Saint Francis Fraternity
Youth/Young Adult Commission
June 21, 2003


Personal Report by
Andrew Martin

Review of Previous Year
2002 Goals

Goal 1
To motivate and encourage our Fraternity members to be mindful of the importance of youth in the Franciscan Family.

Goal 2
To introduce the Catholic Youth of our area, and other interested young people to St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi

Plans for 2002

To provide during the course of the year updates, resource material, and general information concerning the value of youth with in the Franciscan Family to the Fraternity membership. This is to be done chiefly through the regular monthly mailing and/or through distribution at Fraternity gatherings.

To distribute materials, such as brochures/flyers, on the SFO way of life and call to CUA Campus Ministry Office, and notable Young Adult Events such as the Third Sunday Mass.

To continue to foster a more personal contact with those alumni and participants of the Cap Corp program through invitations to events and gatherings, as well as any other form of communication such as advertisements with in Cap Corp newsletters, as directed by the Fraternity Council.

To explore and execute a fall presentation to those Youths (and parents), enrolled in a local Parish CCD program who are planning to be Confirmed in the Spring of 2003, on Franciscan Saints and most in particular the lives of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.

To build contacts, resources, and a flow of communication with other SFO Fraternities, local and regional, as well as with in the Franciscan Family of religious and other Church organizations through our continual efforts to enliven and execute the plans and goals of this Commission.

Personal Notes Concerning 2002

For the most part our Commission has been unable to meet its goals and plans for 2002 in part due to a combination of factors. From life changes from the active commission members (Anna and I had a child, I got a new job and we sold the store); to inability to draw upon talents and resources of other fraternity members; to the realities of SFO fraternal life. This is not to say that any one factor is to blame or these are all the factors, but it is more of a combination of events which sort lead to the inability to meet our goals in a timely fashion. Its is also very possible the original time line did not take into account the nature of SFO fraternal life which may require larger time scales to accomplish certain tasks.

Specific Areas of Review

Young Adult Outreach

As to the distribution of materials to CUA Campus Ministries and other YA events, these things were not done for two main reasons:

1. CUA Campus Ministries has certain complexities that makes interfacing harder than anticipated. They donÕt want to see campus groups specific to one charism. Such things occurred in the past and caused a certain amount of division within the Ministry. But they are not opposed to working together in some fashion or distribution of materials. CUA Recruitment into the SFO is possible, but this is moving the Fraternity in a new direction that must be discerned by the Council. There are dynamics with college life that needs to be addressed from a formation point of view, like the fact the students typically have more free time and energy to devote into studies and Apostolates than most of us seculars.

2. Anna and I have found our ability to attend local Young Adult events difficult at best in the past year due to life changes with raising a child. Many Young Adult events are typically geared to the single or married without children set, as such this makes things difficult for those with children to participate. This is an issue the Young Adult Ministry Office of the ADW has taken note.

With regards to outreach to Cap Corp this has been slow process but some progress has been made in that they were invited to attend 2002Õs Profession Mass thanks to Brother MatthewÕs efforts. Becoming acquainted with this part of the Franciscan family will take some time as each family becomes acquainted with each other and relationships develop between the Fraternity and the local Cap Corp. Working with Cap Corp may allow for the fostering of and eventual creation of a YouFra associated with our Fraternity, since evidently many Cap Corp volunteers tend to work in the teaching field.

Youth Outreach

The original vision for attempting a Fall 2002 Presentation to a CCD Confirmation class was sort of tabled after concerns about the logistics and format would make this a difficult event to execute. This is not to say a presentation cannot be done. Greater discernment maybe needed here as presentations about St. Francis and St. Clare as well as the SFO way of life is congruent with National materials published as a possible religious activity for youth interactions.

I am also concerned with the new norms adopted for the Church in American concern Youth. Interacting with Youth now will require a certain amount of certification in dealing with Youth outside the immediate fraternity. It appears we are entering a new time where people will be licensed in order to work with Youth even in the smallest nature like a simple class room presentation. But much of this has still yet to be fully determined, legally or otherwise. Each order is to evidently draw up its own norms and methods, but many seem to following the Bishops for what I have heard.

With this new dimension and issues with the presentation, a new possible vision for the Commission came into focus: Instead of a presentation the pursuit of creating Franciscan educational lesson plans. This would allow the fraternity to tap into the wisdom and experience of those members who are familiar with the teaching of youth and provide a possible concrete way to meet the goals in a manner best suited to this new youth environment.

Where we are now?

Overall I think many of the 2002 goal and plans are still in some fashion can be accomplished, but the question is truly that of time. The realities of SFO fraternal life seem to make ceratin work have a longer time frame than the standard year to year plan.

One goal I would like to add for this coming 2003-2004 is to have a roster of fraternity members who are ÒcertifiedÓ in some fashion to work with youth and are willing to do so from time to time. Having people ÒcertifiedÓ will allow for easier access to class rooms and show those in charge we understand and are sensitive to the new requirements adopted by the Bishops.

Now this doesn't mean everyone who works with the Commission needs to be ÒcertifiedÓ just those who will be in direct contact with the youth certain settings like retreats and classrooms.

Once this goal is accomplished the Fraternity can pursue the idea of a class room presentation with a CCD class on the SFO life and Saints. To me it is important that the Fraternity needs to conduct at least one or more of these presentations per year as an expression of the Youth Apostolate and to meet the basic goals of the National Commission.

Franciscan Lesson Plans and RPGs

Continuing with the new vision of creating Franciscan educational lesson plans, the idea was extended into a unique method of learning. The idea of developing a lesson plan around the concepts of Role-Playing Gaming (RPG) would allow the cross of the teaching experience/knowledge of Anna and others in the Fraternity with mine and AnnaÕs personal experience of gaming. There is a possible long range goal of developing a product that could be picked up by various games manufacturers and educators.

Needs and Concerns

In order for this kind of lesson plan to drawn up and made the following will be required:

1. A small group of teachers or anyone in the Fraternity who has teaching experience needs to be created. This group will form the foundation required for basic alpha testing (brainstorming to draft) of the lesson plan.

2. Class size issues vs. RPG dynamics. Typically an RPG has a game master (GM) who is the one in control of the plot/story and resolves plot devices or conflicts and players. Games typically are about 6 players per GM. Players have or make characters which have abilities and skills that allow them to interact in the game setting. Settings can be any time and any place that the imagination can allow. Some are based on books or movies, others are historical in nature. Unlike a plot in a book which leads the reader from point to point, scenarios or adventures are basically the plot or in this case the lesson plan that a GM is trying to have the players interact with in a sort living story manner. Players actions typically should fit their characters backgrounds and skills with the objective of developing some aspect of these characters, like gaining more experience points to acquire new or improve old skill levels.

Modifying a RPG system to deal with class room mechanics requires a great deal of discussion with experienced teachers to discover what would work and what will not. Already Anna has suggested the idea of using pre-made Player Characters (about 30-40) as well as making the GM the teacher. Another issue is should the game be basically one large game of 30 students or broken into small groups? Smaller groups might have problems with a teacher running around acting as GM. The teacher might have to appoint someone or have assistance in running a game with lots of groups. Typically an RPG uses dice or some other random mechanism to determine the out come of certain actions by players. Should this be used in the class room or not? If not how will the teacher/GM resolve skill tests and conflicts? Some dice-less RPGs have methods where a characterÕs skill level is weighed against what is needed to accomplish the skill. For instance, a character has a driving skill of 5 and for this situation he would need a driving skill of 7 or greater to accomplish driving stick vs. automatic. So the character would fail in driving a stick car resulting in the car not going anywhere or worse causing damage to the car.

Another area that needs to be discussed in length is the scenario or plot itself. What is to be taught by the scenario or plot? Should it be set in todayÕs world or the St. FrancisÕ time? Anna and I were thinking of having the setting in St. FrancisÕ time and having the characters basically in search of St. Francis after hearing about him or listening to a sermon by St. Anthony. I was thinking this could be done through a group of randomly chosen events that highlight aspects of the Franciscan life. Anna seems to think it might be a good idea to try to explain as much as possible how life was like back then (lack of toilets, food preservation issues, and the like in late middle-ages Italy). Realism aspects and backgrounds will require some amount of research. How much should be done by us or the class?

3. Beta Testing will have to be done with an actual class. This actually requires a class and a willing teacher. More than one class will help with finding more bugs in the system.

4. How much of this should be freely available via web? What should be made available on our website? Should character information be made available or historical background? Should we even bother with the internet?

5. Once beta testing is done, then getting others to use it requires some effort on our part to spread the word. How is this to be done? Should it be done by web or not? Should we stick with the local area or just the SFO communities?

Other Franciscan Lesson Plans

It is possible either using the RPG format or other kinds of formats to develop pre-done lesson plans for CCD or other teachers which can cover topics from Peace & Justice to Ecology. This would allow the other commissions to participate in the development process. As a fraternity we could basically create materials to act as a supplament to the already existing National materials.

Other Possible Plans/Projects for 2003-2004

Youth Retreat

In reviewing the National Materials, one idea sort of hits me as a possible youth outreach is that of a retreat.

If it is possible to add this new dimension to the current retreats done by Fraternity annually by expanding a youth element to it or even better an element for families with infants and toddlers, this would be a good thing.

Obviously this is a project which would have to take on many considerations like the current Youth Norms as well as program content, location, etc. Such things would have to be truly determined by the Fraternity Council.

Guest Speaker

I think it would be a good goal to pursue hosting a annual guest speaker on some youth/young adult aspect. Topics and speakers should be approved by the Council.

Fraternity Council

My last suggestion deals with a planning aspect for the Commission and Fraternity. I think it would be productive for all involved to have quarterly meetings between the Commission and the Fraternity Council. Such administrative meetings would allow for perodic reports to be generated and keep the Commission and Fraternity focused and on track. A single Commission member should be only needed for interaction with the Fraternity Council, and could be accomplished by those Commission members who are Council members as well.