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| November 2009 |
Vol 1, Issue 1 |
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| ACPE e-News
A publication of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. |
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| Greetings! |
Embracing Change - Goodbye to the ACPE News in print! While attending a denominational meeting in St. Louis recently, I had the opportunity to visit the old Union Station, an architectural marvel when it was built, a symbol of the central role of St. Louis in the westward migration and expansion of the United States into the "frontier" west of the Mississippi.
Part of the display throughout the station included a number of notable quotes by famous historical personalities. One quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, stayed with me - "Wise spirits often encounter violent resistance from mediocre minds." Perhaps it stayed with me because it helped make sense of the many violent reactions to proposed health care reform. Perhaps it stayed with me because I, myself, often resist change even when I perceive the change to be wise. I like the familiar, the predictable, and the usual. The ordinary, routineness of life does not bore me at all; I relish it. Change, on the other hand...
In today's culture, we seem to deal with change on a daily basis. I finally gave in and now pay most of my bills online and do most of my shopping online. I have resisted Facebook, an iPod and the Blackberry, but a lost appointment book recently compelled me to reconsider my resistance and to embrace these new modes of communication and keeping up with myself! I don't think I have a mediocre mind, but I sure know I rather not have to change so much, so fast!
So, here we have it, the last issue of the ACPE News in print. I remember my swelling pride when I received my first issue of the News back in 1987 as a Supervisory Candidate! For a while I kept every issue, the stack of newsletters a symbol of my membership in the ACPE family. Now for the past ten years, I have edited every issue, worked to improve its appearance and usefulness, and now it is going away!
The wisdom of cost-savings is clear. The wisdom of embracing new modes of communication and technology is emerging. I suppress my resistance and my desire to yell out in protest! I pray not to ever settle for mediocrity, but to relish the opportunity that comes with stepping out into new territory. Many a soul passed through the Union Station in St. Louis on their way to a new phase of their life... Join me as we step into a new phase of the journey in the life of our association. Thanks to everyone who played a part in the rich history of the print version of the ACPE News!
Contact the national office if you do not receive this newsletter via email within 10 days or if you do not have email and wish to continue receiving a printed copy.
Teresa Snorton, ACPE Executive Director can be reached at teresa@acpe.edu.
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| Beginnings, Middles and Endings |
 The ACPE has been engaged in several strategic initiatives during my term as President. The beginnings of the Foundation (FCPE), Accreditation changes and envisioning ways to enhance our Certification processes have been at the forefront of our board deliberations. Since our last meeting, much of my time has been spent in working with others on the complex issues that have arisen in relation to the FCPE. These issues have included communication challenges and the concerns raised by the extensive start-up expenditures that have been made. There has been some pain in all of this. I will say that all the parties have worked very hard to stay in communication and to work towards resolving these issues. To that end the FCPE Board (which includes me, Teresa and Paula) met in Decatur for a full day in October in order to do just that. We are moving in the direction of setting clearer benchmarks for FCPE and involving the ACPE Board more full on the FCPE Board. However, serious discussion in terms of future funding the operations of FCPE and the desirability/feasibility of undertaking a major capital campaign are vital in the days ahead. I have also spent a fair amount of time on issues relating to the Spiritual Care Collaborative. The Summit was a big success and now comes the question of "What Next?" We are working on developing a coherent vision for our activity, one that will marshal our gifts and common interests most meaningfully. This is particularly important because we are finding increasing opportunities to be at the table with other health care professionals (most notably with the Joint Commission). I believe it is vital that we find a common voice with which to speak, so that our concerns and our values may be effectively incorporated into the larger conversation. To that end I was privileged to take part in a day and a half meeting in Pasadena put together by the Archstone project. The goal was to put together recommended new guidelines for incorporating spirituality in end-of-life care. Health care professional from all over the country participated and the results have just been published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. This will be my last written report as ACPE President. It is hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by. It has been a privilege to serve in this position, and most of the time it has been a pleasure. The Board and ACPE will be in very good hands when Sally Schwab becomes our next President. She has been great to work with and I think we have established a strong collaborative working relationship. I thank you for all the hard work you have done and for the support you have shown. I am grateful for the gifts you bring to leadership in ACPE. The Rev. William E. Scrivener is an ACPE Supervisor at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, OH. He serves as President of the ACPE. He may be reached at bill.scrivener@cchmc.org.
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| Foundation for CPE |
 The Foundation for Clinical Pastoral Education (FCPE) is off to an amazing beginning. For a new foundation, it is doing very well indeed. Fundraising on behalf of ACPE since October 2007 has totaled $465,000. These funds have built the required business structure and trained a growing number of volunteers for the first foundation of a pastoral care organization in the U.S. Currently a major effort has begun to move beyond our membership and invite others to join in our annual fund effort. We are securing the names of friends of our work to invite them to support our future. Any member of ACPE who knows of someone who would like to become a supporter of our work is encouraged to send the name and contact information to Deborah Whisnand, Executive Director of the Foundation ( deborah.whisnand@foundationforcpe.org). Most members of the Association are not trained as fund raisers, and this effort is new to us. Many, if not most, foundations begin with a Capital Campaign, from which they develop a list of donors. Our office in Decatur, over twenty years old, is no longer adequate to our needs, current or future. The Foundation for CPE has received a major commitment of $250,000 to begin a capital campaign, and a committee of the Board of Representatives of the ACPE is studying possibilities for our present and future needs. I invite you to learn more about our new foundation and consider how you might like to participate by going to our website, www.FoundationforCPE.org. The Rev. Dr. Arthur Schmidt serves as President of the Foundation for Clinical Pastoral Education. He may be contacted at aarthurschmidt@gmail.com.
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| Organizational & Fiscal Self-Study at Regional Meetings |
 At the February 2009 meeting of the ACPE Board of Representatives, I was assigned to design a work group to engage a self-study of Organizational and Fiscal Study. Members are Mildred Best, Mari Chollet, Ted Hodge, Mark Jensen, Yoke-Lye Lim Kwong, Patrick McCoy, Michele Shields, Paula Teague and Tim Thorstenson. The group has met monthly by conference call since February. The fruit of our labors will be shared at fall Regional meetings across the country. Bill, Teresa and I will present the report. Regional Board Representatives will invite and record responses and suggestions for change from the ACPE membership and potentially vote those changes into being at the November 2009 ACPE Board meeting. Please be sure to attend and participate in the session where this information will be shared. The primary focus of this report is in regard to fiscal efficiency and management. If proposed changes are accepted by the ACPE Board of Representatives at the November 2009 meeting, there will be a cost savings of $ 61,700. These savings will reduce the proposed accreditation center fee from a 10% increase to a 2% increase and will maintain supervisor/associate supervisor fees where they are rather than a projected increase of 7%. Self-study teams will likely continue and will be charged to address organizational/association structural issues in the future. Membership input is critical to the success of this initiative and the success of the ACPE. The Rev. Sally A. Schwab is an ACPE Supervisor at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Saint Joseph, MO. She serves as President-Elect of the ACPE. She may be contacted at sally.schwab@heartland-health.com.
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| A Word from the Treasurer |
You know I can't keep this to just one word. If I could though, the word would be integrity. These are difficult financial times to which many of the ACPE programs can attest. Some of us are making hard decisions at home in our personal finances and at work in our educational programs. It seems important to state that the ACPE leadership, most particularly the Executive Director, has taken these financial times to heart. With integrity we are working hard to keep expenses down, increase income where we can without taxing our membership into further distress, and propose reasonable budgets for the future. At mid-year, almost every line item of the 2009 budget expense is well within the proposed parameters. Income figures are tracking with previous years and reflect the on-going reality of the decrease in membership categories. Our income from Centers and Clusters has already exceeded expectation. In these difficult times, ACPE is financially stable and operating as predicted. Integrity in making contingency plans has been important. For example, when the ACPE office flooded earlier this summer, there were funds escrowed as well as insurance coverage which protected ACPE from this sort of unexpected and potentially expensive event. I have been excited to work with President elect Sally Schwab, on a task force appointed by the ACPE Board which dubbed itself "SOS;" meaning Self-Study of Organizational Structures. Our mandate from the Board was to listen to stakeholders in ACPE from members to leadership to constituent clients in order to find efficiencies and ways to fulfill our mission without over taxing ourselves or over spending. The integrity of this work group has also been satisfying working together to make recommendations to the ACPE Board in order to ensure that ACPE is stable and competitive for the future. Finally, the audit for 2008 will be completed in just a few days from this writing. This year's audit has required more conversation and careful thought in relationship to the Foundation for Clinical Pastoral Education to which ACPE moved its endowment in late 2008. Integrity with the auditors, FCPE Board and Executive Director as well as ACPE has been important as we make sure to protect our assets and further fund development efforts so vital to the health and longevity of ACPE. Int egrit y. How gratifying for the financial picture of ACPE. The Rev. Paula J. Teague, ACPE Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee, is Manager of the CPE Program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. She may be reached at pteague1@jhmi.edu. |
| A Vision Being Realized in the ACPE Accreditation Process |
The vision of the 2004 Presidential Taskforce and the Accreditation Commission is being realized in the training of the National Site Team chairs, which will take place during the ACPE Leadership Meetings this November in Atlanta. For the first time, ACPE will train a specific group of supervisors to chair ten-year reaccreditation visits. These persons report directly to the chair of the Accreditation Commission and will work with the regional accreditation chairs to create site visit teams for each visit. Another realized dream of the taskforce and Commission is a streamlined accreditation process. With the involvement of trained chairs, and beginning in January, 2010, the Commission is removing two steps from the regional process to eliminate duplicate reviews. Once the center and the site team have completed the local process (the on-site review and initial report, the center response, and the final site team report), the review will move directly to a national reviewer. Neither regional reviewers nor regional accreditation committee actions will be required, freeing the regional accreditation committees to provide center consultation and mentoring during reaccreditation processes. This training will also coincide with the Accreditation Commission's use of a new on-line accreditation system called "LiveText." This program, used by many of the nation's largest and best higher education system, should give ACPE flexibility, greater communication, and ease during accreditation processes. One of the many exciting prospects about this system is that centers will no longer have to send paper documents for review: all portions of the ten-year accreditation review will be submitted and reviewed online. The Commission looks to the day when all accreditation processes (annual reports, change forms, etc.) will be completed online. Some of you might be concerned about costs during these trying economic times. The costs of bringing in the people who have been appointed as National Site Team Chairs was budgeted and approved in 2007. This one-time cost will serve to train the chairs, as well as the current Accreditation Commission members and regional directors, so that all of us can be of one mind in the review process. Cost containment in the future will be managed through continuing education of the National Site Team chairs via LiveText, teleconference, and email. Please join the Commission in celebrating this significant systemic shift within the life of ACPE, as our organization continues to grow and develop in the new age of postmodern education and pastoral care. If you have questions regarding these changes, please contact Karrie Oertli, Chair, ACPE Accreditation Commission, or Deryck Durston, Associate Director, ACPE, Inc, deryck@acpe.edu. The Rev. Karrie A. Oertli is Director of the Department of Pastoral Care at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK. She may reached at karrie.oertli@integrisok.com. |
| Standards Committee Report |
ACPE Board Approves 2010 Standards & Manuals
August 20th 2009 was a RED LETTER day-the ACPE Board approved the 2010 Standards & Manuals, and thereby the first five year revision cycle for reviewing, improving and releasing the Standards and Manuals was complete. My thanks go out to many people-in particular, all of the Standards Committee representatives, the Chairs of the Commissions, the Presidents of ACPE, our Associate and Executive Directors, and Jerry Williamson, our gifted, patient and kind editor. Each of these folk contributed mightily to a good and thorough process, and I am grateful. Another person to thank is John Roch, the special projects rep in the ACPE Office--- John worked to get the completed Standards and Manuals placed into PDF read-only files and placed on our website for your use. Please note the following:
* Our goal was to have all documents available to you online by mid-September.
* A rather brief PowerPoint is also available online that highlights the pertinent changes in
the Standards.
* The format has changed-rather than a bound copy, Standards & Manuals will be printed
and placed in three-ring binders. This will be less expensive than bound copies and will
facilitate any changes that may be necessary between this printing and 2015. My guess is that you are curious about at least two things-1. When do these new Standards go into effect? 2. What are the important changes? The answer to the first question is January 1, 2010.....please know that Standards Committee, Commission Chairs and the Board have all worked hard to get these materials to you as quickly as possible. In fact, this September distribution represents the earliest publication of new ACPE Standards in my memory-last time it was published as late as November. Second, here are the major changes to Standards (all of which have been through the study document and review process): Definition of Terms: in previous Standards & Manuals, glossary definitions varied from one manual to next; in this edition, there is one glossary called the Definition of Terms. Review and use of the Definition of Terms will be important to your accurate understanding of the Standards. Standard 303.1 ff: further definition of ratio of supervisor to student at each program level of CPE. Standard 307.6-additional requirements for Admission to Supervisory CPE include "adequately addressing the Spiritual Care Collaborative Common Standards for Chaplains." Standards 308.9-Program Standards for Supervisory CPE have now been established. Standard 400-New Standards have been established that define what we have called "pre-certification," that is, the role and function for Supervisory Education Students admitted to Supervisory CPE but not yet officially in the Certification process (this process begins when the Certification Sub-Committee grants status as Supervisory Candidate). Accreditation Manual: Appendix 19 has been vastly simplified and is now titled Appendix 5. Certification Manual-updates that parallel new Standards in Certification; also, improvements to process following intensive review of the Manual by Commission and Task Force members. Finally, I am sure that questions will arise as we work into this new set of Standards. Please feel encouraged to call upon the Standards representative from your region, or send me an email or call. Jay Foster, Chair Peggy Kieras, NE jdfoster@wfubmc.edu peggy.kieras@stvincenthospital.com Keith Espenshade, E Beth Jackson-Jordan, MA keespens@LancasterGeneral.org Beth.Jackson-Jordan@carolinashealthcare.org Fred Smoot, SE Joseph Viti, EC fred_smoot@emoryhealthcare.org jviti@lutheranhosp.com David Rumbold, NC Sheila Hammond, SC drumbold@lutheranhomes.com shammon2@slu.edu Leo Blanchard, SW Gordon Hilsman, P lblanc@parknet.pmh.org GordonHilsman@fhshealth.org The Rev. John (Jay) D. Foster, D.Min. is an ACPE Supervisor at North Carolina Baptist Hospitals in Winston Salem. He serves as chair of the Standards Committee. He may reached at jdfoster@wfubmc.edu or 336/716-4745. | |
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We hope you have enjoyed the first issue of the ACPE e-News. You should now begin to receive a monthly e-newsletter. The issues will be archived on the ACPE website. All the 2009 issues of the printed newsletter are already archived here on the ACPE website. Thank you for your patience as we have transitioned to a new website and newsletter this year! | |
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