I asked the staff if I could talk about the next two items, because they are things that I have already used and found to be very valuable in working with Catholic organizations.  I have also recommended them to my friends and colleagues in the private sector because they are very good products.  They are the Standards for Excellence and the various communication products of the Leadership Roundtable.  I think it is important before I start to remind all of you that in a very short period of time, this organization went from virtually a dream, and a conception, and an idea to its own brand.  If you know how hard it is to develop a brand, and you look now at what the Leadership Roundtable has done, and you will hear about it in the next day and a half, it is absolutely phenomenal what has happened here.

When you say the Leadership Roundtable, lots and lots of people know what it is, know what it is about, and know that it stands for quality.  That is one of the reasons why the Standards for Excellence is one of its best products.

The Standards for Excellence are an ethics and accountability code for Catholic parishes, dioceses and non-profits.  They are based on some of the best ethic codes around the country that were put together by the Maryland Association of Nonprofits, who have an Institute on Standards for Excellence.

This group licenses these ethical codes to organizations like the Roundtable, so they can take them and adapt them to what it is that they are all about.  There was a committee of the Roundtable that put together these Standards for Excellence. 

Even though they look like they were simple and easy to do, it took a lot of effort to do.  I am really proud of what has happened here.  If a pastor uses this book, they have a tool.  They have a guide.  They have a resource.  This is not dumbed down, but it is very easy to use.  It is very clear.  It's a very important production of this organization.  Each of the guides is based on eight principles, and then, within the principles, there are various tasks that are recommended.  They are not hard to do.  Some need resources, some need thought, but they are not hard to do.

I just want to tell you what those principles are because I think that they are important, and you will see that they really do make sense.

They have to do with having a mission statement, and defining your ministry.  Having governance and advisory councils.  Having conflict of interest statements.  Having financial and legal guides.  Being open and transparent.  Having fundraising guidelines.  And addressing public life, and public policy.  It is the goal of the Roundtable with the Standards for Excellence to have a national distribution.  Although 5,000 of these have been distributed thus far, we are working on a strategic plan to get these out to everyone in the Catholic organizations, parishes, and dioceses.  Then, also trying to find ways to help the Partners in Excellence®, who are the organizations that have actually adopted the Standards for Excellence, and are working with the Roundtable as partners, to do some self-assessments to see what they have in place and what needs to be worked on. 

We would not have been able to do the Standards for Excellence project but for the very generous donation of a foundation who helped purchase the license, and do the printing, and the distributing, and I am very grateful to them.  As I am to the committee that put it together, which was Sr. Pat Mitchell, Fr. John Beal, Barbara Anne Cusack, Ned Dolejsi, and Michael Brough.  A tremendous job.  There is more about the Standards for Excellence on the website (www.nlrcm.org/standards) if you would like to see it.

The second thing I am going to talk about are the communications products.  The website has come very far.  It is really a good website.  It has some really nice things on it, including a scrolling news bar, so that your eye goes right to that as you look at this.  You could be looking at it every few days, and you will catch something new right away.

The website has increased in terms of the number of visitors.  Last year, there were over 43,000 visitors.  To date, over 35,000 visitors in just this calendar year, 2008, alone.  That's wonderful.

The website also is another vehicle for distributing the electronic newsletter, we use RSS feeds, as well as downloads, audio and video.  It is tremendous, and it is the work and the implementation of the plan of the Communications Committee that is responsible for much of that. 

The second part of the communications products are the printed materials.  I know all of you know what the printed materials are of the Roundtable.  They might be a brochure, it might be a DVD and workbooks, it might be the proceedings from the Wharton Conferences.  You can get those online for free.  You can order them in hard copy.  They convey the message of the Roundtable.  An important thing that I want to say about communications and the Roundtable is that it has been my experience in working with organizations that communications is often the problem but the Roundtable philosophy is that communications is the solution.

Communications is the way that you get your message across, and that you solve issues and challenges that particularly a new organization, like the Roundtable, confronts.  It Is through the work of that committee and their strategic plan that we have been able to do a lot of the things, and get the word out about all these great things that are being done.

The last thing I want to say about communications is the power of the verbal message. This staff, board members, and council members of the Roundtable have been out there delivering this message.  Most commonly, it is Kerry Robinson who is doing that, and she has spoken to diocesan and development groups and to lay groups, such as Legatus.  She has spoken to priest councils, and a wide variety of national and diocesan organizations.  Giving that message also allows board members and Kerry Robinson to convey the philosophy of this organization, but also to inspire and challenge.

I know that some of you were at the National Ministry Summit in Orlando earlier this year.  Kerry does not know that I am going to quote her now, but I am going to, because she said three things that I think were really important, and really sort of encapsulate what communication should be from this organization.

She told those people, "Be the change you want to see in the Church.  Aspire to excellence at every level for the sake of the Church, and ensure that your parish and your ministry are worthy of generosity."  Those are parts of the Roundtable message, and she conveyed those so well.  I hope that those words are often repeated, because I think they are very powerful.  Last of all, the communications goes on.  There are things planned for later this year with the National Federation of Priest Councils, keynotes with the 40th anniversary of the National Catholic Development Conference, and a number of other organizations and groups.  If you know about groups that would benefit from hearing from people from the Roundtable, please invite us to that.

I want to also thank Susan King, the chair of the committee for communications, Fr. Tom Reese, Bill Baker, Fr. Bryan Hehir, Joe Kelsch, Sr. Mary Johnson, Owen McGovern, David Spotanski, Michael Brough, and others who have helped.  Thanks to the committees that have done so much to get the word out.