Brothers I want to start by thanking you for inviting me to be your Provincial President for the coming year. It is at once an honour and a privilege and I feel this even more because of the Brothers who have gone before me in this role. I remember the first Provincial President who was actually was present when I was enrolled back in 1990. He was Denis Gamber and what a fine Catenian he was. A lovely man, who I admired and liked enormously. I can honestly say that since the day I was enrolled I have respected and liked every Provincial President that has served our province; and none more so than the man that I am taking over from.
... thank you, Mark ...
Mark you have provided us with strong kindly leadership throughout this centennial year and you and Geraldine have been a great act that Anne and I will find it very hard to follow. I only hope that individually and together we can do half as good a job. I would also like to thank you in particular for the help and guidance that you gave to the Balham group as we prepared for our inauguration. Your calm thoughtful interpretation of the rules and bylaws were always clear and you made a huge effort in preparing and refining scripts and lists and these were invaluable. The success of the inauguration of the nineteenth circle in Province 19 was in most part due to your hard work and on behalf of the Brothers of Balham I sincerely thank you.
... why does the provincial council exist ...
We often hear the question why does the provincial council exist. What is it there for ? I would like to think that in recent years the role of your provincial council has been more evident. We are clearly not merely a talking shop. I don’t intend to deliver a lecture about my opinions of Provincial Council but I genuinely believe that in recent years there has been a trend towards providing practical support and guidance to circles, particularly in the area of recruiting new members. Our excellent Provincial Membership Officer, Chris Richards is well on the road to building a Support Team to assist circles with recruitment activities in their parishes and I am delighted that Peter Woodford has agreed to focus his support on our smaller circles. A number of circles have already taken advantage of the Provincial support that is available and the results have been most encouraging. Whilst talking about guidance and support, a workshop has been planned for the morning of Saturday June 6th . It’ going to be for presidents, membership officers and chamberlains and I hope that we have a strong turn out for this event. The last workshop that we held for Membership Officers a couple of years ago seemed to go down very well. This time in addition to getting membership officers together we are having a workshop for circle chamberlains. Too often brothers are asked to take over this role with a little or no preparation and the work of the Chamberlain is extremely important to the health and well being of his circle . So if you have a new Chamberlain this year or if you would like a quick polish up this workshop will be for you so please encourage your chamberlains to attend.
... how much effort are we taking to plan activities that will appeal to younger family men ...
As many of you will already know recruitment and retention has for many years been very close to my heart and I’m very pleased to note that many circles have become very active in attracting new members to our association. Obviously I would like to see these efforts continue and even accelerate. Moving forward however I am increasingly aware that we see the same faces at many of our circle and provincial functions. Our newer brothers are not as much in evidence as perhaps they should or could be. There are many reasons for this and cost and time constraints are prime causes, but it may be that if we organised ourselves a little better and made a more concerted effort to include new brothers in visits and activities that we might get them to take a more active part. Now it is clear that for most younger family men the calls upon their time are many but I wonder how much effort we are taking to plan activities that will appeal to them and what efforts we are making to actively include them. For this reason whilst recruitment and retention will be high on my agenda this year my actual theme will be “Inclusion”. Already there are some great initiatives that have been introduced by some circles. Ascot has its buddy system and Reigate have an occasional inexpensive beer and curry night. I would really like to cross fertilize good practice between circles so if you have ideas about how we can include our newer brothers and their families into our activities then please share them with me.
You may have seen a table with copies of the Parish Vocations Hanbook at the back of the room. This hanbook was prepared by the Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Southwark, Fr Stephen Langridge and it was recently launched with the help of a number of Catenians led by Brother Andrew Martin. The idea behind the handbook is that every parish in the diocese should have a small team that will foster a culture of vocations within their parishes. The teams will encourage the celebration of the various Christian vocations, which usually include that of marriage but in some cases there might be a calling to the priesthood or the religious life. I believe that this initiative fits very well with one of our stated aims:
I am hoping that many of the brothers in this province will consider how they can take an active part in introducing the concepts and ideas contained within this handbook to their parishes and I look forward to having feedback,…. good and bad…….so we can learn from our efforts in this important endeavour.
On the subject of themes I believe that our Grand President elect, Joe McNally, will be choosing “Standards” as his theme for this coming year. I don’t wish to steal any of his thunder on this subject but he has already given hints about his intentions and I wish to align myself with what I have heard from him already. We are a brotherhood and we ask some our fellow brothers to give freely of their time to serve as officers of this association. This may be at circle level or at the very highest level in the association. These fellow brothers of ours work tirelessly in our interest and it saddens me sometimes when I read in Catena or hear conversations containing an excessive amount of vitriol aimed at those who represent us. These electedofficers, are doing their best. We may not always agree with the conclusions that they reach but there are polite ways of entering a dialogue when we wish to offer alternative opinions. Let’s debate as Brothers and gentlemen and not resort to the bad tempered “Angry Of Purley” syndrome. Grand Council has completed the first phase of its strategic review. As a result of this it is likely that changes are going to be introduced over the coming year. I hope that we will work together to make these changes work for the good of our association.
Brothers I now turn to the current very severe economic down turn. It is now that we are going to see a surge in the numbers of brothers in difficulty or need. The effects of this recession are likely to be brutal and I ask all of you to be vigilant for any brother who might need a kindly ear or practical advice. Let’s be there for each other and do whatever we can to offer genuine brotherly support in whatever way we can.
... let’s have a great year ...
Despite all the gloom that is out there, let’s have a great year; let’s enjoy ourselves and remember that we are all here for each other.
Noël Brownsell
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This information is valid at April 2009