Board of Trustees Panel Report

The group briefly reviewed the BOT Guidelines as proposed by the Philadelphia St. Gregory Pastor and BOT and as presented at the Midatlantic and New England regional seminars for BOT and NRA delegates.  The Midwest seminar is to be scheduled.

The Guidelines describe the responsibilities and clarify the administrative expectations, BOT member characteristics, ILOF regulations, clerical/office work on Sundays, etc.  Guidelines will be made available to all parishes in the not too distant future.

The Panel received a myriad of questions and arrived with a myriad of responses, many of which in some format overlapped one another.  This Panel will focus on those responses, which can be uniformly addressed and executed on both the local and Prelacy levels.

QUESTION #1: HOW ARE THE BOT EXPECTATIONS ACHIEVED?

LOCAL

1. Der Nerses Manoogian, Pastor of St. Gregory Church, Philadelphia, holds sessions with new BOT members
2. Prior to the GMM (General Membership Meeting) election, new candidates shadow current BOT members, execute the tasks (give the Kiss of Peace, distribute the Mahs, hand out the church bulletin, etc)

PRELACY

1. It was suggested to include an “Induction Service” in the Guidelines and encourage all parishes to commit on a given Sunday.  It would be a Prelacy-wide endeavor with the celebrant conducting a special prayer, blessing, and installation of all BOT members

QUESTION #2: BASED ON THE VISION OF “YOUR JOB IS NOT JUST FOR TODAY, BUT ALSO ABOUT TOMORROW”, HOW DO YOU PLAN FOR THE FUTURE?

LOCAL

1. Rely more on technology to communicate or teleconference with college-aged and slightly older individuals (Facebook, emails, Linked-In, etc)
2. BOT should create membership packets for new members
3. Seek new or lost members from Baptismal and Marriage lists
4. Establish a Sunshine Club to send birthday cards to children, get well cards to the sick, sympathy cards to the bereaved, congratulatory cards to those newly engaged /high school and college graduates, etc (although some of the parishes have such designated organizations, not all of them do or not all aspects of life are considered).

LOCAL/REGIONAL:

1. Pastors/BOT from Prelacy parishes share information when college students move from one geographical location to another, thereby notifying the new location’s community of prospective new church attendees and the opportunity to invite them to services and other church-related events.

PRELACY:

1. Iris Papazian continues to do a phenomenal job with the CROSSROADS e-newsletter.  It was suggested to include the Prelacy’s mission statement in each edition, so as to educate the public of the Prelacy’s work and commitment to its people and parishes in the U.S. (not just to the dignitaries or oversees programs)
2. It was also recommended that the Prelacy encourage ALL parishes to submit reports to CROSSROADS regarding the church life within their communities.  In this manner, others will see the Prelacy is the umbrella that encompasses all communities and not just the NY/NJ areas (2011 “Year of the Armenian Child’ and Palm Sunday Processional with balloons – many communities sent photos not just following Palm Sunday but also the following week).  If people understand this, they will be more likely to understand the need and importance of the Prelacy.

QUESTION # 3: HOW DO YOU (BOT) PARTICIPATE IN THE SPIRITUAL PLANNING FOR YOUR CHURCHES?

LOCAL:

1. BOT should attend Bible Studies (to promote “do as I do”  not just “do as I say”)
2. BOT should promote Prelacy events, such as Datev, Linked-In
3. Pastor could conduct a mini-Bible study prior to the BOT meeting
4. Pastor’s sermons should be included on the church’s website

QUESTION # 4: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS?

LOCAL:

1. All the parishes expressed similar successful programs (Children’s’ sermons, Christmas Pageants, Poon Parekentan lessons, Palm Sunday Processionals, etc), but only one program was unique: SHOEBOX SERMON.  This is a project whereby the Sunday School children write down sermon topics on slips of paper that they would like to hear the pastor talk about; they deposit their ideas in a shoebox; the pastor blindly picks a slip of paper out of the shoebox.  The children, as well as parents and grandparents, eagerly attend the children’s sermon that week, because they all want to see and hear whose topic was picked out of the shoebox that day.

QUESTION #5: HOW CAN THE BOT/NRA REGIONAL CONFERENCES BE ENHANCED?

PRELACY:

1. Distribute Guidelines to all parishes as soon as possible
2. Discuss and train BOT their responsibilities as opposed to reading and reviewing the guidelines

CONCLUSION: This is all a team effort—the team consisting of the Prelacy, the pastors, the Boards of Trustees, the delegates, and the entire church community.  Only when understood and practiced in this manner can we live out what His Eminence, Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, has tried to ingrain in our minds: “with each other, for each other”.

Facilitator: John Daghlian, EC Member

Participants:  Rev. Fr. Khatchadour Boghossian, Zohrab Tazian, EC Vice Chair, Noubar Meguerian, former EC member, Dr. Aram, Cazazian, Sonia Arakelian, Bill Arthin, Paula Burke, Hourig Daghlian, Janet Haroian, Jeanette Nazarian, Allan Tutunjian.