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  Grand President's Addressby Jim Jones (As is per Bollettino tradition, the October issue publishes the Grand President's acceptance speech given at the recent annual Convention. Enjoy!) 
Monsignor Cardelli, Reverend Fathers, Officers and Members of the Central Council, brothers and sisters of the Italian Catholic Federation, my family and friends.
85 years and the dream lives on!! When writing an acceptance speech, you never know if you can incorporate the Convention Theme into your speech. Clouds/ Blue sky/ Dreams. But you know what, this theme is perfect. It describes our mission, our purpose, where we've been and where we want to go. Our Mission Statement provides our purpose, answering the question why we are here. 85 years of wonderful core values. Another word for Dream is Vision and Vision provides the picture, answering the question of what we want for the future. Where we've been? Under the great leadership of our Past Grand President, Michael Rossi, his officers and committees, they brought us to this place, right now, where the dream lives on. My job as your Grand President is to provide the plan on where we want to go and how we plan to get there. Before I tell you what I plan to do I need to say to each and everyone here today. I am honored and humbly accept the office of Grand President of the Italian Catholic Federation. Allow me a moment to thank Steve Fuentes and his committee for an outstanding job organizing the Convention this year. Steve, your leadership skills are truly remarkable. And thank you for accepting the Convention Committee Chair for next year. Along with Steve, I want to thank Pat Cordich, President of the Santa Clara Valley District and her Committee for the excellent job of hosting this years Convention. Thank you. Sharing this day with me is a group of people that are very special to me, my family. First, my wife and best friend who makes every day of my life complete, Janice Graziani Jones. My son Todd Jones, his wife Janis and their three children Brian, Rachel and Kevin. My daughter Traci Lynn Dimiceli, her husband Ron and their three sons Justin, Jacob and Corey. My daughter Gina Bence, her husband Russ and their two children Ryan and Megan. My son Anthony Jones, his wife Suzie and their four children Mackenzie, Zachary, Victoria and Emili. My daughter Amy Corral, her husband Steven and their two children Lucas and Josephine. I am also pleased to introduce Janice's sister Judy Graziani and Judy's best friend, Carole La Rocca here from Brentwood, Ca. And yes, Judy and Carole are members of Branch 423 in Brentwood. There are two more special people I want to introduce to you, the President of my Branch 191 in San Jose, Emily Corral. Emily and I share grand children. Her son Steve is married to my daughter Amy. And lastly, I want to introduce a wonderful friend who keeps me humble. She makes faces at me whenever I speak-she makes me these unbelievable cookies that are hard to describe, my friend from Branch 408 in Sunnyvale, Mary Santaferraro. I also want to recognize the two Branches I belong to-Branch 191, St. Frances Cabrini in San Jose, and Branch 413, St. Patrick's in Angel's Camp. Thank you for your love and support. I have been on a fantastic journey since joining the Central Council. My journey on the Central Council started with a phone call in 2001 from Jodi Balestrieri. It went something like this. "Jim, have you ever thought about being a member of the Central Council?" I said "No, not really." She said, I think you would be an excellent candidate." She knows the right thing to say. Then she said," You only have to attend four Central Council meetings a year!!" Since then, I have learned to ask more questions. I am especially grateful to those people who helped me during my journey on the Central Council. Many of these people I never met, but they played an important part in inspiring and motivating me to continue my journey. These are the people who created and developed our core values over the last 85 years. These values are just as important today as they were when the Federation was established in 1924. I am grateful to those people who know me, who have taught me so much about the Federation by their example and knowledge. I call them my unintentional mentors. They didn't know how much they were helping me, but believe me, they have so much to offer and I am grateful to them. And I am truly thankful for my Mentors. These are the people who called me, emailed me and taught me how to do my best. They continually encourage me and inspire me. Thank you Nettie, Leonard Rossi and my very special friend Mike Rossi. Mike, thank you for your advice, your knowledge your friendship and your leadership. Janice and I have enjoyed traveling with you and Marcie. We love you both. My vision for this organization is growth, retention of our members, supporting our ministries, promoting our heritage and family values. Add to that the social and fellowship values, you are looking at my vision of our Federation. You may say that these core values have always been the vision of the Federation and you would be right!! We need to continually remind all of our members why we are here, what we stand for. We need to teach and tell our newest members what we want to accomplish as members. Certainly my main drive is to make a difference and to have an impact on the future of the Federation, but I feel strongly that we need change. I plan to introduce change in the form of new ideas, new innovations, new membership and workshop programs. To help me to accomplish my vision I have an excellent group of Chairpersons this year that are excited to try new ideas. I am looking forward to working with Jane Dianda. I have asked her to be head of our Deputy Program. She will work with the District Deputies to insure that each branch has a deputy. This is very important. I have asked Jane to put on Deputy Workshops in all Districts to encourage the Deputies to work with the Branch Officers as part of a Leadership Training Program. Bob Basuino will head the Workshop Committee. I have asked Bob to develop a Leadership Training Workshop for Branch and District Officers. Developing our Branch and District Leaders is an important step for the future success of the Federation. Roselynne Jarrett will continue her work on the Membership Committee. She is extremely inspirational and has great ideas. She is doing some remarkable things with our youth in the Contra Costa District. I want her to promote these ideas in other Districts. This will encourage more family membership in the Federation. Debbi Rodondi is Chairperson of the Apostolate/Charity Committee. She has some really great ideas for the branches on how to use the services of our Priests and Chaplains. Chaplains Nights, Days of Recollections, St. Joseph's Day, Pilgrimages, District Masses, inviting Seminarians to attend your Bishops Day, and adopting a Seminarian she will want you to include your religious in your Branch activities. I am really excited about the Public Relations Committee. I have asked Leonard Zasoski to chair this committee. I am looking for innovations through the use of our ICF web page, more articles in the Bollettino and Catholic Diocesan Newspapers for better communication with our branches and members -- and those outside of our Federation. Last year, Ario Gregori and his Gifts of Love Committee came up with a new creative program to help the Catholic Hearing Impaired in the Santa Clara Valley Diocese. Children who have this disability cannot receive first Holy Communion without proper instructions in the form of Catechism classes because of a lack of sign language teachers. Joan and Jerry Delfino brought this to the attention of the Gifts of Love Committee and money is being set aside to hire a sign language teacher to teach these children Catechism. This is an excellent example of change through creative ideas. The Heritage committee chaired by Nina Malone will be working on a program to enhance the Heritage programs at the branch level. She is going to encourage more Festa participation through out the Federation, teaching Italian to the members and their children, teaching Italian songs, teaching the fine art of Italian cooking, to name a few ideas. How many here would like to learn Italian? Show of hands. David Botta and Carmen Kilcullen are doing a wonderful job on the expansion of new branches in Arizona. There are other areas of interest in California, Nevada and Chicago and I hope we can persuade them to continue the expansion in these areas. I have asked Dante Galeazzi to Chair the Scholarship Committee. He is passionate about this program and is continually trying to figure ways to make sure every applicant, if qualified, can receive a scholarship. He has a great knack in persuading people to donate to this great cause. Lastly, I have asked Jim Friebel to be my Ways and Means Chairperson. He is committed to keeping our dues low. We have been able to do this because our Calendar Sales and the Golf Tournament. Jim, perhaps you can think about putting on a Bocce Tournament sometime this year. To my Central Council members and the Chairpersons of my Committees. I cannot do what needs to be done alone. Mother Teresa said it in one of her speeches. "You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things." You are the people I will seek out for advice, turn to for support and rely on to help me get things done. To the members of the Federation. Open your heart to these dedicated members of the Central Council. Welcome them to your Districts. Use them to help you increase your membership. Try out their ideas. Ted Kennedy ended his famous speech in 1980 and his words apply to my goal of the future, "For all whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, our cause endures, the hope still lives and our dream shall never die." God Bless you and the Italian Catholic Federation. Italian Catholic Federation, 8393 Capwell Drive, Suite 110, Oakland CA 94621 tel: 888/ICF-1924; 510/633-9058; fax: 510/633-9758; Email: info@icf.org Website designed by HYPERSPHERE |