Vincentians regard the Conference as the paramount unit of SVdP life. It is at this grass-roots level that the great majority of Vincentians find themselves engaged in the person-to-person service of those in need. It is the environment in which members develop and nurture a common spiritual life, where they grow in their closeness to the Lord through their encounters with him in the needy. The fundamental Vincentian action is their involvement together with persons and families in need.

     For most Vincentians, this person-to-person work has been associated with a Conference operating within a Catholic parish. It is the natural nesting place for faith-motivated Christians who wish to band together on a journey with the poor. It is the structure wherein their faith is nourished and renewed, a natural gathering of people similarly motivated. Yet the richness of this Christian experience is not confining or limiting, so Conferences do spring up in other settings, such as at high schools and universities, and shelters, and so forth.  The Society's Rule allows for great diversity in the formation of Conferences, including around people of similar professions or cultural interests.

The ministry of a Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is to bring concrete aid and the comfort of the Gospel to the needy and the suffering. This loving service, in turn, brings each member closer to God and helps the relationship with him grow. This activity witnesses to the world that Christ and his Gospel message are alive today and being preached through action at the local level. Works on behalf of the needy are the most vivid expression of Christ's presence in the world. Such works he willed to be signs of his messianic mission (Mt. 11: 4-5) in the world.

     Vincentians are engaged in many types of ministry on behalf of people. The specific ministry with which the Conference is involved does not belong exclusively to the Society, but to all Christian people and is at the very core of what it means to be a Christian. The Society can and should, as a catalyst and conscience of the local Christian Community, cooperate with parish organizations, neighboring SVdP Conferences, and social service agencies. It will seek to avoid competition and duplication. In any endeaor that is undertaken, assistance from anyone who is sincere and prepared to help, even if only in a small way, should be welcomed. The Society should play a leading role in cooperating with others; it cannot do it alone.

     If the Conference is formed at a parish, everyone living in the parish neighborhood should be served, whehter they are members of the local Church community or not, since all are joined together through the realities of creation and redemption. As a result, the Conference has a responsibility toward all people in the area.

     Vincentians look to Christ's life of service to others for their inspiration. St. Vincent de Paul and Blessed Frederic Ozanam captured this spirit and made it part of their lives and works. This is the heritage which has been transmitted to all Vincentians.

     The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and its special ministry of bringing concrete aid and the comfort of the Gospel to the needy and suffering should be seen in the broader context of the Church's saving mission in the world and understood as part of it.

     The Church, like the Lord Jesus, exists to announce the coming of God's Kingdom, to be a sign of its presence in time, and to usher in the Kingdom of God through various good works.

     This mission given to the Church is to bring the Gospel and holiness to all and to transform and renew all creation by making present Christ's saving redemption. This saving redemption or healing presence of Christ is made available through many channels in the Church: liturgy and the sacraments, the scriptures, in prayers, and in the person-to-person contacts and relationships that exist between and amoung members and those they meet.

     It is in this last category, person-to-person relationships, that the apostolate or ministry of the local Conference of the Society is predominantly found. Vincentians make Christ's healing presence felt through their loving presence to those who are needy or are suffering. By their own love for Christ, they bring the hope that Christ brought into the world; namely, that things can be different and that needless suffering can be diminished through person-to-person caring.

The Conference meeting is the heart from which SVdP activity radiates and the sanctuary where its work is organized. The meeting provides a privileged occasion wherein the love of Christ is manifested member to member, where members are open, one to another, embracing each other as brother and sister, where the healing presence of Christ can be experienced and can grow to overflowing dimensions that can be shared with others.

     Conferences meet regularly and frequently, as a celebration of mutual friendship and out of a passion to serve the Lord. Unlike other organizations within and outside the Church, the Conference meets less to conduct business than to celebrate and deepen its unity for essentially spiritual reasons. Praying and reflecting together, Vincentians use these occasions to review their contacts with the needy in  a simple format. They exchange communications, take stock of their funds on hand, and participate in a secret collection which is used to forward their works.

     The regularity of the meeting is the key to developing an effective team effort toward achieving the goals of the Society. Conference meetings which are held less frequently than every other week or at least twice monthly are deemed not to be in accord with the spirit of the Society and may be a serious deterrent to the ongoing spiritual growth of the Conference membership. This same deterrent is in evidence when Conferences suspend meetings for the summer months.

     The Conference meeting should not be lengthy. Dispatch can be achieved, if all officers and members spend a few minutes before each meeting preparing and having materials readily available. Outside matters should be left for discussion after the meeting is finished.

     The Conference meeting offers the best place for the continuing education and formation of members both spiritually and as helpers. This ongoing formation complements the special formation session sponsored by the local Councils.

     Every Conference meeting should include spiritual reading and discussion. This practice helps promote the spiritual purposes of the Society. The presence and participation of the Conference's Spiritual Advisor are especially salutary. Vincentians are encouraged to actively participate in discussion on these spiritual topics, particularly as to how they relate to proper attitudes about the poor and about service ministry.

     The development of members' skills can be improved by visiting the needy and in analyzing the visitors' involvement at the Conference meeting. Members should be open to learning from their experiences and should seek the help and advice of other Conference members in order to become more skilled in the art of helping people.

     All members learn and solutions come more easily when a problem is thoroughly analyzed through group discussion in which all members have participated.

     It is in the Conference meetings that members can experience Christ's presence in each other and the workings of the Holy Spirit. In a sense, these gatherings become a living, vivid witness of God's healing presence among all. These unity-building occasions constitute opportunities for personal renewal and for rededication to service of the needy and suffering. The Conference's coming together creates a kind of dynamic classroom for learning about life, human problems, and Christian solutions.

     Conference meetings also serve to develop a Vincentian spirituality or life style, based, of course, on Christian spirituality, but one which emphasizes personal attitudes and actions geared toward the love and service of the needy and suffering. The association and the working together of members generate a process of growth, because of which every person, in all aspects, reflects more and more the person of Christ.

1. Opening prayers
2. Spiritual reading and discussion
3. Minutes of preceding meeting
4. Membership report. New candidates for membership proposed; Conference action with reference to candidates previously proposed; welcome to new members; deaths; resignations.
5. Report of treasurer
6. Members' reports and Conference action concerning families and individuals under care.
7. Special works reports (e.g., visitation of nursing homes or prisons)
8. Assignment of visitors for new cases or needs requiring Conference action.
9. Payment of bills and issuance of money orders voted.
10. Committee reports: services to aging; extension; disaster preparedness; clothes rooms; distribution of Catholic literature; annual report, etc.
11. Plans for advancement of the Society's charitable involvement growth, or funding.
12. Correspondence
13. Roll Call
14. Secret Collection
15. Closing prayers

From the beginning of the Society, the central and most basic activity of Conferences has been the visitation of the needy in the home. This action is the clearest symbol of the Vincentian charism, which dictates the highest respect for the dignity of the poor: the visitor becomes the guest and the person being helped is the master. It symbolizes the fact that Vincentians are to reach out to the needy, rather than requiring them to report to an outside service site. It is in the home enviromnent that needy persons feel most free to entrust their stories of struggle to the helper. It is there, in the family setting, that Vincentians are asked to listen, offer humble advice, and render assistance.

     In the modern world, there are certain situations where a home visit is not possible or advisable. Some examples are situations of homelessness, battering, or safety. Nevertheless, Vincentians should never excuse themselves lightly or regularly from the tradition of home visitation. Even when assistance is given in an emergency from the parish or other service site, Vincentians should follow up with a home visit.

     A related tradition is that Vincentians always visit in pairs. This requirement is based on the fact that the Conference is a community, not a collection of individuals who "do their own thing."  The visiting team is ideally composed of Vincentians of both genders, various age groups, and different life experiences, so that a better perspective of the needy person's situation can be gained, and various courses of action explored.

     From the beginning, the insistence that Vincentian visitation to the needy be done in pairs was based on the protection both of the needy person as well as the member. The wisdom of the Society's tradition is affirmed as it continues to require home visitation in pairs, especially due to issues of safety, liability, and questions of impropriety.

No universal definition of Conference work can be given because each Conference has autonomy in determining what charitable works and services will be undertaken in addition to one-on-one home visits. A convenient classification of typical person-to-person services that can be provided by parish Conferences in the United States today includes the following:

(1) SVdP Services in Relation to Poverty

• Limited material or financial assistance to meet a short-term critical need.
• Emergency aid, combined with referral to the appropriate public agency, in situations where eligibility for continuing assistance is indicated.
• Referral to appropriate counseling agency when recurrent financial problems on the part of the applicant person or family point to a need for professional guidance.
• Initiation and promotion of necessary services when the local community lacks adequate programs to deal with the causes or results of poverty. Assisting persons in finding employment or adequate housing exemplifies this type of engegement. Related to the services recommended above are self-help programs. Self-help emphasis can limit the practice of recurrent handouts, which may be destructive of human dignity and degenerate into a subtle form of enslavement. Self-help systems are represented by such operations as food co-ops, credit unions, repair co-ops, home services for the aged and shut-ins, housing rehabilitation, legal services, adult education, and the like.
• Development of inexpensive recreational programs through arranging for the use, at nominal fee, of local facilities by marginal income families and special groups (e.g., senior citizens). Leisure and play-time activities are essential to the well-being of all persons, and this aspect of living should be considered in any adequate parish-centered program for the economically disadvantaged.
• Development of professional and household services at nominal cost for low income families.  To obtain such help, experts and artisans in various fields are recruited as volunteers and function, after Conference screening, in selected family situations. This type of neighborhood service could encompass a considerable range of specialists: plumbers, carpenters, nurses, lawyers, doctors, electricians, appliance repair personnel, and the like.