Preparation by the Pastor and Parish Staff

In preparation for the Annual Self Assessment of the Pastoral
Plan, the Pastor or someone he designates:

• Obtains copies of the current parish pastoral plan and area pastoral plan and provides them to each member of the Parish Pastoral Council for them to read prior to the Annual Self Assessment.
• Contacts those in the parish who are taking actions on each of the plan's goals (parish staff, parish organizations and individual parishioners) to learn what actions have been taken to accomplish the goals of the Parish Pastoral Plan.
• Synthesizes the information and develops a brief report of all the implementation actions for each plan goal, (if the connection between all the activity of the parish and the parish pastoral plan goals is not obvious, he simply needs to report that).
• Plans with the Coordinating Committee of the Parish Pastoral Council to include these reports in the education section of the agenda of the Parish Pastoral Council meeting(s) prior to the Annual Self Assessment.

 Preparation of the Parish Pastoral Council:

It is recommended that the Education Section of the council's Agenda (about 15 minutes) for one or two meetings prior to the Annual Self Assessment meeting be devoted to preparing the council for this annual review.

  There are three parts to this education component:

Part 1. The need for parish pastoral planning. 

It would be beneficial if parish staff and those parishioners who are involved in implementation efforts be present for this educational part of the meeting. This may be presented by the pastor or his delegate.

 a. Church Teaching

• Purpose of the Parish Pastoral Councils based in Church Teachings.
• Parish mission statement based in Church Teaching.
• Both topics can be reviewed from current Church documents related to parish life such as Ecclesia in America and Novo Millennio Ineunte
• Consult the seven theme areas described in the Characteristics Found in Vital Parishes

 b. Organization Theory

• Advantages of working in a group
• How to involve the right people in this assessment
• Need for trust, and an honest assessment, and openness to learn from failures as well as successes
• Need to foster effective communication among those in the group

Part 2.The brief report of all the implementation actions accomplished for each plan goal.

Part 3.A review (preview) of the agenda for Annual Self Assessment of the Pastoral Plan.

PARISH PASTORAL PLAN IMPLEMENTATION REPORT

Every parish is already involved in a process of ongoing pastoral planning. The Pastor, parish staff, and parishioners take actions as part of the ongoing development of the parish community. To continue the work that has gone before is good stewardship and it respects the work of these dedicated people. As a part of this ongoing process, Parish Pastoral Councils routinely review the progress that has been made and form objectives for the next year to continue to accomplish the goals the plan has proposed. One of the responsibilities of those (parish staff, organization leaders, volunteers or others) carrying out the actions required to accomplish the parish pastoral plan is to keep the Parish Pastoral Council up to date on the progress being made.

In preparing your report of implementation efforts for the Parish Pastoral Council, the following may be helpful in focusing your thoughts:

As you review the actions that you have taken to implement your area of responsibility for the Parish Pastoral Plan, you may want to ask:

1. Are the actions being performed the right ones to achieve the objective?
2. Were these actions successful?  If they were not successful, what seemed to present difficulty?
3. Were there any discoveries/surprises?
4. Is something further required?
5. What is the next step?
   

If you come across recommendations for which no actions have been
taken, you may want to ask:

1. Why has action not been taken on these recommendations?
2. What are the barriers to action?  (i.e., vagueness of intent, fear, lack of
 resources)

• Is a goal, objective or action unclear?
• Is responsibility for an action unclear?
• Is the time line for an action specific?

• Does an existing program, service or activity need to be redefined?
• Does an existing parish organization need to be redefined?
• Does an existing staff position need to be redefined?

• Does a new program, service or activity need to be created?
• Does a  new parish organization need to be created?
• Does a new staff position need to be created?
• Is there a need for a change in personnel?

3. What actions will be taken? 
4. When will some action take place?  Who will be responsible?

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