The Eucharistic vigil will close with a dawn Mass celebrated at 5:00am on Saturday morning.

Fr. Garza has invited all men and women of the Archdiocese of Miami to join this special celebration of the Year of the Priest by attending one or both Masses and spending time with the Holy Eucharist at St. John Bosco this Friday June 19th. Your attendance is a wonderful opportunity to show your love and support of your archdiocesan priests. Please make every effort not to miss this time of special grace.

St. John Bosco Church is located at 1358 West Flagler Street, Miami, FL.
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Editor: I thank Brother Gerry Wood, Miami Council 1726, for the above information on the start of the Year of the Priest Celebration.

URGE CONGRESS TO SUPPORT HEALTH CARE REFORM

U.S. Senate and House committees are expected to debate healthcare reform bills in mid-June.In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access to health care should not depend on where a person works, how much a family earns, or where a person lives. Instead, every person, created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality health care.For more information, please see:

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Action Alert on Healthcare Reform, June 2, 2009
Statement for the Record, Bishop William F. Murphy, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, May 20, 2009

ACTION: Please contact Senators Nelson and Martinez and your congressional representative to urge them to support health care reform that respects human life and dignity, from its earliest beginnings to its natural end.Click the link below to log in and send your message: http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/fcc33985117.aspx

FIRST RELIC OF CRISTIANITY IN THE NEW WORLD

The Cross of Parra (tree indigenous to Caribbean countries), the oldest symbol of Christianity in America, was planted in 1492 by Christopher Columbus during his first voyage to the New World, in the extreme north eastern Cuba.

Diego Velázquez, a Captain accompanying Columbus on his second voyage to America, was in Hispanola (present day Dominican Republic), received the title of Advance Governor from King Ferdinand of Spain, to the island of Cuba, and the authorization for the search of gold, the founding of towns and evangelizing Indians. Pursuant to the Royal Order, Velázquez, aided by some companions of the first voyage of Columbus, was fortunate to discover in perfect condition, the Cross of Parra, planted twenty years before, and founded there, in 1512, the first town of Cuba, known as Our Lady of the Ascension of Baracoa.

The appearance and possession of the Cross was considered a good omen in the colonization and evangelization in actual implementation of the royal mandate. The primate Spanish villa on the island was only a village of forty huts, but following the formalities of the time, Velázquez gave it the title of city, gave it his coat of arms, the plaza, symbolically and installed the first bishop of Cuba.

Columbus, during his first voyage to America (1492), planted 29 of these crosses in many places in the New World and the one in Baracoa, Cuba, is the only one that is preserved. The Cross of Parra was made of wood and the ends are protected with uvilla brass silver lining to prevent the faithful from pulling their chips as a relic. Scientific research (including the carbon 14 test by an American university), confirmed the antiquity of the Christian symbol.

Residents and visitors to the first city pay respectful tribute of admiration and faith at the location of the Cross of Parra, relics of incalculable historical value to Cuba and humanity.

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I thank the Most Rev. Carlos de Jesus Baladrón, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Guantánamo Baracoa for providing this Blog with a copy of the article published in the magazine "Claras Luces" of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba which was written by Fr Valentín Sanz González, CM.