Diocesan Council of Catholic Women schedule annual convention for September

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Becky Colombo

Our Diocesan Council of Catholic Women has been staying active over the past several months through Zoom meetings and training.  Some of our ladies participated in a leadership, training, development session in April that was provided via Zoom by our National Council of Catholic Women from Washington, D.C. It was very informative and inspirational, with pointers on recruiting and retaining council members. We will be participating in a parliamentarian training this month, presented by Kathy Boyer, a local woman who is very active in legislative activities and knowledgeable in the field of parliamentarian duties.

Our National Council of Catholic Women recently held elections, and we are proud to announce that one of our Salt Lake City women was elected to the position of NCCW Secretary. Amy Kennedy has been and is very active in all aspects of council, beginning with her affiliate CCW, State DCCW and National Council. Amy is no stranger to responsibilities at any level; she is completing her term as the president of the Associates of NCCW. As NCCW Secretary, Amy will serve under another Salt Lake City woman, Patricia Voorhes, who will be installed as the NCCW president during our convention in August in Arlington, Va., as we celebrate 100 years of NCCW. The anniversary date was actually in 2020, but the convention was postponed due to COVID-19 shutdowns.

We hope to celebrate this year and not let the delay dampen our party spirits.  We will be loud and proud of our two women representing Utah!

We are excited to meet in person on June 12 at Saint Olaf Parish in Bountiful for our DCCW board meeting.  I will be distributing packets for our convention to be held Sept. 11-12 at the Sheraton Hotel in Salt Lake City.  

After rescheduling the convention twice due to COVID, we hope to carry on our regular convention activities by honoring the Women of the Year who were chosen by their affiliates in 2020; bring in our speakers scheduled for April of 2020; and host our usual vendors and raffle/silent auction giveaways.  

We are so excited to share the gift of friendship with women from all over the state. The theme is that which was scheduled by Casey Pond, DCCW immediate past president –“Let Your Light Shine!”  

Our keynote speaker, Maria Morera Johnson, is a nationally known author of books about the saints. This year we will have a panel discussion hosted by Ms. Johnson and presented in Spanish for those attendees who wish to participate. For those who do not speak Spanish, an alternate discussion will be presented in another area of the hotel.  This is a “first” for our convention and we are very excited to present an option for our Spanish-speaking members! Our convention bags will each contain a copy of Our Lady of Charity, written by Maria Morera Johnson.  This book is a sequel to her famous title My Bad Ass Book of Saints. Our vendor, Immaculate Heart Religious Goods, will be offering the prequel book for purchase.  

Our convention packets will be distributed to deanery presidents for local women to register for convention.  The information will also be available on our website www.dccwutah.org/ for those interested in attending convention. You do not have to be a member of CCW to attend. Social distancing and COVID safety restrictions will be followed by the hotel and DCCW.  We welcome any of those interested in seeing what DCCW is all about.…we promise you won’t be disappointed!

Becky Colombo is president of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women of Utah.