I think it might be helpful to provide some staffing updates.
First, this week we are beginning to advertise for an Interim PAA. (In our Archdiocese, a PAA or Pastoral Assistant for Administration is essentially the parish business manager.) The person we hired in August to replace Karen Zuther as PAA has medical issues, to the point that we do not know when she will be able to return. Please keep her in your prayers. Karen has stayed on and continued to fulfill essential PAA functions, even though she technically retired back on October 01. Karen was always going to stay on for some part-time hours, in order to help us switch over to the new Archdiocesan parish database system (a massive job in itself), but now she is doing that plus PAA work and with fewer hours than she worked when she was a full-time PAA. We are long past the point where that situation is tenable, and we need to hire someone quickly. In addition to looking for an Interim PAA, we are also exploring CPA firms that would take an interim bookkeeping contract, just to keep things running smoothly for the next few months.
Second, our receptionist Odalis Herrera-Vargas is headed off to new opportunities (specifically, nail school, which is clearly a passion of hers) and will be done at the end of the month. We are also searching for a replacement for her as quickly as possible so that all of the phone, e-mail, and door answering (which is substantial!) does not fall on Claudia, who has other responsibilities.
Third, we have been without a custodian for several months, through Christmas and beyond, and only this week found someone to help us. During this extremely busy period Ted, our facilities supervisor, had to stretch to cover the basic cleaning required to make our facilities welcoming and pleasant.
If I am honest, I feel like am presently too calm about all of this. Being this short-staffed, especially in day-to-day necessary functions like administration and facilities, makes things inherently unstable. We can only really afford to have one more domino fall before serious sacrifices have to be made (like the priest cutting out pastoral meetings to focus on accounting). And yet, I’ve long learned that stressing over things I cannot control does not do anyone any good. We just approach the problem one hire at a time. However, I am also calm because of the continued hard work of Karen Zuther, who is advertising for the positions and fielding the responses. Do thank her when you see her.
What frustrates me is that we have the money to make the hires (though we never really have the money to be competitive with for-profits for salaries), we just do not have the pool of people available to work for the Church, which almost always comes with a pay-cut. And, if I am not mistaken, the north county parishes are also looking for bookkeepers, PAAs, and receptionists, meaning we are approaching the same pool of people at the same time.
I am not yet to the point of being worried, but I would appreciate your prayers for our parish, nonetheless.
Fr. Moore 