A committee of the CHA Board of Trustees is continuing the discernment begun in 2011 by a special membership task force. The committee is studying CHA membership criteria in light of changes in several ministry organizations to for-profit or non-Catholic structures.
The Membership Study Committee is chaired by M. Colleen Scanlon, who also led the task force. She is a past CHA chairperson and senior vice president of advocacy at Catholic Health Initiatives.
The committee is embarked on a three-year process to recommend whether changes should be made to the association's bylaws to permit organizations that are for-profit or not officially Catholic to remain CHA members. Any recommendations will be brought to the CHA board, and, if accepted, to the membership for approval at the 2015 Catholic Health Assembly.
M. Therese Lysaught, associate professor of theology at Marquette University, who is a visiting scholar at CHA, is researching and writing a theological white paper to support the committee's work.
As Catholic Health World went to press, Lysaught was preparing to present themes from her research at two CHA conferences in January: the System Mission Leadership Forum and the Sponsorship Institute. Following acceptance by the CHA board, the white paper will be available to the ministry. It also will be the subject of an Innovation Forum session at the 2013 Catholic Health Assembly, June 2-4, in Anaheim, Calif.
July begins the second year of the study. During that year, the committee will focus on the lived experience of CHA-member organizations that have converted to for-profit status or are no longer officially Catholic.