Brothers,

I am looking forward to our next virtual Business meeting on Tuesday October 13th at 7 pm.  While there is no replacement for any of us getting together in person, conducting business and enjoying each other’s company, I believe the necessity of holding virtual meetings to keep our organization moving forward has been a suitable alternative, at least for the time being and under the present circumstances.  So we will meet again via Zoom using this link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8194077416.  I encourage all Brothers to join us.  

Last month I mentioned the possibility of our meeting being held in person at the St. Michael’s Lake House.  Although we are holding this month’s meeting virtually, I would like to discuss further an in-person or hybrid (with virtual as well) meeting and plan accordingly for November. 

This month we will have the opportunity to live our mission of supporting Catholic Education and Faith Formation programs at our Parishes by planning check presentations and returning some of the funds from our 2019-2020 Raffle sale to our parishes.  I could use some assistance in making the contacts with the parishes in order to do that but would like to get those scheduled in the next few weeks.  There are of course significant restrictions at our parishes in attending Masses but within those guidelines I hope that we can present the checks in person as we have done in past years.  

As we have all become more familiar with in every part of our society, virtual meetings, gatherings and presentations have become a routine part of our lives.  There are a number of such presentations that are being sponsored by the National AOH Board that we will share and discuss, which we can all participate in.  We have had some success with our own virtual events in addition to our Business meetings, Masses, our Raffle drawing and traditional music.  So we seek ways to return to a routine of face-to-face events, I am open to using technology to our advantage in keeping the Division active and engaged.  Let’s speak about the positives and negatives of that when we are together on Tuesday.  

Finally, I am sometimes guilty of overlooking the ultimate virtual communication, that is Prayer.  The Dooley Division Chair of the Sick Scott Nugent always does a terrific job of keeping the Prayer list up to date.  Let’s not lose sight of how important Prayer is (I’m speaking of myself first)!  If we overuse one virtual communication going forward, I would like that to be the one.  

I am open to all suggestions as to how best to transition back to some degree of in-persons meetings or if our meetings are suitably filling the needs of the Divsion, I am open to continuing them as we have done for the last several months.  As always it will be good to see smiling Irish faces and have a bit of Craic on Tuesday evening via Zoom.  

In Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity,

Mike Canning

President