APC e-News March 2009

by Jon Overvold BCC

Since the formation of the Association of Professional Chaplains in 1998 with just over 3,000 members, the same structure of governance has served the organization. There have been a few minor changes in the bylaws, but most change has been in the form of new task forces or committees. When new strategic initiatives are identified, new committees are created and are embedded somewhere in the existing structure. The diamond that is used to depict our organization has added many new facets and has grown significantly in size and complexity.

As of this year, APC includes more than 4,000 members. The board of directors celebrates this accomplishment but also asks the question, "How can APC best structure itself to serve this large organization in the next 10 years?" The board is taking a long view into the future and is committed to realizing a structure that will effectively and efficiently utilize APC resources, including leadership, staff and finances.

At this point in the process, the Governance Task Force is assessing the needs within our councils, commissions, committees and cabinet for improved structure. Findings will be reported to the board by fall of 2009 and all membership will receive updates about this ongoing process. Our goal is to present a full report to the membership at the APC Conference in April 2010.

If you are interested in participating in the work of the Governance Task Force, contact Jon Overvold, chair of the Commission on Quality in Pastoral Services, at [email protected]. If you have questions or suggestions, send them to [email protected]. Your input, insights and experience are not only valued by the task force but also essential for APC as we prepare now for the future that unfolds before us.

Jon Overvold MDiv BCC is on staff of HealthCare Chaplaincy and serves as director of pastoral care and education at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY.

Summit '09 Highlights

APC Leadership Award Recipients Share Words of Inspiration and Advice

Five individuals received leadership awards this year at the APC Recognition Breakfast on February 1, 2009 during Summit '09 in Florida: Paul Lorenzo Yeun DMin BCC, Distinguished Service Award; George Rendell Robie DMin BCC, Retired Chaplain Award; Steven Spidell DMin BCC, Outstanding Local Leadership Award; Mark LaRocca-Pitts PhD BCC, Outstanding Local Leadership Award; and the late Chaplain Arthur M. Lucas BCC, Anton Boisen Professional Service Award. As these leaders accepted their awards, they shared not only their gratitude but also the spark that inspires their ministry and their service to the profession. Accepting the award in memory of Chaplain Lucas was his son, Martin. To read their acceptance speeches, please visit the Annual Leadership Awards section of the APC Web site.

Summit '09 Photos

Photos from the conference in Orlando are available for viewing, saving to your computer and ordering online at flickr, an online photo sharing site.

APC Celebrates Class of '08-'09

Over 300 applicants became recognized by the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) as board certified chaplains, provisional certified chaplains or associate chaplains. They were officially recognized and received their certificates during the APC Grand Banquet at the Spiritual Care Collaborative Summit '09 in Orlando, FL.

We invite you to contact the chaplains from the Class of '08-'09 in your area and congratulate them on their achievement.

Workshop Proposals for 2010 Conference Due April 30, 2009

by the 2010 Conference Education Subcommittee

On behalf of the Association of Professional Chaplains, we invite workshop proposals for the 2010 annual conference. 2010 conference logo

In keeping with the 2010 conference theme: Professional Chaplaincy: Reaching New Heights, we invite you and interested colleagues to share their special expertise by presenting workshops that will not only educate but also challenge and stimulate.

The proposal forms for 90-Minute Workshops and Professional Development Intensive Workshops (formerly known as "Pre-Conference Workshops") will provide you with information that the committee will need to know as the selection process for workshop presentations is begun. These can be found in the Annual Conference/Call for Workshops section of the APC Web site.

We look forward to your willingness to present a workshop and participate in our 2010 conference.

The APC 2010 Conference Education Subcommittee volunteers include Abigail Fyten Aasbo BCC, Brian Hughes BCC, David Wentroble BCC, Gretchen Steffenson BCC, Jay Risk BCC, Amy Karriker BCC, Gwynneth Livesay BCC and Kimberly Murman BCC. Questions regarding workshop proposals can be e-mailed to [email protected].

Decisions That Matter
by Harry Burns BCC

Greetings, chaplains. Have you ever counted the many times you have encountered patients that wish they had made decisions regarding their healthcare choices while they were healthy? And how many family members have you witnessed that had no clue as to what the healthcare desires of their loved ones were prior to their inability to speak? More importantly, how many of us as professional chaplains know the healthcare choices for our own families or ourselves? Advance directives are a must, and our role as chaplain is very critical. These are all-important questions to pay attention to. This is why, as a designated spokesperson for the Association of Professional Chaplains, I am asking you to join millions of other healthcare professionals in recognizing April 16th as National Healthcare Decisions Day 2009.

Advance directives come in two main forms. First of all, a healthcare power of attorney (or proxy, agent or surrogate) documents the person you select to be your voice for your healthcare decisions if you cannot speak for yourself. Second, a living will documents what kinds of medical treatments you would or would not want at the end of life. Everyone deserves to face the end of life with dignity - regardless of our social, ethnic or national origin.

There are many resources available to find out more about advance directives, including the following:

AARP has information on end of life planning.
Aging with Dignity talks about the "five wishes" document. This document helps individuals express care options and preferences. It meets the legal requirements in most states and is available in 20 languages for a nominal fee.
Caring Connections offers free, state-specific advance directives for all 50 states and DC that meet legal requirements for each state.
The Center for Practical Bioethics has a workbook that helps individuals and families communicate with each other about their healthcare preferences and contains advance directive documents.
Many other references are available through the National Healthcare Decisions Day initiative.

Chaplains, we are counting on you to contact your department heads. Make sure this is on the top of the list for careful consideration. Thanks for all you do in making healthcare better. Help spread the word. We appreciate all you do. If there are any questions, please contact me at 704.384.1238 or

[email protected].

Harry Burns BA MA BCC is a chaplain at The Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, NC. He serves as an at-large member of the APC Board of Directors.

Chaplaincy Today Goes Electronic, Adds Features
by Rozann Allyn Shackleton BCC

Chaplaincy Today becomes the official e-Journal of the Association of Professional Chaplains with the upcoming issue (25:1 Spring Summer 2009). With the assistance of Rita Kaufman, APC marketing and public relations manager, we are creating a user-friendly design that will give readers easy access to the content of each issue.

At the beginning of May, APC members will receive an e-mail with a link to the publication, which will be located in the Publications section of the APC Web site. Members who do not have e-mail addresses on file with APC will be notified of the change to electronic delivery via postcard early in April. Those who do not have e-mail accounts may request a printout.

Work also is underway to create searchable online archive of all issues of CT from its inception in 1998 when it succeeded The Caregiver Journal. Currently, the search engine is up and running, and volumes 23 (2007) and 24 (2008) are available on the APC Web site. Click on "Publications" and then "Chaplaincy Today Online." Everyone can view CT tables of contents, but access to articles requires your APC member user name and password. The Chaplaincy Today Online section also provides a link to the APC store, where nonmembers may subscribe to CT.

Along with the Communications and Publications Council and the members of CT's editorial board, we are exploring additional features and opportunities that will be available as a result of moving CT onto the Net. We'll keep you posted as we develop these.

Chaplain Rozann Allyn Shackleton BCC serves as editor of Chaplaincy Today and is an ex-officio member of the APC Communications and Publications Council. She may be contacted at [email protected].

New Resources for Advocacy with Administrators
by Sarah Byrne BCC

As professional chaplains, we are called to advocate for the spiritual needs of our patients, families and staff. It is just as crucial that we advocate for our profession and its role within our institutions, especially in these difficult financial times.

In light of the increasing need to advocate for chaplaincy as a professional discipline, we have improved the content of the For Administrators section of the APC website. We are continuing to compile resources that are helpful to chaplains and their organizational leaders, such as job descriptions, articles on pastoral practice and studies on chaplaincy.

"For Administrators" will soon feature a "Voices of Administrators" section, in which organizational administrators share their views on how chaplains bring value to their institutions. Do you work with an administrator who would be willing to write a few sentences (or more) on the value of professional chaplaincy? If so, please send an email to Sarah Byrne, promotional advocacy chair, at [email protected].

This is an exciting time for our profession. There is important work being done within APC that will be useful in promoting chaplaincy to the leadership of the individual organizations we serve. For example, APC leaders are actively involved in establishing and clarifying Standards of Practice. As we define these standards, we will be able to share more concretely how we care for the 'souls of our organizations' in a myriad of ways. We are also a leading voice in current conversations on Culturally Competent Patient-Centered Care initiatives.

We are gaining better language to advocate for our profession, and it is the hope of the Commission on Advocacy that you will utilize the resources that are becoming available. We must take the time to share this information with those we serve, as well as those to whom we are held accountable. Please join the conversation and let us know about your experiences, whether positive or negative, of working with administrators. If we share our voices and reflections on our experiences of advocacy, we will build a strong base upon which our profession can continue to grow.

Sarah Byrne BCC, is a staff chaplain at NYU Langone Medical Center, a clinical partner of HealthCare Chaplaincy. She serves on the APC Commission on Advocacy as promotional advocacy chair.

Tough Decisions
by Martha Jacobs BCC

On behalf of the APC Board of Directors, it is with very mixed emotions that I let you know that the work of Mary Moore, APC publicist, will be coming to an end at the end of April. The board has had to make some very tough financial decisions because of the economy, and one of those decisions was to end Mary's contract earlier than we had initially planned. (See March Treasurer's Report, posted in Members Only, for more financial information.) Mary will complete the spring issue of Healing Spirit prior to her departure, and Rita Kaufman will edit Healing Spirit in the future.

As I told Mary, she has been such an important part of the Communications and Publications Council, and I have so appreciated working with her over the past year and a half. She has helped the APC to "look good" and to raise its profile since she began working as APC's publicist. It is in part though her exemplary efforts that the communication needs of APC have grown beyond part-time work, leading to the hiring of a full-time marketing and public relations manager.

Mary Moore's editorship of Healing Spirit has been superb, and her passion for our work has come through in everything she has undertaken. Her chaplain heart has given her the ability to shine a light on us that could only have been done by a fellow chaplain.

Please join me, the APC board and staff in wishing Mary much happiness, success and fulfillment as she moves forward with her future endeavors. In the meantime, look for an article from Mary in the next issue of APC e-News.

The Reverend Dr. Martha R. Jacobs DMin BCC is chair of the APC Communications and Publications Council. She is managing editor of PlainViews and associate director for pastoral education, community-based programs for The HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York. She can be reached at [email protected].

APC Starts Facebook Group

by Rita Kaufman CAE

In recent months, several members have expressed interest in the establishment of an "official" Association of Professional Chaplains group on Facebook, a popular social networking site.

We listened, and the APC Facebook group is off to a great start, with 38 members, personal photos taken at the Summit '09 conference and several comments from group members on the "wall."

The group is open to APC members, as well as those interested in professional chaplaincy and who support the mission, vision and values of APC. It's a great informal way to connect and stay in touch with your colleagues across the country and around the world. So sign up for Facebook, join the Association of Professional Chaplains group, post on the wall and add some Facebook friends today. It's easy and it's fun!

Rita Kaufman CAE is the APC marketing and public relations manager and can be contacted at [email protected].

Contact Us

APC e-News is the monthly newsletter of the Association of Professional Chaplains. If you would like to contribute an article, recommend a topic for a future issue or offer feedback, please contact the editor, Rita Kaufman CAE, APC marketing and public relations manager, at [email protected].