Pearls from the Past

Pearls from the Past

The purpose of this paper is to provide Weekend Core Teams with suggestions that previous Rectors and Rectoras have given to the Secretariat following their Weekends. Each item is followed by the number of the Weekend(s) from which the advice came. The Secretariat also asks each Rector and Rectora to prepare a separate report in electronic form (see “After the Weekend” at the end of this list of suggestions). Copies of these reports are included with the Guidelines and can be reviewed in the “Weekend Reports” folder.

Weekend Preparation 1

Team Selection 1

Communications 1

Team Meetings 1

Core Team 2

Rollo Room 2

Table Leaders’ Calls to Candidates 2

Kitchen/Camp 2

Head Cook 2

Weekends 2

Kitchen/Camp 3

Rollo Room 3

After the Weekend 3

Weekend Preparation

Team Selection

If there are applicants that are unknown to anyone on the Core Team, contact the applicant’s Parish Rep. or someone else you trust who goes to the same parish. By doing this you may be able to prevent unpleasant surprises on the Weekend (105, 109).

Communications

Obtain email addresses from all members of you Team and communicate with them in that way. Send them their assignments, rosters, Rollo outlines, etc. as email attachments. You can send communications via snail-mail or fax to the very few Team members who do not have email addresses. This can save most of your postage and copying expenses. It is also easier. Be sure to send all the email addresses to the Cursillo Web Master (105-106).

Team Meetings

Limit the number of Team Meetings to three Saturdays. This may encourage more people to sign up to work on Teams. It is a great convenience to all Team members who must travel long distances. A sample three Saturday schedule is included in the Core Team folder of the Guidelines Disk. A three Saturday schedule is so full it essentially eliminates wasted time (103 & 104). Check with the Diocesan Calendar http://www.edsd.org/calendar.html to avoid important conflicts – particularly the “School for Christian Ministry” always on the third Saturday of September (105-106).

Include a talk to both Kitchen/Camp Teams on “The Importance of Prayer” (103 & 104).

Allow all Team members to hear all of the practice Rollos and use skilled non-Team Rollo Critiquers (103 & 104).

Have the rector of the parish where you have made arrangements for Team Meetings sign a document confirming the arrangements. Keep a copy. Do not simply make scheduling arrangements with the parish secretary. Too many parishes do not have adequate intra-office communications for you to feel secure that verbal arrangements will not prevent double booking of space (103 & 104).

When the men and women sit together during the combined Team Meetings increases the sense of both Weekends being one Team (109 &110).

Core Team

Be sure to assign someone to coordinate the purchase of flowers for Mananitas so no one on the Team is without flowers Sunday morning on the Weekend (105).

Rollo Room

Table Leaders’ Calls to Candidates

Have your Table Leaders ask Candidates if they need to read large print. If anyone says “yes” let the Camp Cook know so that Candidate will be given a Large Print Bible (105).

Kitchen/Camp

Head Cook

Coordinate Kitchen/Camp Weekend planning with the Kitchen priest so that times of prayer and work do not interfere with each other. Communicate the plan of the Weekend clearly with your Team during Team Meetings. Post the schedule in a prominent place and then see that the Team Leaders stick to it as closely as possible (106).

Menu Preparation

Have the Head Cooks of both Men’s and Women’s Teams coordinate their meal planning so they will only need to make one food order for both Weekends. This can decrease both waste of both food and money (105-106).

Weekends

Someone should check all Cursillo supplies at Camp Stevens prior to the Men’s Weekend. This should include the provisions to make collages after the Ideal Rollo and the medicines in the Medic/Nurse’s medicine chest. Purchasing large quantities of medications leads to outdating and waste. Medicines should be checked against the Medic/Nurse’s guidelines (109 & 110).

If the Stations of the Cross is used Thursday evening consider using Bob Lawrence’s Power Point version. It is very effective (109).

At Mananitas have the Team and community people enter both doors of the bunk area of Blum Lodge at the same time. When they meet people coming in the other way they should go back around to the other door and continue visiting room until they come back to the middle again. The Spanish roots of Mananitas should be explained to the Candidates on Sunday morning (104).

The Secretariat has decided that a past or current member of the Pre-Cursillo committee will give a short talk on the responsibilities of sponsorship to the sponsors of the Weekend’s Candidates either in the Rollo Room immediately after “Good Night Sponsors” Thursday evening or in the dining room Sunday afternoon just before Open Clausura (4/1/04).

Kitchen/Camp

Trips to Camp Stevens by the Head Cooks prior to the Weekends paid off with improved relations with the Camp Stevens cooking staff and better coordination of menu planning and food preparation between the Men’s and Women’s Weekends (109 & 110).

If was very effective to have the Rector call recent Cursillistas to serve as Cocineros. His calls were very well received even by those who could not work the Weekend (109).

A cooperative rather than a competitive De Colores event worked well and took less time. The Cooks entertained the Rollo Room people after the group singing of De Colores (109).

Have the women Candidates’ Prayer Partners reveal themselves at the end of Closed Clausura as the men do (104).

There is no need to serve dessert at lunch (104).

Rollo Room

It was helpful for the Rector and Rectora to cooperate in their preparation of their Thursday evening, Friday morning and Ultreya talks (103& 104).

Chapel visits can be moved from Friday to Saturday if the Rollo Room tables feel that the Candidates have bonded together enough and will feel at ease praying out loud together. This move can free up a lot of time on Saturday afternoon and get people to bed earlier on Saturday (109).

Open Clausura

At the beginning of Open Clausura, the celebrant should ask that there be no photography until after it is ended. The Secretariat has made a rule that there be no photography on Weekends (105-106).

After the Weekend

You and your Core Team members have been asked by the Secretariat to produce a full Weekend Report. Bring this report with you to the Secretariat meeting following the Weekends.

¨  This report should cover the time between when you agreed to serve through the Fourth Day program following the Weekend.

¨  Please include all of the things that you and your Core Team felt went particularly well and all those things that did not, together with your suggestions for improvement to be passed on to future Rectors and Rectoras via the Weekend guidelines.

¨  It is important that you provide a list of everyone who served on the Weekend and the jobs they performed together with addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. Please provide the same information about the Candidates.

¨  Also, please provide the Guidelines Coordinator, preferably in digital form, a copy of your complete report and any documents, databases, spreadsheets, etc. that where created for the Weekend during the time period mentioned above. These files will be made available to the members of future Secretariats as well as to future Rectors and Rectoras. (from the Secretariat 5/2/02)

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Pearls from the Past