The Young Adult Opportunity Robert Rauch State Deputies Meeting June 6-10, 2018

Why Young Adults? Our membership is aging Young families were Fr. McGivney’s original vision Young adults under represented in KofC May want to discuss who are young adults are? Young Adults ages 18-35/40 Young Adults as Percent of Catholic Population Young Adults as Percent of KofC Membership Young Adults as Percent of Ethnic Groups (esp. Hispanics)

Best Practices in Recruiting Young Adults 1) Meet young adults where they are. 2) Be personal and specific. 3) Adapt approach to each council/parish. 1). Theology on Taps, diocesan young adult events, Men’s Conferences, Masses with young families, school events 2). An individual approach is best – learn about the young man and his goals and dreams and apply how the Knights can help him reach them. Listing off everything your council does won’t attract him as much as asking him what he wants and then educating him on some ways membership would meet those. Also, don’t talk down (when I was your age) – nothing turns off a young adult faster than that! 3). Even within the same town and diocese, different communities of Catholic men may be attracted to different things.

Best Practices in Young Adult Participation Plan and host events of interest to young adults Interactive service, spirituality and sacramental, family-friendly Consider timing of events Be open to new ways of doing things Interactive service – not just a fundraiser and writing a check – give opportunities to do physically demanding service AND interact with those we benefit – soup kitchen, coats for kids, habitat for humanity, special Olympics, tutoring Spirituality – men’s formation, Bible studies, holy hours confession + young men in workforce after college don’t have as easy a time with sacraments being available Family-friendly – are there things that wives and children can go to, especially young children + not talking soccer challenge or free throw challenge Timing + Are meetings and events during the work day or during bedtime? What do your meetings provide – is there really a reason a man should leave his family to come to your meeting? + Just because have the right type of event, does that mean they will come – nom it has to work with their schedule. Asking young adults to plan and lead events is great, but be open to how they want to do it. One reason young people site for not being more involved is that their council lacks technology. Allow young people to try new ideas and new technologies.

Developing a State Level Young Adult Plan Form a young adult membership team Minimum one young adult per diocese One state level chairman/director Responsibilities of young adult membership team Assist with Church drives Engage young adult members/prospective members Develop young adult chapters Organize quarterly events (one per diocese) Where will you find these people? + Many young men (Knights) attend Men’s Conferences + Young Field Agents (and General Agents) There’s no added cost – these men can meet remotely (Google Hangouts) or other web-based platform. Likely they are attending these events already. Maybe they are also a DD or another Chairman too.

Engagement Team Support of YA Growth Training – work with Young Adult Team and other fraternal leaders Webinars for these teams; also on – site training Planning, coaching & grants for young adult membership events Resources & best practices from other jurisdictions/dioceses Campus visits to existing and potential college council sites

Membership Engagement Robert Rauch Membership Engagement Robert.Rauch@kofc.org Office: 203-800-4807 Cell: 203-214-8310