Catholic Business Network redesigns structure

Intermountain Catholic

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Sandy City Mayor Tom Dolan gives an overview of the plans Sandy City hopes to implement in the next few years to the Catholic Business Network at their quarterly meeting June 1.IC photo by Christine Young

SANDY — The Catholic Business Network (CBN) met at Fratelli Ristorante in Sandy June 1, to present to Catholic business owners the restructuring, goals, and objectives of their new plan.

Craig Franco, newly selected president of CBN outlined the new structure and the direction the network is taking.

According to the CBN mission statement, the goals of the CBN are to facilitate the development of contacts and relationships, both inside and outside the Catholic community, that will result in increased business and employment opportunities for its members. It is also to promote ethical business practices and Catholic values in the workplace, and to provide members with opportunities to develop business and leadership skills. It is a way for members to give back to their community by preparing talented young men and women within the Catholic community for business careers.

John Puhr, chairman of the CBN Board of Directors, said in 2005-2006, a small group of parishioners from Saint John the Baptist Parish got together and called themselves the Catholic Business Network. Their focus was to try to improve business opportunities for Catholics within the parish. It was a small grass roots organizations which grew a little bit.

"In 2006-2007, Gregg Eisenberg took over the leadership of CBN, and added a website, developed a logo, put together the business directory, and more than anything else, he expanded the scope beyond Saint John the Baptist Parish," said Puhr. "Now he is ready to hand it over so the CBN can take on a new structure.

"Because it was a small organization, CBN was outgrowing its informal structure," said Puhr. "The second thing is, we now need to have a lot more people involved. There was a lot of work to do, and Gregg had been burdened for a long time. So beginning in February of this year, about eight of us got together to form a new structure."

Puhr said the basic structure is in two levels, one being the board of directors, who are responsible for setting strategies, making long term plans, setting performance objectives, and selecting officers for the organization. The officers are responsible for the day-to-day activities and month-to-month plans.

The Board of Directors are: John Puhr, chairman of the Board; Michael O’Brien, attorney, and graduate of Saint Joseph Catholic High School, Ogden; Tom Richter, board president; and Katherina Holzhauser, vice president of development and implementation.

"We are moving from being a grassroots organization to a more organized, professional business organization," said Franco. "In that restructuring process, we are doing several things much differently than what we did previously. Previously we had monthly social mixers. We are going to be moving to quarterly dinner business meetings. These meetings will be about three hours. They will include a social hour, an hour for dinner, and an hour for a prominent business leader from any area of business including the government, private sector, or a non-profit organization, who will speak to the group, followed by a question and answer session.

"At the end of our year we would like to develop an annual gala event," said Franco. "At that point, the climax of the evening will be awarding the Catholic Business Person of the Year Award.

"That is basically how our format is changing," said Franco. "What we really want to be able to do is get useful information into our member’s hands. It seems fairly clear to the board of directors that the exchange of information among Catholic leaders was minimal at best, and that every business pretty much goes through the same struggles and triumphs. Whether it is a large corporation or a small privately owned company, there is a lot to be learned among the members just on how to deal with certain issues that come up. That dialogue has not occurred.

"What we would like to see the organization do is move toward a free exchange of information among its members to give them that level of comfort so they can reach out to other members with their problems to see how others dealt with the same issue," said Franco. "Another goal is to develop fellowship on a personal and spiritual level. We also want to bridge the gap between all faiths in the Vvalley. We want to show the community that Catholics are not a closed society, but rather a very close-knit community who care about the community at large."