“In the mid to late ’80s, I was a board member of the Western Association of Spiritual Directors (WASD). WASD was the West Coast portion of the National Federation of Spiritual Directors who worked in Roman Catholic seminaries. I was working in a seminary at the time, and was elected to head WASD. Our annual conference drew upwards of 100 spiritual directors, but they didn’t all teach in seminaries. In fact, most didn’t.

By 1989, there were no longer enough seminaries to warrant a separate West Coast WASD, so we were merged with the Midwest region. Yet I was still aware of all those spiritual directors out West who felt they needed their own group for support. There were people from states like Nevada who had no gathering place. I felt a nudge from God to help provide a networking opportunity for them.

With consultation, I gathered a national committee—a ‘discernment circle’—to talk about this kind of networking. Every person we approached agreed to be on the committee.  For months, committee members interviewed people in their own geographic areas about what they felt was needed. We put the results of our survey together and they indicated the need for a larger, national network.”