STEP III OF XII: ORGANIZE

Once you've raised the awareness of your fellow chapel members, the next step is to get organized by forming a steering committee. Make sure you have a good mix of expertise on the committee, and choose as your leader the most efficient, task-oriented, "can-do" person in the group. Key competencies to be represented are finance and bookkeeping, property management and maintenance, knowledge of technology, organizational governance, and professional supervisory experience.


A highly competent steering committee will give your group a decided advantage over cultish priests who are, to a man, disorganized, procrastinating bunglers with no real-world skill sets. Everything these sad-sack clergy do is ad hoc. They've been known to drive their staunchest supporters to exasperation with last-minute changes of mind, poor planning, and dismal judgment. (Just look at the Blunderer's projects or "One Hand's" liturgies!) A solid steering committee will be able to foil the priest's irrationality when you propose sound governance reform for the chapel. (You can often get the upper hand with these weak characters just by standing your ground and refusing to be intimidated.)


At this stage, the first job of the committee is to gather  information about the chapel as a corporation. Find out the state in which it's incorporated and who the corporate officers are (usually they're the priest's relatives or other clerical accomplices).  This portion may take a little sleuthing on the Web or in bank records because many chapels have been purposefully set up in other states in order to minimize transparency. After you gather as much documentation as possible about the corporation, then research everything you can about the chapel property, focusing especially on ownership, rules, and mortgage details. Most of this is on the 'Net.


Next, encourage friends to share recollections and anecdotes about their experiences with the corporation and the priest. If someone kept the books or made deposits, ask him or her to recall details or to narrate any unusual transactions. (There'll be plenty.) Try to capture reminiscences of off-hand remarks the priest may have made in sermons or in conversations. Remember that these clerical ne'er-do-wells attempt to mask their incompetence by bragging about their goof-prone romps through non-profit-land: there's a wealth of history and telling fact behind all that bluster, which the committee can use to its advantage.


Make no mistake here: Once you start on this third step, the word will get out that something is afoot. So be prepared for the clergy to begin to weaponize the sacraments and sow dissension within the chapel. It probably may become inadvisable to go to the priest for confession, so now is the time to begin to practice making the act of perfect contrition. 


Steel yourself for the fourth step.