March 2003

Retreating in Order to Move Forward

by Bruce Garner, Co-chair, NEAC Board of Director

The NEAC Board of Directors of NEAC met in retreat in January 2003 as part of the regular board meeting to engage in the process of strategic planning for the future—not the most exciting activity in the world, but certainly one of the most important for any organization.

Part of the process was to name topics and issues related to NEAC and HIV/AIDS. We filled up half a dozen sheets of newsprint with what came to mind. Here’s the list:

anger, AIDS is no longer , “special”, “been there, done that”, expanding population demographics, increasing HIV , population, no longer among us , (no as visible), red ribbons, media, Names Project , healthcare shortages and shortfalls, September 11, internal issues, focus away from the United States, no longer “our”problem, donor fatigue, volunteer fatigue, lack of volunteers, lack of professionals, public perception, misinformation, lack of ecclesiastical leadership, parish, diocesan , involvement (lack), neac connections, burnout, viagra, political government administration, budget – government, church, sexuality, drugs (recreational), treatment medications, intolerance, isolation, apathy, racism, denial, expanding epidemic, invisibility, poverty, ageism, stigma, grief and survivor guilt, high cost – more than just money, nutrition/hunger, addiction, alienation, increased risk, behavior (youth), education (and lack up), safe sex fatigue, abstinence only , (education), homophobia, 22 years later

The thing that struck me about this list—actually it hit me upside the head like a brick!—is the fact that if we had engaged in the same exercise 15 or 20 years ago, we would have identified most of the same issues.

That thought frightens me. It means we haven’t come nearly as far as we thought and perhaps should have come. More important, perhaps, it means that the problem of HIV/AIDS is still with us. The truth of the matter is simple: Our Church STILL Has AIDS.

Identifying the issues of concern was the easier portion of our task. Then came the difficult part: What would we do or say about them. We named them; now we felt compelled to address them. Our planning called for us to sort or categorize topics, assign responsibility, identify resources needed and determine what would indicate that we had been successful.

We set about “sorting” and came up with two broad categories: educating and promoting/furthering AIDS ministry. Both are essential parts of NEAC’s mission. How we plan to move forward with these aspects of our mission is detailed in the cover story of this issue of NEACtion.

Once we specified our work for the near future, wee acknowledged that this was an ambitious undertaking for us as an all-volunteer board. But we committed ourselves to the tasks, identifying shepherds for each area and committee members. The task of each group is to report back with complete project proposals, outlining what we will do, how it will happen, the resources we need, our timeline and completion date and how we will evaluate what we did.

We also recognized that much of our work would not be completed within a year, but we are striving to complete the majority of our tasks within the next triennium. As the saying goes: We have our work cut out for us!

We invite all of you to participate in our endeavors. If you have skills and abilities and interest in any of these areas, let us know, and we will put you in touch with the shepherd for each area. Meanwhile, we seek your prayers and Godspeed with our work.