Dear Vincentian Friends,
Last weekend the National Football League held its annual draft of college players. It has become a major sports-media event as team managers take their turns identifying the new talent their teams need to complement their current rosters. Fans are interested in these picks and speculate on the contribution of new players for the future of their teams. Are you a talent scout? Do you work to build the Society of St. Vincent de Paul team by identifying the people in your community who might have the talent your Conference needs?
Who is your replacement? That was a frequent question my friend Mary Steppe would raise in talks when she was the vice president for the North Central Region. None of us can forecast how long we will be in a position to do our Vincentian service. Do you have a roster of talent ready to grow and strengthen our organization?
I encourage each of you, regardless of your position in the Society, to be a talent scout and recruiter. Unfortunately, some Conferences are satisfied with their current roster and don’t feel the need to actively look for new members. If there are enough members to do the work, then why look for additional people? Adding new people might rock the boat. Eventually, however, a once-thriving Conference with that sort of perspective will struggle to maintain a healthy membership.
Too often I have seen Conferences just rely on people to “sign up” at a parish talent day. That is not scouting and recruiting. Instead, try identifying people you think would make good Vincentians, and then talk with them about what the Society means to you. If we value what we do, each of us ought to be recruiting our replacements. For that purpose, nothing beats personal invitation.
The Society’s Rule tells us that our leaders “provide an encouraging atmosphere in which the talents, capacities and spiritual charism of the members are identified, developed and put to the service of the poor and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.”
Mary Steppe was good at providing that encouraging atmosphere and inviting people to take jobs. That is how you can position people to take leadership positions in the future. She pulled me into participating in the Society beyond my own Council by putting me on the National Stores Committee. When I became an Executive Director, she assigned me the task of presenting a workshop on the spirituality of St. Vincent de Paul. That first talk I gave was pretty awful, but it set me on a path that would lead me now to being on the International Council’s Historical Commission. This willingness to invite people to take on tasks big and small is necessary if we want to grow the leadership for our network of charity.
Take the opportunities available to grow the leadership of the future. A good team builds on the talent it has recruited. Provide good training, give new members responsibility and invest in their development. I encourage you to send members to your Regional Meeting, to the Invitation for Renewal leadership-formation program, and to our National Assembly. Soon, registration will open for our National Assembly in Baltimore. If you can send some of your members to that meeting, I guarantee they will come back with new ideas and the motivation to see our Society thrive.
Your efforts to build our Society may not be as high-profile as the NFL draft weekend, but I think what you do to scout and recruit our future leaders is far more important for the good of our communities.
Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
SVdP National President
Do you have this letter in Spanish?