2023 National Assembly Host City Night
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09-14-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders
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Every year in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an opportunity for new goals, leadership transitions, and reflection on our successes and challenges. At this year’s National Assembly in St, Louis, we did all this and more as we celebrated “Where It All Began” with a pandemic-delayed 175th (now 178th) anniversary.
The biggest set of changes is the transition from one National President and Board of Directors to a new set of national officers. John Berry, our National President as of next month, succeeds Ralph Middlecamp, who has led the Society faithfully and effectively through six years of pandemic, economic, and social uncertainties and what all of this has meant for the Society. John has selected a new Board of Directors, which was ratified by the National Council at our annual Business Meeting held this week. We are now poised with talent for leading in the immediate future.
But what will that future bring? President-Elect John asked all of us to be part of a national listening process as we determine what the Society needs to be to remain true to our Mission and Three Essential Elements in a changing world. Much more to come on this, to be sure!
It is easy to forget that while around 750 Vincentians attended the National Assembly, more than 80,000 or so did not attend. They need to know a lot of what was discussed in St. Louis. Watch for videos of Ralph’s farewell address and recognition of his service at the closing banquet, John’s inaugural member address that lays out his hopes for his upcoming term, and other videos of our general sessions and workshops. These take some time to isolate, edit, and post, etc., so be patient as we release these in the coming weeks. They will each be announced in the e-Gazette as they become website links that you can share with your Council and Conference.
Three general sessions deserve your viewing. Bishop Donald Hying provided another seminal spiritual reflection for us in his last appearance as our National Episcopal Adviser. (He will be succeeded under President Berry’s term by Archbishop Andrew Bellisario from the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau. More on this soon!) St. Louis Council’s Executive Director/CEO John Foppe delivered a powerful, personal, and inspiring talk to the Assembly based in part on his book, “So What’s Your Excuse?” and Vincentian Father John Rybolt, a foremost authority on the life of St. Vincent de Paul, provide insights on St. Vincent’s varied imagery through the years and thoughts on how Vincent would approach today’s challenges. Coming soon!
A new Ozanam Institute online learning program was launched during the week. More on this elsewhere in the e-Gazette – don’t miss it!
A highlight for many who attended was the Installation Mass for the new President and Board at the “New Cathedral” of St. Louis. While many had been to St. Louis previously, most had never seen the enormous basilica filled with beautiful mosaic tiles including images of our Society founders. And as St. Vincent de Paul is one of three of the city’s patron Saints, his image appears in both mosaic and statue in the Basilica. It was a beautiful and inspiring event!
The National Council enters the 2023-24 year with a profitable 2022-23, an annual budget passed this week, and money in the bank for new initiatives as determined by you and the new Board. Our three subsidiaries – Disaster Services Corporation, SVDP National Stores and SVDP National Foundation – are healthy and poised for growth and success in their respective missions. National committees are being re-formed under new and existing banners to reflect our Essential Elements and other priorities. National staff will add a second Stores Director to support new and existing local stores, and an HR professional to assist the National Council and its subsidiaries to manage employee benefits legally and effectively for employee satisfaction and retention.
Nearly a third of the Assembly’s participants were first-timers. Plan now to join them and hundreds of others at our next National Assembly in Phoenix, August 14-17, 2024.
Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO
2023 National Assembly Legacy & Donor Event
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National Foundation Honors Deacon Gene Smith With Founders’ Award
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At the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s recent National Assembly in St. Louis, the SVdP National Foundation honored former National President Deacon Gene Smith with the Founder’s Award.
The National Foundation works to support the work of the National Council and strengthens the Vincentian network of charity through financial support and other endeavors. Their award recognizes Smith’s exceptional service and outstanding contributions to the National Council of the United States, Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Smith served a six-year term as National President from 1999 to 2005. Among the hallmarks of his presidency, Smith let the Society through its first strategic plan, and helped implement the Society’s first formal mission statement. He also oversaw establishment of the Voice of the Poor Committee, developed “to uphold Catholic social teaching by researching, validating, documenting, advocating, and promulgating issues related to the condition of the poor and disenfranchised.”
Congratulations, Gene! We thank you for your service and devotion to the Society.
2023 National Assembly Day 2 Highlights
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Workshops
Welcomes & Keynote
2023 National Assembly Day 1 Highlights
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Morning Mass
Workshops
Welcome Reception
Stores Corner — I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know
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Written By: Rick Bologna, Stores Director, Central Texas
Are you willing to take a hard and honest look at your store operations? Are you willing to say and admit – I DON’T KNOW WHAT I DON’T KNOW? I would like to share my firsthand experience with you in this article.
Have you ever wondered how you can make your store more profitable? How can you generate more income and move more product through your store more efficiently and faster? As store leaders, we no-doubt have asked these questions in our minds.
In October of 2020, our store in Austin reopened after being closed due to the pandemic. The store had annual sales of $200K and a warehouse stacked high to the rafters with clothes, housewares, donations, and junk, with more items coming in daily.
Through brute force, common sense, and a lot of trial and error, our team installed processes and workflows to push additional product to the floor and generate additional income.
Our customer-base loved the changes we were making in the store; however, our processes and workflows were not sustainable. The key to sales and income is through the back-room production. Please read that sentence again!
We were working extremely hard, but not very smart.
After the first fiscal year, we increased sales to $400K from $200K. Then we went to $610K in our second fiscal year. We had plateaued. This was as far as I could lead our team.
I was tapped out on my knowledge-base and experience in getting us to this level. This was an awful fact that I had to personally own and share with my team — I DON’T KNOW WHAT I DON’T KNOW!
I reached out to the Director of Stores Support in the National Office, Jeff Beamguard, for help. Jeff heads up the National Training Store in Phoenix, AZ and leads the National Stores Committee.
Jeff arrived in Austin in October of 2022, bringing 40 years of thrift store experience and completed a full assessment of our store.
Key components we learned from Jeff:
- Initial sorting of product – Is it sellable, recyclable or trash? This will save you a ton of time on product selection for the floor.
- Each product has an exit strategy from your store — the product will either sell during the color rotation cycle or it does not sell, and it comes off the floor for recycling or trash. IT IS REALLY THIS SIMPLE!
- Initiated the 5-Week Color Rotation Cycle – If the product has not sold after five weeks on the shelves with various markdowns to .99 cents (in a thrift store) the market will tell you, they do not want the product. Put new products out on your shelves and turn over the shelf space more rapidly by selling more profitable items.
In conclusion, I must say, our Austin team has completely embraced what we are doing and where we are going. Without the team’s buy in, we would not achieve this success utilizing Jeff’s assessments, suggestions, and our implementations.
This fiscal year, our sales will be around $800K. Our workflows and processes are now sustainable, due to education. Our annual production in three years went from 109K pieces to 176K pieces, to about 300K pieces this fiscal year.
As a staff, we NOW KNOW WHAT WE KNOW! We are headed towards the million-dollar store benchmark because of education, proven methodologies, and continued support from the National Stores Committee and Jeff Beamguard. The National Stores Committee and Jeff are here to serve you.
How much money are you leaving on the table in your store without this education? Are you doing your store and Council a service or disservice by not running the store as efficiently as possible?
Please take advantage of this educational opportunity for your store and get into the KNOW!
Please encourage your store personnel to subscribe to the to the e-Gazette, by emailing mboyer@svdpusa.org.
If you have a topic that you would like addressed in a future Stores Corner article, please e-mail our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.
SVdP National President Ralph Middlecamp Honored With Special Tribute
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Outgoing National President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Ralph Middlecamp was recently honored with a special video tribute commemorating his time in office. Colleagues and friends shared memories and reflected on Ralph’s servant leadership.
You can watch the video here, then share your own tribute to Ralph in the comments.
Contemplation — Our Eucharistic Home Visit
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The evangelical model of the Home Visit may be likened to the Last Supper, with Christ as the visitor, and the disciples – and ourselves – as the neighbors. Hungry, the disciples greeted Christ, who first demonstrated His love by humbly serving them, washing their feet, then by breaking their bread, and pouring their wine.
And then He prayed for them, that the Father might welcome them as He welcomes His own Son. In a way, we might say that He saw Himself in us, just as we are called to see Him in the neighbor.
On the Home Visit, the first act of evangelization occurs when the neighbors open their door, “because, in them, Vincentians see the face of Christ.” [Manual, 48] The poor are our evangelists, not by their own intent, but by God’s design. They call us, they invite us in.
We, in turn, evangelize first by serving humbly, in the model of our Savior. As St. Vincent instructed the missioners going to serve even the most anti-Catholic people, we seek to be “more reserved in their presence, more humble and devout toward God, and more charitable toward your neighbor so that they may see the beauty and holiness of our religion and be moved to return to it.” [CCD VIII:209]
“The visited, as well as the visitors, edify one another,” as Bl. Frédéric explained, “living in the unity and under the shelter of the mantle of St. Vincent de Paul.” [Baunard, 123]
We evangelize first and always through our “wordless witness.” Each visit, each act of service, is a washing of the feet, which asks the neighbor to receive Christ as servant. When we move to words, they are the words of prayer, offering the needs of the neighbor to God, and asking for His blessings upon them, just as Christ prayed for us to be welcomed into the kingdom.
Jesus calls each of us to take up our cross and follow Him. In the Eucharist he gives us a model to follow. As Mahatma Gandhi once said “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”
Because His love was “inventive to infinity” [CCD XI:131] Jesus becomes the bread that feeds us in the Eucharist. On our Home Visits, we are blessed in turn to share Him with the neighbor in the form of our bread, our time, our service, and ourselves.
Contemplate
In sharing the “bread” of assistance, do I seek always to truly share myself?
Recommended Reading
Contemplation — This Gentle Word
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One of the four permanent principles of our Catholic Social Doctrine is solidarity. [CSDC, 160] This word is often used in secular contexts to signify shared interests or goals within a group, for example among workers as in a labor union. It is also used to signify common interests between different groups, united on a particular interest or goal. For us as Catholics, this captures one sense of the term, but in a much narrower way than we are called to understand and live the principle of solidarity.
Our church’s social teaching begins with our foundational belief in the dignity of the human person, each us of made in God’s image, unique and unrepeatable. We are called by Jesus to pray to “Our Father” just as He does, uniting us as a human family; not symbolically, but truly as sisters and brothers, children of the one God.
And while our principle of solidarity, like the more commonly used phrase, does indeed refer to shared interests and goals, it is our interests and goals that distinguish solidarity in the Catholic view. Our common interest is our common origin as God’s precious creations, and our shared goal is our shared calling towards union with God in eternal life, and we share these interests with all people.
Our solidarity then, as Pope St. John Paul II explains, must be more than “a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far”, and instead calls us to complete commitment to the good of all, and of each individual, “because we are all really responsible for all.” [Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 38] When any member of our family suffers, we suffer.
Solidarity calls us to truly love the neighbor, “even if an enemy, with the same love with which the Lord loves him or her.”[Ibid, 40] In this, as in all things, we have Christ’s example, as St. Vincent once explained: “‘Friend,’ He said to Judas, who handed Him over to His enemies. Oh, what a friend! He saw him coming a hundred paces away, then twenty paces; but even more, He had seen this traitor every day since his conception, and He goes to meet him with this gentle word, ‘Friend.’” [CCD XII:159]
Solidarity calls us to follow Christ’s example fully, to “be ready for sacrifice, even the ultimate one: to lay down one’s life for the brethren,” even if an enemy. [Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 38]
This is a call we are not likely to face with the neighbors we serve, but we are called, as Bl Frédéric once said, not to give our lives all at once, but in all of our actions, a little bit each day, to “smoke night and day like perfume on the altar.” [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835] May our sacrifice be known by “this gentle word, Friend.”
Contemplate
Do I see my service in the Society as a willing sacrifice?