National Council of the United States
Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Inc.
Official Minutes of the 2017 Midyear
Business Meeting
St. Louis, MO March 25, 2017
President Sheila Gilbert opened the Business Meeting with a prayer at 9:00 a.m. CDT. Board members present included Ben Vaissade, Margarita Galindo, Althea Graham, Mike Nizankiewicz, Dave Barringer, Barbara Slaven, Bill Migley, Jeanne Harper, Dom Visco, Brian O'Donnell, Dick Reimbold, Patricia Sickinger, Bill Henckler, Mike Pazzaglini, Ray Sickinger, Tom Fahl, Jack Murphy and Ron Guz. Linda Strasburg and Ralph Hassel did not attend the meeting.
ITEM: President’s Report Sheila Gilbert
· Our challenge to action is focused on Extension. Exciting things are happening to make the Council more visible. Let your conferences know to be welcoming to people who ask about becoming a member.
· New presidents should seriously consider coming to Invitation for Renewal. You will learn practical things on how to get things done. Traditionally Seton Cove was the location in Indianapolis, the sacred place. But the overflow hotel we used, the Marten House, has been torn down. We have a new retreat house, here in the St. Louis Area. You can be one of the first to experience Invitation for Renewal in this new place.
· You should have a long range plan for this next year, where do you want your focus to be? The people we serve have become much more vulnerable due to the turmoil in Washington, DC. We need to pay attention to the Voice of the Poor action alerts; get signed up. When something is going to be voted on, you will know about it. Health care legislation was impacted by thousands of calls to the Senators and Representatives saying please don’t let this happen. The Hispanic community is concerned about immigration right now. Many are afraid to be anywhere in public or out in the community. The Society is important as a voice for the people we serve. We can be a place of calm, not fear. Decisions that are made in fear are usually wrong. We make our decisions in love and hope. Take that back to your Councils. It is God’s providence that is acting right now; God is in charge.
· Sheila asked the new Council Members and Proxies to introduce themselves:
18 Proxies / 16 New Council MembersDiocese
Diocese of Green Bay / Wally Jacques / Stephany Brown / Diocese of Tucson
Diocese of Spokane / Victor Vera / Ray Sweet / ADCC Los Angeles
Diocese of Tyler / Roger Opiela / Allen Demma / ADCC New Orleans
Diocese of Knoxville / Patricia Farner / Dennis Coyne / Diocese of Covington
Diocese of Baton Rouge / Myrna Bouchereau / Ken Stewart / Diocese of Lexington
Diocese of Phoenix / Mary Ann Hunter / Carol Croom / ADCC Galveston/Houston
ADCC of Atlanta / Mark Bataillon / Ron Nichols / ADCC of Hartford
Diocese of Fargo / Marci Loomis / Antonio Mireles / Diocese of El Paso
Diocese of Owensboro / Juanita Faye May / Ron Plasse / Diocese of Santa Rosa
Diocese of Cleveland / John Patton / Pat McMann / Diocese of Ft. Worth
ADCC Milwaukee / James Hafenstein / Diane Mead / ADCC of Omaha
Diocese of Oakland / Greg Govan / Bruce Gillett / Diocese of Orlando
ADCC of Miami / Frank Werle / Kathleen Ramirez / ADCC of New York
Diocese of Wilmington / Frank Walder / Sean Myers / Diocese of Dallas
Archdiocese of Boston / Dick LaPorte / Nancy Jones / Diocese of St. Petersburg
Diocese of Superior / Christine McCarthy / Noreen Valadez / Diocese of Oklahoma City
Diocese of Sioux Falls / Antoinette Miller
Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend / Frank Oddou
2017 Absent Councils /
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March 25, 2017
Archdiocese of LouisvilleArchdiocese of Mobile
Archdiocese of San Francisco
Diocese of Albany
Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown
Diocese of Belleville
Diocese of Biloxi
Diocese of Charleston
Diocese of Charlotte
Diocese of Dallas
Diocese of Gaylord
Diocese of Grand Rapids
Diocese of Great Falls-Billings
Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux
Diocese of Jefferson City
Diocese of Lafayette
Diocese of Little Rock
Diocese of Metuchen
Diocese of Monterey
Diocese of Palm Beach
Diocese of Providence
Diocese of Puerto Rico
Diocese of Rochester
Diocese of Saginaw
Diocese of San Bernardino
Diocese of San Jose
Diocese of Stockton
Diocese of Toledo
Diocese of Wichita
Diocese of Youngstown
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March 25, 2017
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March 25, 2017
ITEM: The Consent Agenda, including Reports and Minutes of the 2016 National Assembly Business Meeting, was moved, seconded and approved. 61 is the quorum for this meeting, 87 National Council Members and Proxies are present.
ITEM: Treasurer’s Report Mike Nizankiewicz
January Financials
· Not all National Council Members received the January financials, so they will be sent both the January and February Financials this month.
· The Statement of Financial Position can best be described with cautious optimism; the figures look optimistic, but we still have a lot of expenses. Strong revenue sources give a total of $6.8 million. Endowment Fund now has $249,000. A portion of large bequests are put into the Endowment Fund and we only use the interest gained each year.
· Statement of Activities, Solidarity is down a bit, some of the Council’s experienced a decrease. Net Assets are at $5.3 million with an increase of $800,000 from last year.
· Donor Restricted funds have to be honored. A portion of the funds have been designated by the board as restricted. $1.5 unrestricted funds are available for operations. As of January, we are at 53% of our operating expenses. We agreed that we will be taking another look at the reserved level.
· Donor Restricted expenditures are mainly from Disasters, Friends of the Poor and Direct Aid. Funds will be distributed to the program participants.
Investment Performance
· Buckingham Asset Management has a written fiduciary policy that they act in the client’s best interest. They are held to a higher fiduciary standard.
· Original investment of $1,956,000 now has a portfolio value of $2,510,000 in February 2017, net $900,000 in gains and an annualized rate of return of 4.52%. We take a conservative approach. Our designated investment allocation had been 75/25. We asked that they adjust our allocation to yield $85,000. They recommended that we modify to 60/40. We will meet $85,000 by September. Through the first three months our gain is pretty good.
ITEM: Resolution 138 – Approval of the 2017-2018 Budget Tom Pelger
Resolution Motioned and Seconded.
· We would bring in about $8 million dollars, forecast about $30,000 more than that. Solidarity is 5% below budget, forecast about 6% below budget. Better than forecast on Investment Multi-Channel and Bequests. Very positive, we are in good shape right now.
· Expenses total just over $4 million, budgeted to spend $200,000 more than we would take in. We are not spending as much as we forecast, we will probably spend less than budgeted.
· Development and Multi-channel spending will be less and generate more revenue than budgeted.
· We are running ahead of budget on Income, we are in good shape for the year.
· Budget for National Staff Dave Barringer
o NAS, Inc. is a separate board to manage insurance program for small conferences
o Foundation will be a separate Corporation with two positions CEO and COO and no additional bodies
o Disaster Services Corporation is in the process of incorporating
o National Reentry Program, Coordinator and State Coordinators, fall under the CCHD grant. If we don’t have new funding the positions will drop off.
· New positions include a professional CFO. (The complexity of our finances is such that we need a CFO. Finance Committee said we need one as soon as possible.) Also includes an administrative assistant.
· Salary/Benefits are up 12%, which includes the CFO and Admin positions, 3% merit pool, and some market based salary increases, with a total up $200,000.
· Development Income of Friends of the Poor Walk and National Vehicle Development Program funds go back to the Councils and Conferences, bringing in $5-6 million a year.
Budget Resolution 138 was approved unanimously.
ITEM Governance Report Tom Fahl
Tom clarified that the Governance Mentoring Program was not the program mentioned by the Extension Committee earlier in the meeting which was aimed at conference leaders; he asked that the need for a pool of Council Presidents to help as Mentors be promoted at all Regional Meetings; and asked that those at the meeting let us know of any members with experience in teaching, marketing , or technology who could help us promote good governance initiatives and that this also be brought up at Regional meetings.
Motion to waive the reading of the resolutions was approved.
ITEM: Resolution 144 National Council Foundation
Resolution was motioned and seconded. Bill Henckler, Joe Manogue, and Ralph Middlecamp all spoke to address its purpose and in its support. This will be one of the most impactful Resolutions, affecting Strategic Plan programs, providing money to take care of the poor. We won’t have to face cutting back on the budget due to lack of funds.
· Gerald Panas was asked to assess the fund raising capacity of the Society. They replied you have a valuable asset in what you do, but you don’t have the infrastructure to launch a major campaign, you are not ready. In December we met again, he said you are ready now and suggested we go forward creating a Foundation. We sent the idea to CGI. David Williams informed us that there is nothing in the Rule prohibiting this and encouraged us to do so. We have the concept before us; we now need Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation to set up a foundation to address these needs. This is a departure from the way we have been raising money. These kinds of gifts will allow us to grow and will be transformational in how we do things. The goal of the Foundation is to engage people who are not currently engaged with us. This is where we are going; this is how we will execute the plan.
· We are asking the Council to approve the concept, more details will be coming forward. Bylaws are mostly agreed upon. Policies will be developed by the Foundation.
· A clarifying amendment was motioned and seconded, “The National Foundation will coordinate and collaborate with local District Councils when engaging major donors and foundations that reside in the area covered by the District Council.” After a voice vote the amendment failed.
· It does not conflict with the Rule against hoarding money because the prohibition does not apply to upper Councils.
Resolution 144 was approved by voice vote.
ITEM: Recognition of Gayle Westfahl, from the District Council of Madison, recipient of the International Council’s SVDP Founders Award by the International Youth Commission
Gayle thanked the International Youth Commission for recognizing her work. She thanked Sheila Gilbert for her great example and Ralph Middlecamp for his encouragement and support.
ITEM: Resolution 151 Recognition of the Ladies of Charity
Ladies of Charity Mary Nell Williams from Indianapolis and Joan Stanard from St. Louis, received gifts from the Society celebrating their 400th anniversary. This year also marks the beginning of the entire Vincentian Family. St. Vincent founded the Ladies of Charity in August 1617, today known as the Association of International Charity. Their founding in the United States took place here in St. Louis in 1857.
Motion to approve Resolution 151 was seconded and approved unanimously.
ITEM: Resolution 146 National Council Bylaws Amendment
Resolution concerning reserved powers in the Bylaws. Disaster Services Corporation is a membership corporation with one member who acts on behalf of the membership. This Resolution adds a reserve power to the Board of Directors to act on behalf of the National Council when the National Council is the member in a membership corporation.
Motion to approve Resolution 146 was seconded and approved unanimously.
ITEM: Resolution 137A Amendment to Resolution 137 Tax Exempt Status
Dealing with Tax Exempt Status Resolution 137 approved at the National Assembly in Columbus regarding transitioning off the Group Ruling. Resolution talked about the fact that it was aimed at Conferences, but we needed to add the word “Councils”. We are “Encouraging “them to change and get their own tax exemption but we are not mandating this.
Motion to approve Resolution 137A was seconded and approved unanimously.
ITEM: 2017 National Assembly - invitation to the assembly and a PSA for the Tampa area Marv Ropert
ITEM: Strategic Plan Report Althea Graham
· Update on the progress of completing the Strategic Plan, 90% has been completed or in process. 10% has either not been started or stopped.
o Goal 1 - 63% completed, 37% in process. Spiritual Advisor in every Conference is one objective.
o Goal 2 - 69% complete, 29% in process. How far we have come with social media, simplification of annual report, database, and EWTN.
o Goal 3 - 18 objectives with 33% complete, 55% in process, and 12% not started or stopped. This Goal includes Governance, Extension, Youth and Young Adult, Culture Change, and Accountability.