It seems that every few days we hear about the existence of another CTA group that has "met a few times" already with minimal contact with the national office. Like spring flowers after the rains, local chapters are exploding into bloom. Contact persons and phone number by state are listed on page 7. Here are some highlights:

California - At the national conference last year, a few California people got together and said, "We've got to organize in our state. Can we have a regional conference on the West coast?" So they organized, and on June 29, 111 people attended a kickoff conference for CTA/San Diego County. Now they are moving towards incorporation and official affiliation with CTA. They've negotiated a $312 group discount airfare to Detroit in November for up to 19 people. Evi Quinn, president, says, "I have never belonged to any group in my life where everyone has such a spirit of commitment. We are energizing each other." Her group will participate in a daylong conference Oct. 26 with CTA-minded friends in Palm Desert, CA, focusing on the We Are Church Referendum.

Orange County, north of San Diego, has begun organizing. And further north, 100 CTAers met in San Josˇ August 24 to create CTA of Northern California. Some traveled from as far away as Santa Cruz and Sacramento.

Montana - People are few and far between in Big Sky Country, but CTAers have been meeting monthly in Billings, with plans for a larger public meeting in September. Missouri - A new group in St Louis has named itself " Catholics for Renewal." Another CTA-spirited group has been meeting in the Ozarks region of southwestern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Down South - Last spring a group began meeting in South Carolina, centered on the towns of Columbia, Charleston and Greenville, but hoping to include people from further afield. Their next event is on October 5, a discussion of " Models of Church. " In Louisiana, 50 CTA members attended a first meeting in New Orleans and are excited to form a chapter. Farther north, CTA Shenandoah Valley has been meeting monthly in Shepherdstown, WV, with assistance from the established CTA Northern Virginia.

New York - Development has been in the upstate area. The central New York group around Syracuse was initiated by people who attended last year's conference. As well as meeting regularly, they have booked a bus to travel to this year's conference in Detroit, and have almost filled its 48 seats. In the Buffalo area, the group has been collecting signatures for the We Are Church Referendum, as well as formalizing itself as a CTA chapter. A bus to Detroit from Western New York is planned if 30 people participate. Call Jim and Sally Orgren, (716) 688-4589. A third group has met in Keeseville, on the western side of Lake Champlain.

Chicagoland - Building on the initiative taken in organizing prayer vigils in May in support of CTA Nebraska, some CTA members in the Chicago metropolitan area began to explore forming a local chapter. September 15, they will come together to be addressed by Patty Crowley and Jack Egan on their memories of the U.S. Bishops' Call To Action Conference (see calendar). They have also chartered a Greyhound bus to Detroit in November. (It's $45 round trip: call 312-409-7625.)

CTA Michigan first met after the 1995 national conference, and is now organizing outreach to other towns across the state. Organizer Marge Orlando says she is energized by the response of the people: " This was my first experience of spearheading something like this. I didn't know how I was going to be accepted."

Regional conferences and speakers are growing more numerous, and more sophisticated. At press time CTA Minnesota already had 400 pre-registered for its first conference Sept. 14-15 with big-name speaker Richard Rohr and Amata Miller.

CTA Michiana, banned from diocesan property by Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy, will hold its Sept. 18 event on the Notre Dame University campus, with world-class theologian Richard McBrien as speaker. Their calm, reasoned response to D'Arcy's criticism appeared in the South Bend Tribune (see page 5), penned by Barb Finley.

In Dallas, The Open Window, a CTA cooperating organization, has veteran lobbyist Nancy Sylvester, IHM leading a daylong conference Sept. 21 on Catholic Social Teaching and Elections 96.

We're sure there are other groups already in existence that we are unaware of. Often someone contacts the national office, we send them a list of CTA members living locally, and hear nothing more until we discover an active group alive and well. The energy is coming from the base!