PARISH COUNCIL PRESIDENT

ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2007

January 5, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Once again, it is my privilege as President of the Parish Council to report to you on the activities of the preceding year. My heartfelt thanks go to the members of the Council who have served with me during this past year for their support, enthusiasm, and their constant willingness to assume the duties that accompany their volunteer efforts. As ever, I am grateful for their support. My gratitude to the members of Aurora is enormous, for without the efforts of this group I cannot imagine where St. Thomas would be. Gina Popovici continues to provide us with her excellent leadership of Aurora, and her personal sacrifices to make Church projects a success, whether they relate to the Picnic, the Festival, decorating the Church for special events, and repair projects at the Parish House. Gina and Mike are a dynamic team, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude for the many hours they spend cleaning, fixing, repairing so much of the Church property. This would be a wonderful opportunity for each of you to express your personal thanks to them.

It has been my usual policy to review the activities of the past year. This year, I would like to take a

Slightly different approach, since the successes of the Picnic and the Festival are well-documented in the Treasurer's Report and through other sources that have kept each of you informed throughout the year. Since I believe I will not be able to serve as President next year due to restrictions in the By-Laws, I wanted to take this opportunity as I exit the office of President to call your attention to something that has been troubling me for some time. That issue if one of complacency.

Complacency is defined as "self-satisfaction", and I am using this opportunity to point out to you just what a dangerous thing this is. As I have said in previous addresses, this organization of which you are members can only function based on volunteerism. We have no paid staff to clean, fill secretarial duties, complete maintenance and upkeep of the property. We have no paid staff to reach out to bring in new members, without which we have seen some stagnation in our potential growth. As an organization, we can only be as strong as each of our members, and that strength comes from volunteering your time and talent. The complacency that has seized many of you demonstrates your incorrect assumption that the same core group of individuals will always rush in to do the enormous work necessary to pull off our annual events. For those of you who continue to take a back seat and not participate, please keep in mind that these events are not an option for St. Thomas. A considerable percentage of our annual operating budget is provided by these events, without which we would be in very dire financial circumstances. These opportunities provide us with a means of tapping into other sources to help provide for our continued existence, and allow us to avoid raising the annual pledge even further. It is simply basic economics. The cost of running your own homes has not stayed the same, and we all know everything costs more each year. Many of you seems to believe that St. Thomas is somehow insulated from these fundamental facts. Let me disabuse you of that notion immediately.

That core group that shows up and assumes enormous responsibilities for each member of this Parish has always done a fine job. They deserve your gratitude. But, more than that, they deserve your participation. The work is hard – no one disputes that. Finding time is hard – we all have so many demands from family and work that none of us would object to being able to change the days to 48 hours each rather than 24. But, the issue is what do you believe is important? That is where you put your time. Do you believe that maintaining this Parish Home is important? If so, you dig down deep, reorganize your priorities and make time for these obligations. You do it in other aspects of your lives – I know you do, because I do the same thing. Everyone else you are counting on to volunteer is making time for St. Thomas, at great personal cost and sacrifice. It is, frankly, insulting to them that more of you do not do the same.

I have mentioned too many times how valuable these group experiences are. And, I have also provided personal testimony of how much fun it is to work with other members of this Parish.

I know you have heard this message, but too many of you continue to stand on the outer fringe, mostly providing criticism and commentary on how things should have been done. It is time for you to stop observing what others are doing – you are not an "outsider". You have chosen to be a member of this Parish, and as such, you need to make up your mind to assume the full responsibility of that membership. It is important to realize that some of the individuals on whom you have relied may be unable or unwilling to continue to take on this mantle of duty and obligation while so many simply sit out these events that are critical to our continuing to survive. Organizations like our Parish require continuity, and right now there are too few of us who have learned what is necessary to make some of these annual events a success for that continuity to exist.

Make this year different. Make a commitment. Do something new, something you have never done before to demonstrate your wholehearted membership in St. Thomas. Without that, we are all just marking time. Without that, we have a future, but one that is bleak and unsatisfying. Abandon your complacency, for the good of our Parish and for your own good. Make time for St. Thomas.
I humbly submit this report to you, in the Love of Christ,

Margaret Zonia Morrison

Parish Council President, 2007