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65 East Wacker Place, Suite 802

by Ernest Doclar

Are you one of those Serrans who ask, “Why do we need those guys in the Chicago office?” Spend a day with Serran Ernie Doclar at USAC’s Chicago headquarters and find out! As the old WOR radio announcer used to exclaim, “It’s a bee-yooooo-tee-full morning in Chicago!” And it is!

I’m early to meet the USA Council of Serra gang in their office, just a block south of the Chicago River. So, having alighted from the Blue Line train from O’Hare Airport, I decide to hike the six or so blocks to the office at 65 East Wacker Place. Big mistake! It’s a cool but humid fall morning, ordinarily fine for a brisk walk but I’m loaded with 20 pounds of photo gear. By the time I reach my destination, I’m sweating bullets.

Luckily, the office is still locked tightly, which gives me a chance to dash into the men’s room to dry my brow and arms. By the time I walk back to Suite 802, Pat Stade, office part-timer, membership assistant, and Jill-of-All-Trades, has survived a 40-minute train ride from her home in Schaumburg, a western suburb. She has opened the office, switched on the lights, and fired up the coffee maker.

Soon Anne McCormack, our communications coordinator, arrives with the doughnuts. Hallelujah! I’m saved! We dive into a late breakfast of steamy coffee and sugary pastries. I’m here a couple of days early for the September Super Weekend gathering of the USA Council to pull together a story aimed at telling you, our Serra public, why there’s a USA Council Chicago office and staff.

Having spent 30 years as a professional communicator with the Boy Scouts of America magazines, justifying a national headquarters is a task I’ve tackled many times. And, hopefully, I’ve left my readers with their doubts resolved. Spending a long day with this focused Serra office staff is a luxury you will probably never enjoy, but come along with me on a tour of Suite 802 and learn about the folks who work there and what they do.

Anne McCormack

Because of my 10-year association with the USA Serra Communications Committee, advised by staffer Anne McCormack for the past seven years, I know her best of all in the office. Like the other full-timers, she serves Serra with dedication and enthusiasm. Anne is 27, single, and came to us right out of journalism school at prestigious Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Her major responsibilities deal with the printed publications of Serra’s USA Council, including handbooks and promotional materials. Our USAC publications include the serraUSA magazine and the Serra Leader newsletter. But her favorite work is serraUSA. Anne gave birth to this magazine and continues to mother it.

Four times during the year she agonizes over the content, the layout, the graphics, hoping that her Serra readers will find in it worthwhile information, inspiration to keep at encouraging vocations, and ideas to imitate in their home clubs. “I wanted to create a magazine that could connect Serrans with the stories of the people whom they support,”

Anne says. “I like to draw unique, inspiring stories of priests and religious from all over the country to keep our members excited about their mission. Moreover, I wanted it to be something that Serrans and potential Serrans alike could enjoy.”

On the other hand, the Serra Leader is for Serra business. “I noticed that the bulk of our magazine used to be about committee and board activities, reports and Serra events – kind of dry stuff, especially for someone not acquainted with our mission. I decided to reserve all the in-depth feature stories for the serraUSA and moved all of our dry, ‘housekeeping’ material into a fun, nuts-and-bolts newsletter aimed at all levels of leadership in Serra.

Our leaders are entrusted with the task of using the Serra Leader to keep on the ball with Council initiatives and to keep their members abreast of current events.” I admire Anne for plugging away at a job for which she receives sparse recognition, just a line acknowledging in serraUSA that she’s the editor, a fact most readers skip over. I’m certain that she, a talented communicator, has been tempted often to leave Serra for greener fields.

But I suspect that she enjoys the freedom that Executive Director Ed Verbeke allows her with the printed word. She seems to relish working with and learning from other professionals on her committee, Serrans like public relations pro Bill Ramsey from Omaha, computer guru Dick Burke from Philadelphia, grande dame of Serra in Colorado, Dolores de Aragon-Young, and our guest member from Canada, John Plunkett. “I also enjoy working with our staff. We’re small and have been together for so long. Everyone knows exactly what their duties are and everything runs smoothly.”

Like the other staffers, Anne is Catholic, and lives around the block from her inner-city Chicago parish church, Our Lady of Lourdes.

Ed Verbeke

Few of us outside of the USA Serra executive board appreciate the qualities of the boss of our Chicago gang, Ed Verbeke (the last name is Belgian, pronounced VER-beck). This dynamo has captained the staff since 1994 when he came to us after retiring from a fulfilling 30-year career as a controller in one of Ford Motors’ plants in the Windy City area. (The word “captained” fits Ed because he retired as a commander in the Naval Reserve after an initial 1956-60 tour of active duty and over 25 years inactive including service as a unit commanding officer.)

Ed’s first task was to get the operation on a sound financial basis and he has kept it thus. His job description mostly entails advising the USA Serra executive board, recommending to it policies and practices, overseeing a budget of a bit over a half-million dollars, directing the four-person Chicago staff, and maintaining liaisons with Serra International (based a few blocks away). He maintains relationships with other national Serra councils, USA bishops (especially our episcopal adviser, Bishop Blase Cupich of Rapid City, S.D.,), and other Catholic vocations-oriented organizations.

Ed also engineers the twice-yearly SuperWeekends of the executive board and its committees and the annual business meeting. Like Anne, Ed, despite his many years in industry leadership, still finds himself learning from his Serra volunteers. “One example of a man I admire greatly is former Council President Tom Benson from Denver. Tom helped me redefine our responsibilities and re-organize this office.” Working with outstanding Catholic clergy and laymen often cultivates close personal relationships. Ed recalls fondly the close bond that started with former USA Council President Jim O’Hanlon from Portland, Ore., “a man who, to this day, I regard as a close personal friend.” They keep in touch even though separated by thousands of miles and several years from his presidency.

As director of Serra’s largest national council (13,000 members), Ed and his staff daily field dozens of calls for help from Serrans. It gets hectic. “Keeping cool in the face of difficulty is probably the toughest part of the job,” he says. But one of his most pleasant rewards is “to spot a Serran doing a great job in a local club or in a district and recommend her or him for a responsible job on the national board, then to see that person rise to serve with distinction in that position.”

Just as the other staffers, Ed devotes lots of time to parish life. He and his wife, Anne, serve as directors of their parish’s religious education program and teach there. Anne also works as a full-time staffer as the Gary, Ind., diocesan director of ministerial formation, instructing lay people who wish to work in parish administration. They both have served as retreat facilitators. Anne and Ed are parents of five grown children, three boys and two girls. And before you ask: Ed is a Serran, a member of the Serra Club of South Suburban Ill.

Peter Cunningham

A native Chicagoan, Peter Cunningham serves as membership coordinator, helping expand USA Serra’s reach to the far corners of the United States. “As Membership Coordinator, I assist Serrans and Serra clubs in their membership development efforts, assist and coordinate new Serra club activities, maintain the USA Council website, act as liaison for the USA Council Membership Committee, and organize the membership development resources,”

Peter says. Most of the time you’ll find Peter in front of his computer monitor updating club membership stats, checking on dues – the principal source of the USA Council’s income – or with a phone clutched between head and shoulder chatting with Membership Vice President Gary Davis or Membership Committee Chairman Frank Thomas. Peter spends some of his time on the road, assisting district governors and regional directors in their work to start new Serra clubs.

As the www.serraus.org webmaster, he feeds fresh material into the site, removing outdated info. “The most rewarding part of my Serra job is being able to provide Serrans with answers to their questions and other service,” Peter says. “I see our members all over the country working hard, spending countless hours for vocations. The least I can do is to be a reliable, accessible resource for them.” He credits his time here with “helping me to grow in my own faith experience and professionally.”

Forty-two years old, Peter came to this job in 1996 from the biomedical field and was recruited by Ed and Anne Verbeke whom he knew from their mutual parish activities. Married, with five children, Peter and his wife, Carla, remain active in their Inverness, Ill., Holy Family parish, where he is a parish catechist. They live in Arlington Heights.

Jan Cholke

If you visit Suite 802, it’s likely that jovial Jan Cholke (COAL-key) is the first person you’ll meet, because her work station is at the office entrance. Jan’s job title reads, “administrative assistant,” but Ed and the rest of the staff rely on Jan as the lady with the answers because, with the exception of Ed, she’s the longest-tenured person there, with 12 Serra years under her belt. In her time with Serra, Jan’s seen the office through three moves and several minor disasters. Even her first day was a trial by fire! Or make that, water: “My first day was when the office reopened after the Loop flood and I helped another staff member open over 30 sacks of mail!”

Always quick with a smile, Jan counts the experience among her fondest with Serra. Her favorite memory of recent years is as new as June 2004. “I got to go to the Pittsburgh Convention. It was my first.” Jan fields a lot of queries from the Serra public, especially if the caller needs a quick response for some of the 100-plus items in the supply catalog.

Trained as a bookkeeper, Jan Cholke helps Ed Verbeke with the office accounting chores and handles payroll and paying office bills. “If I could describe my job in one sentence it would be that I serve at the pleasure of the Board and Executive Director,” Jan quips. “In more detail, I handle general bookkeeping (per capita, merchandise invoices, paying bills, payroll, credit card purchases), answering phones, opening the mail, merchandise orders, working with the vendors, and last but not least, making reservations at our favorite restaurants or ordering pizza when we have staff lunches. “If there was one thing I would like the membership to know about our staff and office, it's that we as a staff always make a sincere and conscientious effort to work with and handle any requests from board and committee members, as well as the general membership.”

Jan was recruited to work at Serra by Ed, who knew her from St. Irenaeus Parish in Park Forest. She has two grown sons with her husband, Mike. The Cholkes are actively involved in their Chicago Heights parish, St. Agnes. They live in Park Forest, Ill.

Pat Stade

Back to Pat Stade, who let me into the office this morning. The newest addition to the USAC staff, Pat came aboard in 2001, as a membership assistant. In fact, she knew Ed, Jan and Peter for years before working with them at Serra, through St. Irenaeus Parish. Pat boasts a lifetime connection with Serra because her father, Dr. Joseph Murphy, M.D., was a member of the Serra Club of Hammond, Ind., in the 1960s. Dr. Murphy also served Serra as District 37 Governor in 1965. “Serra was very important to my father,”

Pat says. “He traveled to Rome in 1963 with fellow Serrans as an observer of the Vatican Council. Up until his passing he was actively recruiting members for Serra, even when he wasn’t a member!” As a part-time membership assistant, Pat’s main duties center around keeping U.S. Serrans’ records up to date. “I hold the secret to getting all your mail!” Pat jokes. “Our members should know that it’s easy to put in a change of address. Most clubs send in changes only twice a year with their dues payments. But our magazine is published four times a year and without the correct information here in Chicago your magazine will be returned to us. “I feel personally responsible to make the changes in the database as quickly and accurately as possible. I would like to see everyone receive a magazine every time it is published.

The serraUSA is really worth reading.” Pat is also responsible for the lion’s share of filing, data entry, and the copying of materials necessary for so many USAC initiatives and meetings. A Lansing, Ill., native, Pat is second in a family of 11 children, one of whom, Sister JoAnne Murphy, O.S.F., responded to a call to the religious life. Active in her Church of the Holy Spirit parish, Pat has a grown son and daughter and lives with her husband, Bill, in Schaumburg, Ill. After speaking with and seeing the USA Serra office staff going about their daily jobs I have gained a new respect for this team. I can’t imagine us Serrans, all volunteers, being able to work effectively for vocations without the coordination that these folks provide.

Now retired from the national office of the Boy Scouts of America, Ernest Doclar is a member of the University of Dallas Serra Club. He has been a long-time member of the USAC Communications Committee. He currently serves as USAC programs vice-president.

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