Men of St. Joseph’s Ministry,
As the new president of our band of brothers this is my first “President’s Message.” I’m new at this. For the previous 6 years I’ve served as VP of Service and you’ve no doubt have received several badgering emails in the past from me encouraging you to support one of the BBQ lunches, procession traffic/crowd control for other ministries, a hospitality Sunday, Christmas tree cutting, Christmas creche setup and tear down, and other asks of the SJMM by other parish ministries. You always came through. This job now falls to Lou Zenzen who accepted the VP of Service position. Be kind to him.
Going forward my task is to keep the members active and engaged, encourage new membership, and support the parish community as best we can with what we have. We recently attracted a few new members, a good sign moving forward. We have also lost a few stalwarts along the way. While our roster boasts 76 members, just 17 have paid dues for 2025. Our monthly general meeting in the church hall musters about a dozen attendees on average.
The dues are important insomuch as they show a level of commitment. What matters more, and is appreciated more, is active participation – not every time, but when one can; it is important. A little goes a long way.
We have two events on the horizon. First is our general meeting which fall on Tuesday, March 4th, which just so happens to be “Fat Tuesday”, the day before Ash Wednesday. In celebration of that we will be meeting at the Round Table Pizza in the Mission/Warm Springs parking lot shared with Safeway, Taco Bell and others at 7 PM. (You can try your luck by bringing beads, but I don’t think it will do any good.)
The second event is parking control for the St. Joseph Conference March 14-15. It is a big deal and our help is needed to direct attendees to the far-flung parking areas beyond the church proper. Mike Gaffey/Don Kaefer are to provide instructions and organization at our March general meeting at Round Table Pizza.
So now you know,
- SR