by Ken McGinity, Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana
We have the dates... April 6th through April 9th, 2003.
We have the place... the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego.
We have the social activities... San Diego is consistently rated one of the top tourist spots in the USA.
Now, all we need is a top notch program to help you to
stay on top of your job!
The CCFM Education Committee is working to plan
seminars and workshops that respond to your requests given to
us in the St. Pete Conference evaluation sheets. We will continue
with the structure formalized last year with a conference theme
and a keynote speaker to provide the umbrella for the sessions
that follow.
The Education Committee this year is:
Ken McGinity, Chairman, 317-846-6320
blaney@iquest.net
David Hodde, President, 317-236-1452
dhodde@archindy.org
Maureen O’Brien, Real Estate, 312-751-8221
mobrien@archdiocese-chgo.org
Walt Wostenberg, Facility Mgt., 303-715-3251
walt.wostenberg@archden.org
Joel King, Arrangements, 619-224-8298
jking@diocese_sdiego.org
Doug Cissel, Exec. Director, 301-805-8847
ccfm@comcast.net
This Committee will be meeting in San Diego on November 1st and 2nd to complete the planning, decide on the speakers and get the program material in shape for mailing in Jan. ‘03. Now is your chance for input into this process. Call or e-mail one of the Committee members with your ideas of topics you would like presented, good speakers in appropriate subject areas that you know, and any other ideas you feel will help us to prepare an interesting, stimulating and informative conference.
As in the past, there will be three main tracks which parallel our job responsibilities - real estate, construction & renovation, and facility maintenance.
We also want to organize ourselves to welcome representatives from religious orders who have the same challenges and problems that the dioceses face but don’t have a similar structure. They do have a structure called NATRI (National Association of Treasurers of Religious Institutions) and they want to get more involved in CCFM. A CCFM representative will be at their conference on Nov. 20-22, 2002 in an effort to strengthen the bonds between the two groups. We are hoping for a sizeable representation from NATRI at our Conference to help them and by swelling our attendance to help ourselves. We will be urging all our members to welcome the religious order attendees in a friendly, Christian manner.
Wednesday Roundtables - The St. Pete Conference evaluations expressed a strong, widespread desire for roundtable discussions covering our 3 areas of responsibility. We plan to incorporate this feature in San Diego. Each area will have no assigned speaker, but a moderator, a secretary and some exhibits showing samples of work in each area. Please call me if you would be willing to serve as a moderator or secretary for one of these tables.
Social Events and Tours - As at recent conferences, we are planning breakfast, lunch and dinners in the hotel on Monday, Tuesday and breakfast and lunch on Wednesday. This enables all of us to use our limited time together most productively. We feel that it is very important for all conferees (and spouses if present) to attend these meals. If vendors want to take a conferee out socially, please be firm in assuring that such events are scheduled before or after the Monday-Wednesday window.
Because San Diego is a very compact city with plenty of attractions close to the Hotel, we are planning bus tours to a sample of new churches and/or schools but not spousal tours. There is an inexpensive city trolley system which operates frequently and visits the most popular tourist sites. We will have a Conference headquarters room in the Hotel, where boards will be posted with information about current tourist attractions, plays, fine art and sporting events so that conferees and spouses can conveniently organize small groups with similar interests.
This is only a capsule view of plans to date. Remember, this is your Conference. Please give some serious thought to what you need and want in order to do a better job. Then send an e-mail or call one of the Committee members listed above.
We will have more to report after our November meeting.
