Weekly Witness For November 10th

Integrity Board Meets; Agrees To Reorganize

Integrity USA's board of directors held its semi-annual meeting in Las Vegas from Thursday thru Saturday last week. The top issue on the agenda was whether and how to restructure the organization for greater effectiveness during the next triennium and beyond. Thanks to the facilitation skills of the Rev. David Norgard, Integrity's development consultant, the board reached consensus on a new leadership model that decreases the size of the national board and increases participation from constituents at the the local level.


Here are the key changes of this new model...

• A paid Executive Director--rather than the volunteer President--will be the chief leader and public spokesperson for Integrity. The Executive Director will be appointed by the board and sit as an ex officio member of it. The Executive Director will supervise other staff.
• The President will chair the board and ensure that staff have the support they need to do their work.
• The Secretary will function as the Director of Communications.
• There will be a Vice President for National Affairs, who will be responsible for overseeing Integrity's programming, development, and administrative work at the national level.
• There will be a Vice President for Local Affairs, who will be responsible for overseeing Integrity's work at the provincial, diocesan, and congregational levels. This officer will act as mentor to the provincial coordinators described below.
• The current regional vice presidents will become provincial coordinators . Their primary role will be serve as field organizers—providing encouragement and technical assistance to the members, parish partners, congregational circles, diocesan network coordinators, and chapters of their region—with the aim of starting new work and strengthening existing work. The provincial coordinators will be elected by the members of their region but will not serve on the board.
• A Stakeholders Council will be formed composed of chapter conveners, diocesan network coordinators, congregational circle moderators, parish partner representatives, lifetime members, provincial coordinators, past presidents, members of the board, allied organization representatives, and the executive director. The members of the Stakeholders Council will elect a Chairperson, who will serve as a member of the board. The Stakeholders Council will meet at least once per year.

In order to implement this new model, the board approved a number of bylaws changes--which the membership will be asked to ratify during December and January.

Come, Labor On: The Movie

A highlight of the board meeting in Las Vegas was a Holy Eucharist for Human Rights at Christ Episcopal Church. Susan Russell, President of Integrity, preached on Proposition 8. Buck Belmore, rector of the parish, presided. Special music was provided by a jazz ensemble. Dinner followed.

The text of Susan's sermon was posted earlier. Below is a video of her sermon.



General Convention Logo & Theme Unveiled

While in the Las Vegas, the board selected a logo and a theme for Integrity's witness at General Convention 2009 in Anaheim. The seven rainbow-colored circles in the logo represent the seven sacraments. The theme restates Integrity's core message that all baptized members of the Episcopal Church are entitled to equal access to all of its sacraments--including ordination and marriage.

You can order button, shirts, and other merchandise online with this logo via Integrity's CafePress store. We encourage you to use these products at your diocese convention and local pride events.

Groundspring Donor Management Suite Up And Running

Integrity's new online, integrated constituent management system is now operational. It has three components that work together. Here's an example...

1. A member visit Integrity's DonateNow page and makes a secure, online donation [for dues or special projects] with a major credit card. This component is hosted by Network For Good in partnership with Groundspring.
2. The member's contact and donation information is updated in a secure, online database. This component is hosted by Salesforce.
3. Integrity staff send a thank-you message to the member via e-mail. Staff and offers will also send other e-mail messages to the the member periodically--including renewal notices. This component is hosted by Vertical Response.

If you provided your email address to Integrity when you joined or renewed, watch for a message in the near future. Please make sure that "integrityusa.org" is listed as a safe sender in your junk mail filter!

Office Closed

Integrity's headquarters in Rochester, New York, was closed late last week for the board meeting and will remain closed thru Veteran's Day. It will open again on Wednesday, November 12th.