We are excited that you are thinking about starting a chapter. In order to start a chapter, you must complete a pilot year to determine the feasibility of a group.
A pilot year entails having five to six women agree to meet at a church on the same day each month for both prayer group and share group. The youngest woman must be at least forty years old and the oldest member may not be more than fifteen years older than the youngest member. The philosophy of the fifteen-year span is to allow for the women to experience different stages of life at roughly the same time. The pilot group must start on the same yearly cycle of the formal St. Zelie Society. This means that your first official pilot meeting would be in June. You may have meetings before your formal pilot year. The reason for having you start in June is to allow for new members the following June if the pilot group is ready for formal membership.
The Alpha chapter meets the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30pm. However, you may select an alternate day and time that is convenient for your group. You will also need to let the priest of the parish church know that you are forming a St. Zelie Society and will pray as a group in the church. As a common courtesy, you can send him a brief description of the group, the day the group meets, etc. You can offer a quick yearly update including the number of members, etc.
The pilot group agrees to follow the prayer format. The pilot group will have one share group of no more than six women. During a pilot year, some women may leave the group. As long as you have three members remaining by the end of the year who wish to continue the group, you may seek formal recognition as a group. If you do not have three members, you may put the group on hold. At a later point in time you may try a second pilot year with the intention of completing that year with at least three members to advance to an official St. Zelie Society chapter.
The remaining members of the pilot year become the leadership team for the formal chapter. Ideally, the St. Zelie Society would have two or three coordinators. Pilot members should also assume roles as share group coordinators. Coordinators form share groups of three to five members. Each share group is named after one of the daughters of St. Zelie. Every share group has a leader. The vision of the St. Zelie Society is to have no more than twenty-five members in one household which would be composed of a maximum of five share groups with five members each. If your chapter of the St. Zelie Society is experiencing significant growth, your group may need to separate into two separate households. The separation would be based on the ages of the members.
Please contact the St. Zelie Society before you start your pilot year so that we can offer some guidance on best practices and answer questions.
Please contact stzeliesociety@gmail.com for assistance.
St Zelie Society 