Full Participation Requirement & Make-up Work

Participants are expected to arrange their schedules so they are able to be fully involved in the program. You are expected to participate in all work sessions, worship, meals and any social activities. Your participation is essential to our work of building a learning community.

Full participation includes

·  Being familiar with the material from the readings. That allows you to really offer something when you are working in a team with other participants. It also allows you to focus more on the application of theory and methods.

·  Shared leadership when you are in a working team

·  Taking initiative to help things work, e.g., in facilitating a working group, by helping clean up the space at the end of the day, by saying something when you are unclear about instructions or theory, etc.

Here are a few examples that may help you understand the boundaries --

·  If you find the program to be more demanding than you anticipated; or the demands that you face in other areas of your life increase; and you begin to feel overloaded – please talk with a trainer for ideas on how you might manage the work. If you begin to feel the need to miss sessions that is probably a sign that you should drop out and return when you are able.

·  If you come down with the flu and are out for a whole weekend - We will work with you to reconnect you with the group and provide make up work.

·  If something truly awful happens in your life, e.g., a member of your family, or a core parishioner dies, or gets seriously ill, and you just have to go home missing a session or even a whole weekend -- - We will work with you to reconnect you with the group and provide make up work.

·  If you have missed one weekend and discover that you will need to miss a good bit of additional time – you need to drop from the program and join during a cycle when your schedule permits full participation.

Make-up Work Arrangements

You need to assume that all work missed will need to be made up.

Timely action helps a lot. If you are going to miss part of a session share that as soon as possible with a staff member. That allows more options for you and the staff. It may also allow you more time to complete the make-up assignment.

In a diocesan CDI make-ups need to be completed before the next weekend session.

There are several factors that go into deciding on the make-up arrangements:

1. Impact on the group
2. Being up to speed with the group's work (as much as possible)
3. Making up the time missed and some of the learning
4. Staff time cost

A CDI staff member will suggest an appropriate make-up assignment. You may suggest other options. Or when you are asking for a make-up assignment you may propose something that seems to address A - D above. Here is more detail about the factors.

A. Impact on the group
1. You need to have a way of minimizing the impact on the whole group and on any smaller group you are working with. You need an approach that both acknowledges the impact your actions may have on the group and that doesn't draw them away from the work at hand
2. You may need to actively work at getting reconnected with people.
3. You need to communicate to the group that this is an exception and that you are committed to a full presence during the remainder of the program - no late arrivals, early departures, etc.

B. Being up to speed with the group's work (as much as possible)
1. You need to review any content material you missed
2. You may need to be taken through an exercise by a staff member or another participant (you will need to ask for a favor)

C. Making up the time missed and some of the learning
In creating the assignment the staff will try to come as close as possible to the time you have missed and the learning involved. Some examples, you miss a session on Benedictine Spirituality to attend a funeral for half a day -- you are asked to write a 3 - 4 page paper relating what you experienced at the funeral with Benedictine Spirituality; or you have been late several times and have been missing part of MP -- you are asked to write a paper on the relationship of common prayer to community formation, or you are asked to write on how your lateness relates to self-differentiation or some other theory that is appropriate.

D. Staff time cost
Having to work on a make-up assignment requires a staff member to do additional, unanticipated work.  In some CDI’s participants pay a fee for the time involved. In diocesan CDI's  staff members will be coordinating make-up work and offering make-up sessions.