The Council is currently working to finalise the roles and responsibilities of each member and to develop an organisational structure to assist us in serving you. This document is still being finalised but we offer you a draft so you can see how our plans are emerging.

Spiritual Companion: Sr Merle

Line of Accountability:  Superior Generals of the MSC, FDNSC, MSC sisters

Charter: To accompany the International Council and to model Spiritual Companionship.

Responsibilities:

• To offer formation and guidance to the members of the International Council, particularly in the area of a Spirituality of the Heart and its practical implications, through their presence at digital and face-to-face meetings and international gatherings, as well as offering wise counsel and support, as requested and needed by the International Council.
• To act as a conduit between the laity and professed members of the Family, where needed or requested.
• To actively promote the vision for the laity within the Chevalier Family to professed and lay groups, when on visits to various countries, and also, through supportive communication with the leadership of the professed in different countries. This communication is best undertaken in collaboration with the International and National Councils of the Laity.
• To offer assistance in forming Spiritual Companions on a national level, assisting them to work with lay groups towards the creation of mature ‘faith-sharing’ groups who can function with increasing autonomy.

General Secretary  - Alison

Line of Accountability: Membership of the Laity of the Chevalier Family.

Charter: To enhance the vision of Jules Chevalier for a Lay Branch within the Chevalier Family through pastoral and organisational leadership.

Responsibilities:

• To exercise pastoral care and support to the wider Chevalier Family.
• To work with the International Council to enable the vision of the Council to be realised.
• To ensure that the recommendations of the General Assembly are carried out.
• To form and inform the network of National Councils and local groups.
• To communicate regularly with the Lay Family and the other branches of the Family.
• To actively promote a deeper understanding of the process of formation in Spirituality of the Heart.
• To lead the International Council and the local organising committee in the planning and execution of the next scheduled Assembly of Laity.
• To actively seek to identify emerging leaders and offer them opportunities to ensure appropriate succession planning.

Finance Committee – Patricia

Members:

Linh Huynh

Chris McDermott

Line of Accountability - To act under the direction of the International Council

Committee Charter: To take responsibility for the finances of the international Council and to report regularly on their work.

Responsibilities:

• To build and maintain a functional and accountable financial system.
• To continue working with the existing Catholic Development Fund Bank Account while exploring other options.
• To propose budgets and expenditure plans for approval by the International Council.
• Ensure all expenditures are approved.
• Together with the International Council and the wider Chevalier Family explore strategies for raising funds and acquiring resources necessary to support the organisation’s activities.
• Ensure that every transaction occurs in compliance with the appropriate legal and fiscal regulations.

Secretarial Committee – Dorothy

Members:

Lee Toll

Line of Accountability: To the International Council through regular reports and timely completion of tasks.

Committee Charter: To facilitate effective communication so as to enable the International Council and the General Secretary to undertake their responsibilities with efficiency.

Responsibilities:

• To further develop and manage the digital filing system used by the International Council.
• In collaboration with the Information Technology Committee explore other options for digital storage of files and back-up.
• Assist in the transition to an alternative platform.
• Where required, formulate official correspondence from the International Council.
• Create a designated email contact for the General Secretary and the International Council and email signatures for the International Council with an agreed wording that reflects our core purpose.
• Record, transcribe and store meeting Minutes and distribute them with appropriate authorisation.
• Manage and update the existing Contact List for the Laity of the Chevalier Family and, where appropriate and legal share with other entities.
• Develop systems for acquiring updated information about the changing leadership of National Councils, local groups and Spiritual Companions in member countries.
• Assist the General Secretary and the International Council where needed with secretarial tasks.
• Distribute official mailout material.

Information Technology Committee - Aidan

Line of Accountability: To the International Council through reports, where appropriate and timely completion of tasks.

Committee Charter: To oversee and further develop the capacity of the International Council to utilise contemporary Information Technology to assist in the core mission to share the Heart of Jesus.

Responsibilities

• To manage the existing website in collaboration with Misacor Australia.
• To explore other options for website hosting.
• If required, to assist in the transition to an alternative hosting platform.
• To further develop social media platforms and the technologies used to distribute communications such as Encounter of Hearts.
• Explore contemporary research on communication in the digital age to assist the International Council to communicate through social media platforms more effectively and longer and more complex modes of communication.

Formation Committee - Petrus

Members:

It is important that this committee has an intercultural membership.

The Spiritual Companion and the General Secretary will also sit on this committee, particularly in relation to spiritual formation.

Committee Charter: To work collaboratively with religious spiritual companions to develop the capacity of lay people to become formators within their own groups.

Line of Accountability: To the International Council through reports, where appropriate and timely completion of tasks.

Responsibilities:

• Continue to work on the two archivally significant projects begun by the last Council:
  • Collecting and recording the history of the emergence of the lay movement in member countries. We have some material currently stored on the website.
  • Collecting the names and stories of those Religious who used their position of responsibility to assist the emergence of the lay movement.
• To create an effective working team of Regional Coordinators to further develop the structural capacity of the International Council to communicate to the laity and to hear from them.
• In response to the needs of local groups, begin to develop formation material for initial and ongoing formation of the laity.

Ainne - Revolving seat

The person who holds this seat will be fully participating member of the International Council and will automatically be a member of the Regional Coordinator sub-committee.

Sub Committees

We are forming two sub-committees, an Editorial Committee to help with formatting the formal Newsletters and updates from the International Council . Shirley Mohidi and Clare Johnston are currently on the Editorial Committee which will be led by the Chair of the Secretarial Committee.

The other committee is to develop and oversee the emerging role of Regional Coordinators. Olguita Garcia Ocampo will meet with the International Council at our next meeting to discuss this role. This committee will be led by the Chair of the Formation Committee.