Organization Tips and Tools

Click here to download Renee Spohn's 2015 Fall Meeting presentation.

Renew Recruit and Retain – Calgary Diocesan CWL Fall Meeting September 2015 – Renee Spohn
Succession Planning – Respect and Empowerment for all Generations – Mentorship and Working Together on our Journey – Membership it is not about Numbers it is about People – One Person at a time – One Great Leader or a Great Follower – Wanting to Serve.
We can achieve our succession plan by remembering:

• Renew: On our Journey - This is the Perfect Day to Serve – Let us be Glad and Rejoice in it
• Recruit: You are the Perfect Age to Serve
• Retain: You will Plant the Seed then it is God’s Way

Exodus 33: 17 to 23
And the Lord said to Moses “This very thing that you have spoken I will do; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “I pray thee show me thy glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you my name “The Lord”; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But, he said, “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”

Reflection:
1. Are you comforted being with Yahweh on the rock?
2. He passes by you. As He releases His hand are you uncertain of the future? How do you feel?
3. You see His back, perhaps you focus on the Hem of His garment. It is constantly in motion. Does its constant movement remind you that the Journey will be ever changing? Does the wear on the Hem let you know that the Journey will be challenging?
4. He is getting farther away. He has made you a Promise. Is it enough? Do you follow? Gladly?
5. He has asked Moses to lead his people to Freedom. Are you willing to Lead?
6. Does your acceptance to follow Him and Lead give you a new sense of Renewal?
Mission – Journey to a better place, God has found favor with Moses
CWL has a Mission, a purpose, God has chosen us, and we are special
Communication – Moses has a one on one relationship with God. There is a human-divine conversation.
Process - But when Moses asks to see His Glory. God will not let him see His Face. He cannot know everything. He wants Moses to be open to his calling.
CWL cannot know everything at once, but we are called to serve.
Team and Mentorship – Moses is on the rock sheltered by God’s Hand. It is not just Moses with God. I am with God, You are with God on the rock.
CWL – you are not alone, there will be a team. God will guide you, us. He will send you a Mentor.
Participation – God passes by and Moses sees His back. God believes Moses can stand on his own. He invites Moses to follow, to lead.
CWL – you are invited to participate, to become involved, and to lead.
Change – As God passes it is not just His back but you may focus on the hem of His garment. It is in motion. You know it may flow one way, you another. But as in the story of the New Testament; the woman who touches the hem finds Healing. There is tremendous mercy along the journey.
CWL – there is change, there will be learning but there is a place for each of us.
Generations - Lastly, Moses was to make a journey with the goal to pass on the laws to the next generation so that they could experience God. He was to Lead them to the Promised Land.
In CWL we are on a journey with the goal to pass on our faith to the next generation so that they can experience God. Plant the Seed – then it is God’s Way.
My own generational story is my mother-in-law M Cecile Spohn who has been in CWL since she was in her twenties. She is now 95 years old. I am greatly comforted that when I compare our CWL experience they are very similar. She joined to socialize, share her faith, and as she is very political, she wanted to make a difference. We may be from different generations and participated over different decades but we have the same purpose to pass on our Love of God and our CWL experience to the next generation.
Three things I hope that you will take away from my talk today:
1. Be Glad with the Efforts you are making on the Journey
2. Let us as Women be who we are at this point
3. And all Work Together

Be Glad of the Efforts you are making on the Journey: Renew
The term Renew for me is two-fold. It can be taken as simply to renew your membership or it can be taken to renew your faith.
Measurement of Membership is a number. A Number allows us to know where we are in the journey. But to renew your faith we need to reflect on the Journey and ask more questions. Ask yourself instead “Are we making progress? In what way? What is working? What is not working? What can we do next?”
How many of you do not have an Executive? How many of you have held a position for a long time? Or been Regional Chair more than once?
I encourage you to be Steadfast – Be Positive - Recognize what you have. Be thankful.
My own council does not have a President. We as a team have had to rethink how we will do our work. Instead of being discouraged. I chose to look at the positive and all the good things that have come from this. This has allowed our council to recruit new people who are being mentored, to listen to our members and the role that they want to play. It has caused five members to take leadership roles. Each taking an activity to lead. It is a time of mentorship, growth and true team work.
While I was on the Rock with God – sheltering me with His Hand – he sends me two women – one who will be our organization chair and one who has great ideas for recruitment and will ASK.
Remember - This is the Perfect Day to Serve. Let us be Glad and Rejoice in it.
What is the link between recruit and renew? When we recruit a new member we renew our own commitment to CWL. We are enthusiastic and have a new purpose.
So renewal will come from our efforts to Recruit and Retain. Remember our Journey together is about God’s promise to be with us. Thankfully, unlike Moses our journey does not have to be forty years in the desert. Jesus has come and introduced us to Mary and Martha. How do we pass on our CWL to others? One member at a time. We need to approach our Membership with what I call the “Mary and Martha” method.
Mary reminds us of the big picture – our Mission, our Purpose, to open our Heart and Our Mind, to know and be comfortable with oneself. She gives us a spiritual plan. She guides us to know how to accept a Woman where she is right now. To get to know her journey, her strengths, and her weaknesses. To know her as our sister.
Martha reminds us of the practical application – how to be hospitable and be of service. She gives us a human plan. She guides us to be a team. To get to know our sister through the work we do together.
But Jesus reminds us that while our work is important, in Martha’s case hospitality is a great gift and service to others we must never be too busy or lose sight of the reason for our work. He reminds us of our dependence on one another. We are Mary. We are Martha.
Together the Mary and Martha duo allows us to “Plant the Seed and Let it grow God’s Way”

Allow Women to be who they are at this point: Recruit
Keep in mind Empowerment and Respect – Know that “I am the Perfect Age to Serve”
If we did an exercise and blind folded ourselves like on the Voice and asked another woman questions. Now you cannot ask her age. After you asked all your questions would you know what generation she was from? We have done ice breakers together at convention and met someone new. How many of us were astounded by our similarities? How many of us had respect for the person after learning their journey? How many of us were impressed by our differences and wanted to know more?
To succession plan we need to know about Generational Similarities and Differences. What can we learn from this to assist us with recruitment? I have provide you with a hand-out.

Similarities: Mary – Attentive, Listen, Learn the person’s individual strengths and weaknesses, and their journey then Plant the Seed and let it be God’s Way.
You will notice on the chart that we share important similarities: Family, Service, strong Work Ethic, and we are all competent. It is easy to respect our similarities. This is a great start to explaining why we are together and why we want to share ourselves with new members. But we all know that too much of the same is not always the best. To build a great organization we need individual women with differences.

Differences: Martha – Welcoming without judgement, kind – empathetic to others, and I believe her to be a great conflict manager then Plant the Seed and let it be God’s Way.

You may notice differences such as how we deal with authority, our fundamental belief system, how we perform tasks, how we should measure our work, conflict, and technology. These differences make me excited because it allows us to know that for every type of service in the CWL I am the Perfect Age. I know that there is enough work for every one of us with our strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what the differences are is an opportunity for us to plan strategies to recruit and empower new people.

Lastly, the chart gives us ideas as to how we can develop relationships with those not in our own generation. To consider how to work with each generation, our communication styles, and how our efforts should be rewarded. These are important things to consider as we try to retain members focusing on Respect and Empowerment.

Due to the generational differences you may find other women’s groups in your Parish. Learn what they are about? Think about why they have not joined CWL? If it is just generational then know our similarities and differences. Invite them to CWL activities. Develop a relationship for succession planning.

Work Together: Retain

“God give me work till my Life shall end. And life until my work is done.” Winfred Holtby

In Recruit we have talked about letting women be who they are. In Retain we have to look at how we can work together. Each of us with our traditions and new ideas. To retain members we must envision a room full of the past, present, and future. This is where our skills of accepting change and managing transition come into play. Remembering that “You will Plant the Seed then God’s Way”.

How do we make the appropriate transition that balances tradition with new ideas?

Some transitioning tools are Listening, Communication, and SWOT analysis to make a Plan.

SWOT Analysis examines – Internal - strengths, weaknesses, External - opportunities, and threats

For CWL an external threat is as the world changed it has put a demand on our time. We are asked to do more with the same amount of time. So ultimately the threat is what if the generational handover goes wrong?

For CWL an Opportunity – is that we have women from many generations working together. So the time commitment can be spread over many. And when we allow woman to be who they are at this point we will be able to respect tradition and empower new ideas and direction.

Succession Plan:

• Know what your goals are
• Analyze your council and the environment you are in
• Learn individual’s strengths and weaknesses
• Match members to the objectives
• Give each woman a purpose, a role, remembering her time is valuable
• Pair a new member with a Mentor
• Do not overwork her, please

To renew, recruit, and retain I have provided you with a handout of Resources and Recommendations from a Mary and Martha perspective. The most important of all being:

Mary and Martha:

• ASK someone to join. Reward Members efforts.

In closing I would like to leave you with a prayer for all generations from Mother Teresa:
The fruit of silence is Prayer
The fruit of prayer is Faith.
The fruit of faith is Love.
The fruit of Love is Service.
The fruit of service is Peace.
With Peace we will:
Be Glad with our Efforts of our Journey – Renew
Allow Women to be who they are at this point – Recruit
Work and Grow Together – Retain
Remember: We Plant the Seed then it grows God’s Way

Generational Similarities:

Generational Differences:

Working with each Generation:

Renew, Retain, and Recruit
Resources and Recommendations:

Mary:

• Prayer
• Active Listening
• Use all forms of Communication – Letters, Cards, E-mails, Facebook, Website
• Identify a Strength - Find women in your council who want to lead the recruitment
• Father Mario’s resources – Diocesan website
• Speak at Masses – Announcement – Evangelize

Martha:

• National CWL Resources – website www.cwl.ca
• Catch the Fire
• National CWL Workshops – Handbook for Organization Chair
  1. On Being Kinder to Each Other
  2. Conflict WIN WIN
  3. Creative Problem Solving Ideas
  4. Self Esteem
  5. Overcoming Fear
  6. And many more …
• National CWL Brochure, Post Cards, and Diocesan CWL Brochure
• Diocesan Council Officers – Ask an Officer to your Meeting
• Talk to you Organizational Chair
• Form an Organization Committee – talk to other CWL councils
• Brainstorm, get a Plan, Act, Evaluate, get another Plan, Act on the Plan…
• Orientation Package 
• Make it a topic at your Meeting with Training Membership Drive
• Develop a Power Point
• Have an Orientation Social – Meet and Greet
• Know the other women’s groups in your Parish. What is their mission?
• Socialize with K of C and meet their wives
• Develop a list of women who want to do only a few activities per year, ensure they have an activity

Mary and Martha:

• ASK someone to join. Reward Member’s efforts.