Leadership Council News
Greetings, Wow, it was a busy summer for our councils and committees. I hope you are taking the time to read the updates and catch up on all the great work that is happening in our organization. As for the Leadership Council, we had our face-to-face meetings in Golden, CO, on July 22-23, 2014. It was a very productive and important gathering for us. There are four major pieces of news that I want to report to you. First, after receiving news from Rev. Dr. Patrick Cameron that he would be vacating his seat on the council, we welcomed our newest council member, Rev. Molly Cameron. Rev. Molly was chosen from the field of ministerial candidates from our most recent council elections at the Orlando convention. We are delighted to have Rev. Molly on board and look forward to her great contributions to our council. Second, many of you know that we conducted a 90-minute President's conference call regarding the short-term restructuring announcement. This was an important first step in responding to the field and creating a space for greater clarity on the council's deliberation process. That said, we want you to know that we realize that it was only the first step. We recognize the ongoing need for creating open forums for feedback from the field. The elected leadership of the organization is committed to being increasingly open, receptive and available to the field. Third, the leadership council has two core responsibilities according to the ODM: to oversee the budget and to implement a strategic plan. I am happy to report that we have made major progress on both of those objectives. After reviewing the financials for the first six months of 2014, we were projecting a short-fall of $430,000 (with a majority of that short fall already realized in the first half of the year). With the help of our directors, finance manager and treasurer, the council approved adjustments to the budget that will produce a total savings of $442,000. In short, we put the operations of our organization back in the black for 2014. There will be a President's call focused on this topic very soon so that you can understand the details of our adjustment plan. Going forward, we are committed to a balanced and/or surplus budget for 2015 and beyond. Lastly, we are now in the final stages of editing and approving our strategic plan. This plan is made up of the strategic plan recommendations from the Growth and Development Commission, and the development teams, as well as more than 18 months of input from these groups. Once finalized, this plan will be made available to the field. We also plan to have a dashboard metric tool that will be available through our internal website. This metric site will give you monthly progress reports on key objectives, timelines, benchmarks and points of accountability. Needless to say, we are very excited to bring this plan to fruition and share it with you in this manner. In Service, David Alexander |
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