SAYING AU REVOIR

Executive Director Steve Krueger had the bittersweet task of announcing the departure of our first Press Secretary Mike Emerton. Below is an excerpt from Steve's letter that says best who it is we are losing.

Dear Friends,

For those of us fortunate enough to have worked with Mike Emerton, VOTF Press Secretary, it was with joy we share the news that Mike and his wife Janice recently had their first baby, a son Aidan Michael. It is also with gratitude for the Emertons' good fortune we announce that Mike has been offered a professional opportunity outside of VOTF that will provide his growing family with the security they need and deserve. It is with sadness that we must announce Mike will be accepting that opportunity and leaving his position here at VOTF effective April 11th.

I cannot understate the gift Mike has been to VOTF - his position as press secretary and as a colleague to all who know him. Professionally, Mike possesses the rare combination of rising to the occasion in moments of crisis and pressure situations as well as possessing a marketing orientation towards our constituencies. Whether it was in Dallas, TX for the Bishops' Conference last June, the Boston, MA Convention in July or facing the spate of VOTF bannings starting in August, 2002 or the Washington, DC Bishops' gathering in November or Cardinal Law's resignation in December, Mike was always prepared and prepared us. He did it for us here in the Newton office - with keen instinct, competence, commitment, and care - and he did it for a number of affiliates who knew they could call on him to help them with their media inquiries and relations, often related to bannings or meetings with their bishops.

However you measure our success, Mike has been a significant part of it. To the extent we have become the voice of the laity, Mike has played a defining role in transforming the press from referring to us as "dissident group" last summer, to a group of "mainstream Catholics" in recent months.

I know many join me in thanking Mike for his outstanding contribution to further the mission of Voice of the Faithful and wishing him all the best.

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