As catholics and because this is a catholic mens fraternal family service organization it is important to keep what we do God Centered. No matter what always begin your meetings with a pray and the Pledge of Allegiance and end your meeting with a prayer. A Special Hint and a good way to keep your meetings centered on God and his will and love is to begin with, the Sign of the Cross, say the prayer ... BUT ..... Do not make the closing Sign of the Cross until after the closing prayer. If you do this your meetings will be part of your prayer and can lead to blessed growth of membership and the spiritual life of the members.
Think about this: It is hard for any member of your Council to justify fighting and speaking down about others or situations if your meeting is part of the prayer life of the council. Remember, we are Catholic Men and members of the fraternal brotherhood in the Knights of Columbus. Our roots and strength lay in the faith we profess.
Always be ready for your meeting. Read and qualify all mailings before the meeting starts. DO NOT READ LETTERS to your council membership at the General Council Meeting! Read them before. Know what they say and paraphrase in as few words as possible.
You have the gavel. Use it .. in calling the council to kneel in prayer, come to attention and to control the meeting. The gavel is your sign of elected authority in your chair position. Also, the Warden shall always have available for meeting the officer jewels. The jewels should be worn for meeting and other council functions. These are the symbols of your office and those of your chair officers.
As the Grand Knight you will call upon the various committee chairmen to give a brief summary of their committees activity. At no time should you receive a report that states, No report. This is especially true of the membership committee. This committee must have a progress report at each meeting. This is the committee that will keep new blood entering the Order for the betterment and strength of your council. Committee reports should be just that - reports. Discussion and decision making should NOT generally occur during the committee reports, unless the committee is coming before the council with a motion to be acted upon. If your committees are functioning properly all the miscellaneous discussions about who does what when will have taken place during the committee meeting and not the council meeting.
Negative comments are different than statements of fact. It may be a fact that last year’s dance did not make much money. It is not a fact that it will never be successful. Never allow negative comments during the meetings and never allow the following statements: "It can’t be done" "It won’t work" "But we’ve always done it this way" These statements stifle the creativity of your council officers and members. Just maybe there is an idea in the mind of a member that will just make a program or activity work.
There should be only ONE person speaking at a time. Gavel to silence side conversations and do not allow the F. S. and Treasurer to conduct business during the meeting. That conversation is to take place before the meeting as is also the Trustee meeting.
Be sure that all paper work is completed in a timely manner. See that the F. S. completes the forms (185 - 365 -2629 (Round Table Report if applicable) - 1728 - and any other you deem that he is responsible for). It is a good idea to assign a council member to be a Forms Chairman and to work with the Recorder to complete other State and Supreme awards forms. Some will argue that "We don’t complete forms because our members don’t do things for recognition." When your council receives recognition for a job well done it strengthens the desire and actions of your members to achieve more. Also, sharing your accomplishments and your program ideas with other councils helps them to find new ideas to keep their council active and vital. Hiding your light under a basket doesn’t help your members, your parish, or your community.
The life blood of your council is new members! The best way to be a complete council for your members is to have a working first degree team. In every council you can find at least four brothers who are willing to be actors and learn a part. Having a first degree team benefits the council by being able to conduct degrees as needed and to assist with recruitment. When you are planning the schedule for the year, you should also be planning first degrees. When the first degrees are planned and completed it acts as a "force of example" for your members to go out and ask a Catholic man to join us. If your members know when your council’s first degrees are planned, then they can tell prospects when, or how soon, we can bring him and his family into the benefits of the Order. See that your degree teams work no less than six times a year. Plan a degree and then go out and find men to attend the degree.
You do not have to necessarily have robes (which are always the most expensive part of the paraphernalia) to run a degree. If your council does not have robes, check with your District Deputy. He may know of a council from which you can borrow them or maybe the councils in your district will elect to share the cost of a set of robes. If you do not have robes available to use, dark slacks, white shirts and ties are in order. All team members should work toward complete memorization of the parts. However, a little leniency with new teams and/or new team members is always appreciated and acts as a challenge to team members to put the part to memory.
It is the responsibility of the Grand Knight to check - not audit the Financial Secretary’s books. The key area to hone in on is the number of members in arrears.. members behind in their dues. If you have an active Retention Committee they will keep the council officers informed of members in arrears. However, you should know that retention of council members should not be a "dues collection process". IF a member has not been to a council meeting in some time or is not participating in any of the programs, you should find out why. A simple phone call or postcard will go a long way in telling a member that you are interested in him and want to keep him as a member. Don’t wait until he is a year or more behind in dues before you let him know that he is missed.
It is imperative that the Trustees function in the council. They are the council’s financial committee. They must prepare the audit (form 1295) and sign the audit twice each year (1295). Remember, bills are referred to the Trustees for payment and, if found acceptable, paid. The council membership does not vote on payment of bills. State and Supreme Per-capita and Catholic Advertising are not approved by anyone. These are assessments that must be and should be paid within days of receiving the notices. It is best to make sure all bills are read during the F. S. report for the benefit of the members and for recording by the Recorder.
As Grand Knight you will have asked and assigned a member as Church Activities Director. See that there is something planned each month to benefit the local Parish/School. A good way to help attract additional members is to be sure that the council recognizes and thanks all Parish members who work within the Parish to benefit the Parish: (Altar Servers, Ushers, Eucharist Ministers, CCD Teachers Do not forget the Clergy (the Priests, Deacons, Sisters, and Brothers)! The Council must be visible as an important part of the Church. Even though the Knights of Columbus is not a Parish group like the CCW or Men’s Club that reports to the Parish Council, we are still are still a church force for good and God. Do make it a point to visit with the Pastors to discuss what the Knights can do for the Parish. Ask him for his suggestions and keep him informed about all the good things the Council is doing for the Parish.
Encourage your council to support at least one seminarian, Sister or Brother each year and ask members to remember him or her in prayers, good works and actions.
Become involved in State and Supreme programs for Membership and Programming. Using your appointed Forms Chairman as mentioned earlier see that the Columbian Award Form is filled out and submitted as early as possible. Every council in Illinois should be able to win the Columbian Award it they only will record all the things big and small they do for the Church, Community, Family, Council and Youth. We also encourage councils to use the Columbian Form, or a version of it, as a planning tool to plan for the new fraternal year as well as a reporting tool to report what happened during the last fraternal year. If you use this form as a planning guide then it is easy to check off programs you have planned as they are completed and thus keep track of your progress.
Do programming that recognizes the accomplishments of the council members Knight of the Month, Knight of the Year, Family of the Month, Family of the Year, Newman Support, Blood Donors Programs, etc. are easy programs to run. They are also excellent programs to help recruit and retain members.
Take time to praise and thank your members, a few simple words will go along way to make a better council. Some members will argue that reporting and recognizing member activities is not what the Knights are about. In one sense that is true. However, we are about praising and sharing. Recognizing your members praises their work. Reporting their work helps share ideas with other councils and makes us all grow and improve. There is not a single State or Supreme Program that did not start out as a Council program.
Do not forget the most important people, the wives ! They are the ones who let us get out and do the things we do for the Order. They are also often the ones who help out with our programs as much as some council members do. Make sure the councils holds at least one recognition program a year for them .. a little thank you and a little praise is the fuel that encourages everyone to continue to work for the Order. Other family activities are what will bring the younger men to activity within the council.
Do not for get the youth in your Council families, Parish and community. What your council does for youth can only help the council grow together and grow in new membership, today and in the future.
You are the head of your council, the CEO! You should be directing what is happening in your council. You should choose several things to do each year that shows that you still know how to flip pancakes, wash dishes and serve coffee. Even as the CEO and GK you still put your pants on one leg at a time .. be sure your members know that even the Grand Knight can still do the grunt work.
But do not try to do it all or all at one time. If you have a council that needs to return to the basics you might have more CEO functions to do than you have time for. Let the DGK attend to some functions; it is his role to serve in your place when you cannot be there. You are the leader and the coach. Treat your brothers and your officers [your TEAM] with the compassion that they deserve, but do not shirk from the responsibility of directing them as they need to be. Learn to be a TEAM player and remember that the best team players know how and when to hand the ball to other members of the team. They also know how to accept criticism and how to give advise to other members of the TEAM.