Board Work, I

I was first exposed to the work of a board of directors more than thirty years ago as a member of the founding committee of Jubilee Soup Kitchen.  We met every month and were the guiding body of this fledgling effort.  I learned about Robert’s Rules of Orders, motions, the differences between goals and policies, how to read a financial balance sheet, and how power was or wasn’t exercised in an organization.

I was even an officer, being elected vice president alongside the presidency of my friend, Father Jim Garvey.  I held this position at Jubilee for 14 years, when I resigned because I was appointed a pastor and my parish schedule didn’t allow me to make the six-times-a-year meetings.

In 1989 I was appointed to the Board of Directors of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, through the intervention of a quasi-mentor of mine, the late Msgr. Jack McCarren.  Little did I know that what started as a one year, then three year term, turned into a life sentence.  I have been associated with the governance of Catholic Charities ever since.  When my term of office was about to expire, Bishop Wuerl appointed me to his senior staff, as head of the secretariat for social concerns.  In this position, I was ex-officio a member of both the Board of Directors and the Membership.  When I left the diocesan office the bishop kept me on as a Member of the corporation, where I remain to this day.

One of my major responsibilities as bishop’s liaison to the social service world of our local church was to serve on a variety of boards.  Over time I’ve served on the board of directors of many organizations, local, state-wide and national.  That's a lot of meetings to attend. 

In church work I believe that boards of directors are a recent innovation.  In decades past the priests (or the bishop alone) owned everything and ran everything.  But changes in ecclesial theology and practical politics have opened boards up to lay persons.  The change in theology came about through the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and its reassertion of the Body of Christ encompassing all the baptized.  This included the rights and responsibilities of the faithful in advising and assisting pastors in their pastoral duties.  The change in politics came with the need to cultivate greater fundraising and a  wider range of opinions from the community.  Laity were the vehicles to do both. 

So on almost every board I know today priests (and sometimes the bishop) sit alongside lay men and women (some Catholic, some not), all committed to carrying out the stated mission of the organization.  This is a good thing, for both the organizations and for the church.