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State of the OrganizationReport from
the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Jason Park
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At the last conference, we distributed copies of this strategic plan, as well as a detailed short-range tactical plan. This plan was developed considering suggestions received from participants and the results that came out of the focus groups involved in the PINE project. The whole purpose of the plan was to support the continued development and improvement of an organization that would best support the real work of healing that goes on in the chapters.
This is the plan we have followed over the past year and I would like to report to you the progress made on that plan.
The role of the Board of Trustees is to handle the business and administrative matters of the organization so chapters can concentrate on individual growth. This includes such things as
We have a professional board of trustees with a good balance of people from the community and individuals who are in the process of healing themselves. You don't see us much because we don't get involved in the normal affairs of chapters. Our job is to develop basic guidelines and provide a professional staff to give on-going support to chapters that are self-governed.
Although the trustees were introduced in the beginning session yesterday, I'd like to let you know the responsibilities that each of them has:
As I mentioned, I am the chairman of the board and also the chair of the Master Planning and Program Development Committee that develops and maintains the strategic plan and business plan for the organization. This committee also maintains the handbooks, researches areas of need, and makes recommendations on how to improve programs.
Dan is the chair of the Conferences & Seminars Steering Committee. This committee oversees the annual conference and the various seminars held during the year. There is also a working committee that is making this conference happen. I have expressed my appreciation to them personally, but also want to thank them publicly. If you see someone with a green or blue badge, please go up to them, shake their hand, and say "thank you."
Vera is chair of the Finance and Fundraising Committee. This committee develops financial plans and policies, oversees the work of the Treasurer, ensures there is a yearly audit, and directs fundraising efforts.
Rey and David constitute the Education & Development Committee. This committee provides curriculum support for participants in men's chapters, friends and family chapters, for remote participants, chapter leaders, facilitators, and others. They develop the curriculum for conference workshops and other seminars. They also promote chapter libraries.
Gil is chair of the Public & Community Relations Committee. This committee manages media exposure and determines how to build relationships with people and organizations to ensure a consistent and accurate message about the mission of Evergreen.
Elmary is chair of the Human Resource Committee. This committee identifies people and their skills and ability to serve in board positions. Elmary was also responsible for getting the family and friends groups started and continues to play a key role in such groups.
T.J. serves on the Chapter Support Advisory Committee. This committee is the line of communication between the board and the chapters and individual participants. This committee is involved in chapter consulting and outreach. If you've called the help line, you've probably talked with him.
Lew is the organization's Treasurer. He spends untold hours keeping the finances of the organization intact.
Sunny is the organization's Secretary. She helps us with the minutes of our meetings and with historical records.
David Pruden is our Executive Director. David directs the day-to-day operations of the organization, supervises the staff and volunteers, and manages the budgets. He is also involved in fundraising and interacting with the public.
As you will recall, the master plan presented at the conference last year established a headquarters office with a part-time Executive Director. In September of last year, a gracious donor agreed to contribute the funds to cover the salary of a part-time Executive Director for one year. The Human Resources Committee drafted a job description and identified the qualifications and pay scale for the position. We advertised the position directly among all the chapters, in the newsletter, and with employment agencies. After the close of applications on November 15, 1994, the Human Resources Committee followed standard hiring practices to interview the candidates and make their final selection. The final selection of David Pruden was made by the committee and presented to the Board of Trustees for their approval on December 6th. With the board's approval, David was hired and began in January of this year.
To save us the expense of an office, David works out of his existing office and freely allows us the use of his phone, fax, computer, and photocopy machines. The Board of Trustees feels that David is an asset to the organization. We feel he provides stability and continuity in coordinating the work, as well as lending credibility and professionalism to the organization.
The same gracious donor also contributed funds for the salary of a part-time telephone facilitator so we could have someone to answer the 800 telephone number live (at least part time) and respond to inquires in a timely way.
I'd like to mention briefly some major projects that are underway:
Chapter support: Even though chapters are already self-governed, the board has been looking at ways to build more self-sufficiency and strengthen the role of local leaders and therapists in the healing process. We're looking into ways we can provide more training for leaders and facilitators so they better understand the process of healing and their role in helping individuals.
Education: We're also concentrating more on educating the individual. For example, the board has commissioned two people who over the past four months have put in nearly 700 hours developing a resource manual that can be used for personal study, to prepare lessons for chapter meetings, and as a basis for training therapists and church leaders.
Research: Yesterday morning, David Pruden announced that we are cooperating with the National Association for Research and Treatment of Homosexuality (NARTH) in a major study to quantify the experiences of individuals who are seeking to change homosexual feelings in their lives. If you did not get the chance yesterday to complete the survey, please see David Pruden to get one. I cannot comment enough about the importance of this study. It has the potential of being significant. Please consider completing this anonymous survey. It should take only 15-20 minutes.
Internet: On the literature table outside you can pick up an information sheet about our new presence on the worldwide computer Internet.
Many people ask us what they can do to help Evergreen accomplish its mission. May I suggest four major areas where everyone can help?
Moral support: Talk positively about the process of change. Support your chapter leaders. It's human nature to gossip, but it is destructive. Report rumors to the facilitator and let him handle them, and you get on with your individual challenge of personal healing. Bear your testimony to each other and share your successes with each other.
Financial support: Make your pledge of an on-going financial contribution, and follow through. For your information, each year an independent CPA conducts an audit of Evergreen's financial transactions and makes a report to the Board of Trustees. I assure you that operating procedures are in place to ensure that funds are handled appropriately and that expenses are approved and monitored by the Board of Trustees.
We want to publicly thank those who have contributed financially to support this work. Some have contributed in large amounts and others in smaller amounts but at great sacrifice. We strongly encourage chapter participants to contribute more. David Pruden spoke yesterday morning about fundraising programs. He introduced to you the Partners Program where our goal is to get 200 individuals to agree to match the $12 monthly contributions made by participants. He also spoke of the Sustaining Membership Program were individuals can make annual donations of $300 to the Juniper Fund, $500 to the Cedar Fund, or $1,000 to the Spruce Fund. David, I just received a $500 donation to the Cedar Fund.
These are just some of the programs that will be running during the year. Of course, you can make contributions in any amount directly to the Evergreen address or submit them through your chapter leaders.
Please encourage your family and friends to make tax-deductible contributions. Many individuals, businesses, and other organizations make charitable contributions through the year)why not encourage them to contribute to Evergreen? Assure them that their contributions go directly to make programs and materials available to bless the lives of people throughout the world who struggle with homosexuality. You can call the 800 number if you need copies of the pamphlet Evergreen International's Principles and Programs, which can be used to explain our programs. The fundraising committee can also help you approach potential contributors.
I'm sure that many of you in this room make donations to the United Way each year. Over the next several months, employers will be conducting their annual campaign urging their employees to contribute to the United Way. As you sign your pledge card, you will notice that you can designate an agency of your choice for your contributions. If you write in Evergreen International and our address, your contributions will be directed here. If the pledge card you get does not have a place to write in an agency of your choice, ask your employer for a United Way Designation Form.
Volunteer: I've mentioned today some of the things Evergreen is involved in. All these things take time. It's a tremendous burden for a few people, but manageable service when many people are involved. You help yourself when you help others. Please search your heart and see if you don't have a few hours a month you could devote to this important work. On the resource table in the hall, you'll find a list of things you can do to help. If you can help in any way, please talk with David Pruden or one of the trustees.
There are also day-to-day things we can do. How many wrote to the Deseret Book Company to thank them for beginning to carry books about homosexuality? How many write to television stations and newspapers to thank them for relaying information about overcoming homosexuality, or to respond to media coverage about the pro-gay agenda? How about grass-roots efforts to educate the community about homosexuality? Several stakes are planning priesthood leadership training meetings and Relief Society meetings on how to help those with homosexual problems. Such a meeting was held with great success in my stake because I took the initiative to suggest it to my stake president. The same could be done in your stake. It's up to you.
Faith and prayers: Our faith and prayers have an amazing effect on how this work moves forward. Pray that we'll feel a sense of urgency where we need to move forward and that we'll have patience where we need to have patience. Since we consider the fundraising effort pivotal to our ability to move forward in important ways, we ask for your faith and prayers. We invite you to pray with us that potential contributors might understand the issues surrounding homosexuality and be given a sense of compassion and urgency in the work we're about, and that the Lord will open doors that we may move His work forward in a major way.
I hope you have enjoyed the conference these past two days. In the days following this conference, be careful about your behavior and thoughts so you can continue to think about and process the things you hear today, and realize how they apply to you. Make this experience all it can be.
The emphasis of this year's conference is the spiritual side of healing. Christ's atonement and the plan of salvation are central to the process of recovery. We hear encouraging reports from chapters about spiritual experiences that have had a profound influence on their growth and recovery. If your chapter is not having similar experiences, we encourage you to evaluate your activities and plan for ways to invite the Spirit into all you do.
We believe that God is guiding this work and is intimately concerned about each one of us. As an organization, we commit to follow the direction of His prophet without reservation or exception.
I wish to repeat what I said at last year's conference. Confronting homosexuality is not easy. I hope that you'll soon learn)if you haven't already)that Evergreen has no magic cure. It can help you learn basic principles of healing, but then you have to develop your own program that will match your unique situation. Use the resources and relationships available through Evergreen and make the experience what you need. But realize that you'll also have to pursue other relationships and experiences that Evergreen can't provide.
As a United Way representative for my employer, I recently participated in the Day of Caring where I spent a day volunteering at the Neighborhood House. The Neighborhood House is a United Way agency in Salt Lake City that provides day care for mothers and fathers who are working or going to school. They bring their children here when they can't afford day care elsewhere. I basically spent the day coloring with a group of five-year-olds. But what a wonderful experience it was. Most of these children come from one-parent homes and they all desperately need love and attention. They wanted to show me their pictures, ask me thousands of questions, and sit on my lap. And the question they asked me the most was "Are you going to be here with us all day?" One little boy, Bryan, didn't let me out of his sight the whole day. He needed someone who cared. He needed a man to look up to. He needed love. It was almost more than I could do to leave when the day was finished. When it was over, I went home to my loving family. I don't know what the homes were like that those children went home to, but I can imagine.
I relate this experience for two reasons. First, no matter what our circumstance in life, we should realize that we have blessings that far surpass our challenges. And secondly, I feel that an important part of our individual growth and healing can come by serving others who are less fortunate. That day I spent at the Neighborhood House bonding with those five-year-olds was as healing for me as scores of hours of group therapy.
You have heard many testimonies during this conference from men and women who are finding success in their efforts to reduce or eliminate the control homosexuality has over their lives. And I'd like to add my testimony to theirs. My personal struggle to overcome homosexuality has been the most difficult road I've ever traveled)but also the most rewarding. I can tell you that I no longer feel torn between homosexuality and my family or the gospel. I feel at peace. I know for myself there are answers and I've experienced many changes in my life.
The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that everyone in this room has the ability to live the law of morality that Christ taught. He will never give us a commandment that we can't live. I may not have had any control over the situations I had to face in my life, but I can choose how I'll respond to them. God expects all his children to live his law of morality. He taught it plainly and His modern prophets reaffirm it. Satan teaches that we are gay by nature and are therefore exempt from the moral law. Some have bought into his philosophy and believe that all they can be expected to do is live the best they can)to find a same-sex companion and try to be faithful in that relationship. We are not a privileged class because we have homosexual feelings. The more I learn about homosexuality and the more I work on it in my own life, the more I realize that my challenges in life are not that much different than anyone else's. All are expected to live the same moral law)married and single, male and female, those with addictions and those without, those who have homosexual attractions and those who have heterosexual attractions. "...the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" (1 Nephi 3:7).
In the Church general conference that was held in April this year, President Faust of the First Presidency made the following comments: "Each of us...needs to reach down into the innermost recesses of our souls to find the divinity that is deep within us and to earnestly petition the Lord for an endowment of special wisdom and inspiration. Only when we so profoundly reach the depths of our beings can we discover our true identity, our self-worth, and our purpose in life. Only as we seek to be purged of selfishness and of concern for recognition and wealth can we find some sweet relief from the anxieties, hurts, pains, miseries, and concerns of this world." He went on to say, "God can not only help us find a sublime and everlasting joy and contentment, but He will change us so that we can become heirs of the kingdom of God. This is really the recovery of the sacred within us. We have the authority in our beings to respond to challenges of life any way we choose. Thus we gain mastery in any circumstance. As the Savior said to the diseased woman, `Thy faith hath made thee whole.'" (Ensign, May 1995, p. 63, italics added)
As he concluded the conference, our prophet Gordon B. Hinckley said "Please know that we are not without understanding of some of your problems. We are aware that many of you carry very heavy burdens. We plead with the Lord in your behalf. We add our prayers to your prayers that you may find solutions to your problems. We leave a blessing upon you, even an apostolic blessing. We bless you that the Lord may smile with favor upon you, that there may be happiness and peace in your homes and in your lives, that an atmosphere of love and respect and appreciation may be felt among husbands and wives, children and parents. May you `look to God and live' (Alma 37:47) with happiness, with security, with peace, with faith." (Ensign, May 1995, p. 88)
With a blessing like that from a prophet of God, how can we fail? I am grateful to be with you today. I draw a lot of strength from all of you. I leave you my testimony that this is His work and that we can be successful, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen