National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management

http://nlrcm.org/default.htm

NLRCM is an organization of laity, religious and clergy working together to promote excellence and best practices in the management, finances and human resources development of the Catholic Church in the U.S. by greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity.

When I came across this site, and read the reports from conferences in 2004 and 2005, I was encouraged. There ARE people out there trying to get it right.

Almost 30 years ago, many Catholic colleges, universities and hospitals realized that their organizations could benefit from the expertise of laity on their boards, by really listening and putting ideas into practice. This Roundtable seeks to build on that for Diocese and Parish alike.

Explore this site, there's a lot of info here. Conference reports are in PDF format under "publications". There are also many short video talks available under "video". There are panel reports from priests and bishops, sisters and pastoral care personnel, deans of top universities, as well as persons from top business and accounting firms. The reports may appear lengthy, but they are composed of many short articles.

I had quite a few "aha!" moments in reading through them.

You'll find that so much of this just makes sense: utilizing the business training of the laity, encouraging transparency and accountability in finance and management of parishes, restoring trust in financial and other parish matters.

Restoring trust that money donated will be put to its proper designated use.
Restoring trust that funds will be wisely managed, without unnecessary spending.
Restoring trust in open financial documents and discussions that are consistent with the mission of the parish, without hidden agendas.
Restoring trust that advisory boards do serve a purpose in the mission of the parish.

Restoring trust will provide the resources and support for outreach, to do the work that the Church is meant to do.

If it is working elsewhere. . . . . . . .