Time: 7:30-10:00 PM
Place: Hauppauge Village Hall, Hauppauge, New York

Present:
Board Of Directors (BOD) Members:
Joan Bedosky
Jean McQuaid
Kevin Connors
Phil Megna
Johanna DiGiovanni
John Mulvey
Tom Dowling
Tom Myles

Excused:
Dan Bartley
Sr. Regina McAuley
Joe Kern
Joan Psotto
Anne Kerrigan
John Ryan
Pat Zirkel

Guests:
Leo Cuomo
Collette Haller
Pat Cuomo
Nancy Massaro
Penny Duggan
George Sheppard
Judy Grillo
Mary Steele

Meeting opened with prayer led by Johanna DiGiovanni.

It was the general consensus to proceed with the meeting as there was a quorum of eight, which is required to conduct the business of the corporation.

Meeting was facilitated by Tom Myles as prearranged with consent of Directors.

Minutes of July 21st:
Minutes were corrected to include the request made for an action plan addressing the Membership Drive Committee which was presented at July 21st. meeting by Tom Lloyd. Amended as follows: “The committee will develop an action plan for approval by the Board of Directors”.

Member requested that copies of minutes being discussed be available at each BOD meeting. Secretary will be responsible to provide additional copies of minutes (3) Minutes approved for posting on web site.

Announcements:
Leo Cuomo: Lost Sheep Program –Sunday, August 21, 2005 after each of the Masses- at St. Joseph’s Kings Park(7,9,10,10:15,11,12)
Next Vigil – Sunday, Sept.11, 2005 at 10AM at St Agnes Cathedral Rockville Centre
Tom Myles-Parents For Megan’s Law (PFML) Dinner – Thursday, October 6, 2005 at Villa Lombardi in Holbrook.
Honoree will be District Attorney Tom Spota.
Tom M asked the Board to support Laura Ahearn and Megan’s Law by taking a $100 ad in their journal. It was confirmed that taking an ad in support of Megan’s Law would not be an endorsement of a candidate for public office. Tom will contact Laura Ahearn and inform her of VOTF support.

Statement of Strategy:
Discussion ensued re pre-existing ‘Statement of Strategy’ which was developed in March, 2004 by a committee of members from LIVOTF, and others. This committee identified four areas on which to focus over the next 3-5 years. The Board mandate for its August meeting was to review the ‘Statement of Strategy’ and come prepared to discuss need to update and incorporate the nine resolutions drafted by the attendees of the Convocation in Indianapolis. Tom M. asked each board member to weigh in with their thoughts/ideas.

Thoughts/Ideas that surfaced were as follows:
-Fine tune our Mission Statement –‘Making Our Voices Heard’
-At the parish level-get involved with parish ministries, parish activities, Pastoral Council.(PC)
-Put on a drive to improve participation of laity.
-Find out how we can improve effectiveness of PCs
-Increase number of PCs by 10%
-At the diocesan level-how to get our voices heard? Protect Our Children Program, Diocesan PC.
-At the National level-promote local action to address newly elected national representatives, ask expertise of CPA ‘type’ person to help set standards of accountability for Parishes.
-Proceed with education programs of laity so that we have well informed laity with expertise in specific areas.
-Strategy good but not enough. Don’t eliminate any points of strategy but broaden them to include the ‘how-to’of implementation.
-Design a proactive program that isn’t dependent on church leadership to get it out.
-Plan visits to bishop/bishop reps/priests, since letters to hierarchy/clergy are not answered (12 unanswered)
-Concentrate less energy on revising strategy plans and more on developing action plan for holding bishops/priests/laity accountable.
-Document LIVOTF’s successes to foster hope and stimulate diminishing membership participation.
-Provide members in PVs direction and specific ‘how to’ methodology.
-Member strongly recapped discussion reiterating that we are an established organization with specific goals and objectives, necessary to the efficient operation of any viable corporation. It was suggested that all members write out and submit their ideas, constructive suggestions to the BOD, for further discussion.

Presentation on “Our Fathers” by Penny and George:
Purpose: gaining board approval of previously distributed ‘action steps’ to be taken by Parish Voices. Board members present expressed need to review past reports and a further developed hand-out which was distributed at meeting. This necessitated re-scheduling ‘Our Fathers’ for the next board meeting.

Elections:
Judy and Nancy reported nominations were closed August 1, 2005. There are eight candidates who are eligible to run for office this November, all having satisfied the criteria for candidacy as established by the Nominating committee - Ron Eschmann, Judy Grillo, Nancy Massaro, and Bill McCully. There are eight candidates for five positions. Nominating Committee is in final stages of interviewing candidates. Upon completion of same, all names and biographies will be submitted to Pat Zirkel with bias and recommendation of the committee.

Discussion of new report from Dick Grafer:
Kevin states that the gist of this report is that the diocese continues to be a wealth building system. This diocesan financial report is accessible on line. Kevin suggests reading executive summary which addresses issues to defend its position.

Finance Committee is preparing the 2006 budget:
Kevin requests committees meet between Sept 1 through the 15th to discuss goals/costs/incoming money/expected expenditures for submission to Kevin by November 1, 2005. Budget/finance will work on budget November and December and present to the board on January 15, 2006.
Board approved the following Compassion Fund Distributions:
a-$500 to The Mercy Inn
b-$500 to Christa House
c-$1000 not approved pending specific named fund/charity.

Prayer Team:
Johanna has contacted Sr. Margaret in follow up to members’ requests for additional nights of prayer, possibly held quarterly? Two evenings of prayer have been tentatively scheduled pending board approval.
Nov 15, 2005 not a Regional meeting night
January 12, 2006 at Regional Meeting
These will be held at the Amityville Mother House 7:30-9:30 PM
Cost for Prayer Leader will be approximately $200. Both meetings approved by the board.
Discussed also was to schedule a Prayer Night in conjunction with SNAP.

Legislative Committee:
Tom Dowling reports Joe Kern active in Albany lobbying both Senate and Assembly. Joe reports that Senate and Assembly have separate bills/approaches. He thinks there will be an effort to consolidate all these “offender, reporting, Megan’s law” issues into one ombudsman bill which may not look like anything pending currently so he implores us to keep up the pressure. Joe recommends we put a team together to go North in Sept/Oct and November.

In the absence of Co Chairs three agenda items were not addressed, namely Establishing National VOTF Priorities
Speakers at Regional Meetings (need for LT plan for speakers?) : Preliminary discussion of further educational efforts by LI VOTF.

Meeting adjourned by Tom Myles at 10PM.

Closing Prayer-Johanna

Submitted by Jean McQuaid