Grace and peace to all Daughters of the King! I give thanks for your faithful prayers and service in many places. The following epistle summarizes for your information some of the work of your national council and the office staff since Triennial.
For His Sake,
Grace Sears, President
Pre- Thanksgiving Council Meeting
The National Council plans to meet in Woodstock, GA, from November 18-21, and all of us are working to prepare for it. To honor our commitment to the Rule of Prayer and the Rule of Service, the Council will begin with a morning devoted to prayer, and spend our last evening in service: we have volunteered to prepare dinner Saturday for 20 residents of the Barbara Crafton Center in Marietta, Georgia.
Post Triennial Projects
Immediate projects that face any new Council include drafting a new budget, updating the Handbook, assigning responsibilities, handling grant applications, and writing and editing the next Royal Cross. Each of these projects got underway in August and September, as the Executive Board conferenced and then met in mid-September. Kathy Wohnoutka continued to work with Keeva Harmon, our new treasurer, during August, pinning down the final costs of Triennial and winding up the financials for the past fiscal year. In September, at the National Office, Keeva and Finance Chair Kim Ferguson got off to a good start on preparing a draft of the new budget. Keeva also worked with our bookkeeper, Karen Dobkin, and Annie McLeod, Assistant to the Director, who maintains the Order’s financial information in Quickbooks. The finance committee recently held a conference call for further work on the budget.
The first batch of Master’s Fund applications has arrived in Missy Denney’s mailbox, and she will be processing them with the help of Brenda Amos.
Jen, Pam, Grace and Sheila have been preparing a new edition of the Handbook that will introduce the Alpha Fund, authorized at Triennial, for the support of work with our Junior Daughters. The Bylaws will stay exactly the same, but information about the Alpha Fund and other updates will be added to the front section, so a 2009-2012 edition can be published following the Council meeting.
Ann Holmes agreed to be the new Royal Cross editor, but has had some technical difficulties producing the first issue. It will be designed in professional layout software, but Ann had to take instruction in using it and upgrade her computer in order to install it. Now she is about to send the Royal Cross to her proofreading committee before it goes to the printers. Phyllis Larson continues as Associate News Editor; she prepared the photos and news reports she received from chapters and diocesan sources and sent them on to Ann.
Nancy Sheffield , Strategic Planning Chair, is working on ideas for celebrating the Order’s 125th year, starting in the spring of 2010. Nancy also serves on the Self Denial Committee, with Marjorie Rogers and Chair Kim Ferguson.
International Opportunities
Pam Runyon is our new International Chair. News that the Air Force planned to reassign Annemarie Delgado, of the Heidelberg chapter, to Iraq, prompted Pam to schedule a visit to Germany, in addition to the trip she had already planned to England. Annemarie’s assignment to Iraq was cancelled, but the visit proved timely: plans are shaping up for a retreat weekend early next year in Germany to which English speaking women interested in DOK would be invited. The group may include women from Italy and France as well as Germany, and Bishop Whalon’s office is coordinating this effort with the Heidelberg chapter.
Following the trip to Germany, Pam and her husband flew to England, where she had the privilege of meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury, and visited several parishes that once had been home to chapters of the Daughters of the King. At one, the church historian was able to produce an early 20th century reference to a meeting of the DOK chapter there. At the same church other, women were sufficiently interested in the Order to ask Pam to come back next year and tell them more. Yet another British development: Pam received photos of a 1916 cross that once belonged to a Daughter in a British chapter.
Not to be outdone, I flew to Malawi, to join a study group invited to the Diocese of Southern Malawi by Bishop James Tengatenga. Daughters, along with members of the Mothers’ Union and the Guild of St. Veronica, welcomed us at the airport with a reception line and joyful singing. At St. Paul’s Cathedral in Blantyre, I presented Mrs. Josie Tengatenga, the Diocesan President, with an 8”x8” replica of the Daughter’s Cross. Mrs. Tengatenga translated my remarks to the Daughters when they met together after the Sunday morning service. I also met Daughters from Upper Shire and their bishop, when both dioceses gathered for their annual celebration at the site of the first mission station in Malawi.
Pam has more international news to share. At least one Daughter from her own diocese is traveling to West Bengal, India, next year, with her bishop and others from her diocese. The Diocese of Western North Carolina has a companion relationship with the Diocese of Durgapur there. Several women in Durgapur want to form a DOK chapter, with Bishop Dutta’s support. On the east coast of India, Daughter Janet Echols, near Mumbai, hopes to start a DOK chapter. Meanwhile we learned of new chapters in Brazil, Honduras, and Haiti, as well as possibilities elsewhere. God is pouring out his Spirit on women in many places!
The National Office
Every three years, when the Daughters of the King elect a new Council, a lot of purely organizational work has to take place as responsibilities change hands. That work starts as soon as Triennial is over, with compiling a directory of contact information, looking at calendar openings, changing signature cards with banks, discovering the gifts and talents of the new Council, and assigning multiple responsibilities. New Council members must find ways to reconfigure their schedules and their e-mail, make new distribution lists, and—this time—figure out how to manage their new web-based e-mail addresses and make conference calls.
The five members of the national office staff play an essential role in making the changes required, updating the data bases and the website and distributing information about standard procedures and the yearly schedule of office responsibilities. This year—the first post-Triennial year for almost all the current team-- they have already faced some additional challenges. In late September, the Atlanta area received heavy rain for a week, resulting in heavy flooding in Woodstock. Runoff seeped into the front rooms of the Margaret J. Franklin Center, except for Sharon Stills’ office. It affected the large front work room, the receptionist’s area, the entrance hall in front of the chapel, and the front room of the fourth unit, where the bookkeeping/archives computer resides. (The archives room was not affected.) The staff moved furniture and computers, pulled up wet carpet, set up fans, and began getting estimates on repairing the damage. For a time the national office was a smelly, unpleasant place to work. But a local firm soon applied fungicide and set up industrial fans to dry the carpets. Just last week another firm cleaned the carpets throughout the office, and once again the air is fresh, the furniture in place, and the office is attractive and welcoming for both staff and visitors.
All this happened during one of the busiest months of the entire year, while dues were being posted and new officers entered for hundreds of chapters. In order to keep up, staff worked on some Saturdays. Dues continue to be posted, a second dues notice was sent by e-mail, and checks have been prepared for the provinces and diocesan assemblies, rebating their portion of the dues received. Sad to say, some Daughters paid their dues to their chapter treasurer, but either the chapter or the diocesan treasurer failed to forward the dues and membership information to the national office. Consequently the record of payment has not yet been entered into the Order’s database. Naturally the Daughters affected are upset that their dues payments have been held back without their knowledge.
The annual audit was scheduled earlier this year, since we were changing from one treasurer to another. It always involves extra work for the staff and the bookkeeper, both in preparation for the auditors’ visit and in pulling and making copies of documents while the audit is in progress. Early reports are that this year’s audit went very well, even better than last year’s. That is a credit to our staff and our former treasurer, as well as good news for the new treasurer and the Council. For the past two years we have posted the annual audit results on the website in January, and we plan to do so again.
All Saints Day
All Saints Day is almost here. Many of you will mark the day by sharing Eucharist together, contributing to the Endowment Fund, and remembering dear friends who have gone ahead of us to meet our Lord face to face. Since last November a former president of the Order, Joan Millard, has become one of that number. Just this week two new Council members (Peggy Denny and Chesley Vohden) are saying a final good-bye to their father, who also is now one of that number. Let us celebrate once more the saints above and saints below, and rededicate ourselves again to living in the light of Christ.
A Prayer for All Saints Day:
Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth: grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to your power and mercy. I ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all my intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
|
