Scott W. Schutte
State Deputy
StateDeputy@IndianaKofC.org
Home Council : 16305 - SAINTS FRANCIS AND CLARE GREENWOOD, IN
Home Assemby : 245 - BISHOP CHATARD INDIANAPOLIS, IN
My Worthy Bother Knights,
Welcome to the new fiscal year. You may have noticed that I did not have an article in the July newsletter. I anticipated that most of the readers would join the July Quarterly Grand Knight / Financial Secretary meeting. If you missed that we will have it posted to the shared drive soon and you can listen to the plans for this year.
Circle of Honor
Congratulations on inviting enough men to join our ranks (total of 1203) to meet our membership goals and to earn Indiana an incentive from Supreme. We did not however make the Circle of Honor this year. What held us back. Several factors led to us not meeting the Supreme requirements. First, we did not have enough Fraternal Benefit Nights recorded. I will be speaking with our General Agent about working more closely with our Councils to make these requirements accomplishments.
Secondly, we did not meet our goal for New Council Development. We had a third proposed Council in the works. This would have been a new Hispanic Council. Unfortunately, some members were confused as to how this is a benefit to the local parish. We were working to resolve that issue, but it has pushed us out of the acceptable timeframe.
Lastly, we had several requirements that I believe we would have hit if everyone had submitted their paperwork. Councils were not listed as Star Councils because we didn’t get SP-7forms submitted, our goals for service hours and donations were not met because we did not receive the 1728 reports, etc. I hear some members say that they don’t do this for the credit. Well, the IRS wants to take our money, so we need to show that it is going to charity. Additionally, we need to remember that some of our members want that credit. No job is finished until the paperwork is completed. Please be diligent in filing your forms.
Goals for this year
Indiana has been asked to bring in 1265 new members. We were very close to meeting that number this year. If each of our new members invites one new member, we only need to gather 62 new members. There are fast start incentives from Supreme and the State. Please let’s go and invite new members now and do not wait.
We will also need to complete four Holy Hours at the State level. We have completed one already at the Summer Organizational meeting. We will have two additional, one at the winter meeting and one at Convention. I will try to determine a suitable fourth event and let everyone know about it.
Lastly, we are requested to have 25 Star Councils this fiscal year. This is an attainable goal if we submit our paperwork. 185 and 365 forms as soon as possible. Audits submitted on time. Safe Environment training completed as required. (These should not be delayed; we want children to be safe at our events.) Please note that Fraternal Benefit Events are required to make Star. I will explain that in further detail below as the reporting for these has changed. Faith in action Projects completed and reported. Membership goals attained.
This is a much-simplified list compared to last year. We can do this. I ask for your cooperation in meeting these goals for the State.
Fraternal Benefit Events
This year Councils are expected to have two Fraternal Benefit Events. Your goal on attendance is to have 10 total present if you have 99 or less members, and 14 present, if your Council has 100 or more members. These numbers can be reached in any combination. One and nine, two and eight, etc. present at the two events. If you do not meet the number of eligible people present at the two events, then we would look to add additional events.
Reporting is now the responsibility of the Grand Knight. Grand Knights will file a record with Supreme. This record can be challenged by the General Agent, so we expect everyone to play by the rules. However, if you attend an on-line event, we are not requiring everyone to submit a survey. This should be easily attainable.
Women’s Care Center Endowment
We continue our drive to reach a $10,000,000 endowment over the next nine years. We did a respectable amount this year. Let’s build on that and increase our donations. We need to show that Indiana is here for women and children so that the Abortion lobby cannot say that they don’t have the options needed for a good life. We can do this.
New Councils
We created two new Councils in Indiana last year. We are working to bring in five this year. Please work with the NCD chairman as he works to make our Jurisdiction available to all parishes in Indiana. Let’s also show our support for the new Council in Bradford, and at St. Jude in Indianapolis. I will be sending out a donation request soon for these two Councils to help get them financially set to start their important works.
State Financial Situation
We are working to get the State financially solvent. We are very tight on funds as a jurisdiction currently. Per Capita is coming in and we intend to be able to catch up on our invoice payments soon. We are looking at doing some fund raising as a State to help address our current shortfall. Plans are being made to hold diocesan galas in partnership with some of our charitable partners. We ask that you support these efforts and help our State to maintain its financial stability.
NCYC
NCYC will visit Indianapolis in November. We have been asked to support the food packing efforts again this year. Please donate to that effort. Our Community Director will provide more details.
Eucharistic Congress
Plans for the Congress are developing. We are currently determining where volunteers will be needed and what requirements will need to be met for a volunteer for each task. Current plans are for the list to be completed by Early December. I will share the roles and requirements at that time. The volunteer portal will open on April 1, 2024. I ask that you all sign-up at that time. There will be a check box for the Knights that will give you access to specific roles. Please be prepared to volunteer at that time.
Closing Thoughts
I have been praying for some important things lately. On July 4th I went to see the movie Sound of Freedom. I highly recommend this movie. We as Knights should see and support this film. We should also be working to drive out child trafficking.
We as Knights should also be working to help our Brother Knights with sickness and other health issues. I have members of the State leadership and their wives that have had health issues that have limited their efforts in participating in the operations of the State. Let us all pray for each other and help where we can.
Let’s keep inviting those new members. We have some huge projects, Eucharistic Congress, coming up and we will need lots of volunteers. Plus, we want our fellow Catholics to keep the faith, COR Initiative. Keep dreaming big and be ready to Evangelize Through Our Works.
Vivat Jesus
Scott Schutte
Indiana State Council - Knights of Columbus
State Deputy
statedeputy@indianakofc.org
webpage HERE
Vivat Jesus