The meeting opened with a prayer composed by Dan Bartley:
"Dear Lord,
We ask that you grace us with your presence here this evening so that we might be attentive to your will and your desire for our organization and for our Church.
Help us to listen carefully to one another.
Help us to respond to one another with patience, kindness, and respect.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen."

The minutes of the May 19, 2005 BOD meeting were read and accepted.

Announcements:
The next BOD evening of prayer is September 22, 2005.

Protocol for Board meetings is as follows: Directors should introduce themselves at the beginning of each BOD meeting. When Board issues are being discussed, Board members have the floor. They may ask for input from non-board members. It time is short, this procedure may be curtailed.

There will be a Mass said for the intentions of LI-VOTF on 9/24/05 at 5PM at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch.

Visitor Pat Cuomo addressed the BOD. Mr. Cuomo's brother had been abused here on LI and Pat Cuomo was recounting some of the issues surrounding this situation. This was an informative presentation and no action was required by the BOD.

Anne Kerrigan was unanimously elected as the Secretary for LI-VOTF.

Discussion ensued re the election of a member at large to the Executive Committee since Anne Kerrigan is now the Secretary. It was decided to defer this issue until a later time.

Discussion ensued re the BOD business retreat which had been held on June 4, 2005.
The seminar was conducted by Fr. Joe Lynch, an organizational expert. A conclusion reached was that long range planning for the next 3-5 years is needed and it is the responsibility of the BOD to formulate that goal. Fr. Lynch indicated that the activities and thinking of the BOD should be directed toward future strategic planning. It was also recommended by Fr. Lynch that the committee reports be sent to the Executive Committee rather than take time from BOD activities. The reports should be short and concise and indicate, when necessary, when the committee wants or needs assistance. Discussion also ensued re the need to utilize the many gifts and talents of the LI-VOTF membership.

Some suggestions:
One of the methods discussed was to invite a BOD member to a PV meeting and have that person interact with the membership of that PV so that a relationship is encouraged.

Another suggestion was to encourage members to become involved at the parish level since change will ultimately happen at the local level.

Have a Business/Social meeting as a Regional meeting: a "think tank" meeting which would allow the membership to discuss issues and get to know one another.

Continued education re the Vatican II documents

Pat Zirkel will send the minutes of the June 4th meeting to the members of the BOD who were not present.

Discussion ensued re finances. Kevin Connors. LI-VOTF is averaging monthly donations of $6000. per month but our expenses are about $7100. per month. There are significant fixed expenses such as: newsletter, rentals and meeting expenses, speakers' fees and insurance fees. The goal of the Finance Com. is to decrease average expenses and build up a reserve fund so that we have a twelve month operating fund for expenses. One of the methods would be to consider decreasing the speakers' fees to $100. Also, there will be careful examination of printing expenses and disbursements from the operating fund will be postponed. At present, monthly expenses for the monthly postcards are about $262. New methods of communicating the reminder of the monthly meeting will be considered. (such as via the newsletter or email and web site only) Careful budgetary considerations will be implemented until we get the operating fund out of the "threatened" category. Other areas discussed were: the possibility of taking a poll to see how many snail mail members attend the monthly meetings, the possibility of increased donations and/or dues, and the consideration of a Christmas envelope. It was stressed that, in keeping with our goal of openness and transparency, that this important financial news should be shared at the monthly meeting. No definitive decisions were made but the conversation re finances will continue.

Discussion ensued re The Vigils Committee. Due to the importance of the continuing vigils, this committee will make announcements at each Regional meeting. They will also have handouts and these handouts will be printed at the personal expense of the Vigils Committee.

The Liaison Committee announced that there would be a report by the end of the month.

Discussion ensued re nominations for the BOD. The members of the Nominating Committee are Nancy Massaro, Judy Grillo, Bill McCully and Rich Eschmann. The members of the present BOD were asked to inform the Nominating Committee if they are planning to run again for the BOD. The request for nominees will also be put forth to the PV's. The Executive Committee will serve as ad hoc members of the Nominating Committee. Nominations must be in by August 1st. In order to align the Nominating Committee with the current By-Laws, there will be an amendment proposed to be voted on in July.

Discussion ensued re the possibility of having alternate BOD members. Pat Zirkel requested any BOD member who is interested in this possibility to please submit a proposal.

Discussion ensued re future speakers at the Regional meetings. In order to avoid any controversial issues that may be misinterpreted and thus be considered a goal of VOTF, it was suggested that the BOD screen the future speakers. Topics should be chosen and then speakers "chosen" to fit the desired topic. This method will also enable VOTF to "vet" the speakers. This method will have the desired effect of enabling LI-VOTF to clarify any future topics as presented by the speakers. Conversation on this matter will continue.

Mary & Ken Kiernan of Rockaway in the Brooklyn Diocese have asked to be affiliated with LI-VOTF since their affiliate is, in reality, inactive. It was suggested that Mary & Ken (and any other members of their affiliate who are interested) become part of a cluster with the West Nassau PV. Tom Dowling and Joan Bedosky will confer with the Kiernan's re this possibility.

Lisa Braglia made the following announcements: SNAP is very grateful for the support of LI-VOTF and of the Vigils Committee and they have written a letter to that effect. The proposed letter to Bishop Murphy re Father McConaghy will be reviewed by Tom Dowling.

Tom Dowling of the Communications Committee has announced that Bruce Thompson of Klikawa will be the new web site manager. Tom Dowling announced that it will cost an initial $700.00 to redesign and set up a new website. This will include setting up a new data base system and regular updates as well as managing the data base. It will then be an additional $150.00 per month. A motion was made to accept this fee schedule and the motion passed.

Tom Dowling of the Legislative Committee announced that a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman M. Markey allows for the extension of civil and criminal cases in sexual abuse situations has passed in the Assembly. It has yet to pass in the Senate.

The Intercongregational Mission Initiative (IMI) meeting has been deferred until September. The IMI members are very supportive of VOTF and plan to attend the next LI-VOTF Regional meeting at the Dominican Motherhouse in Amityville. This meeting on July 14th will be a prayer meeting.

It was announced that some members of the BOD will be attending the VOTF Convocation in Indianapolis. It is hoped that many new ideas will be discussed at the Convocation and that LI-VOTF will be able to apply those ideas to our own situation here on Long Island. There will be a LI-VOTF table at the Convocation.

The meeting closed with the Our Father.