wfn.org | GCFA committee asks to be abolished

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 8, 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
{720}

ORLANDO, Fla. (UMNS) - Some would say that it's unheard of for a
committee to put itself out of business, but that's what one part of the
United Methodist Church's financial and administrative arm has done. 

The Computer Information Systems Committee asked its parent body, the
General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA), to abolish it, and
the agency complied at its Dec. 1-4 meeting. Changing technology has
eliminated the concern over compatibility of different computer systems
within the denomination, committee members had determined. 

In other business, the agency's 40 voting directors  decided that GCFA
should move to establish a foundation, chose the name The United
Methodist Church Foundation and designated $300,000 from its operating
budget for foundation expenses. They were acting on the recommendation
of a study team that has been working for nearly a year.

A policy dealing with reserve funds held by church agencies is being
developed, and GCFA agreed in principle to recommendations offered by
its Financial Services Committee at this meeting.

With the help of consultants, GCFA has prepared a formula to determine
optimal reserve levels. A manual for policy implementation will be
prepared for the General Funds Coordinating Committee meeting in March
1999. Statistics will be gathered for a report to the 2000 General
Conference.

GCFA agreed on several pieces of legislation that will be proposed to
the 2000 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body.
These included a provision for an alternative annual conference
structure to perform the duties and have the protective restrictions of
a conference council on finance and administration. 

The agency also is proposing deletion of obsolete references, such as
those to the Missional Priority Fund and the Temporary General Aid Fund.
Both were discontinued years ago.

One of the proposals GCFA will forward to General Conference would
require publishing the docket of the Judicial Council, the
denomination's equivalent of the Supreme Court, in Newscope at least 30
days before taking action.

The docket currently must be published in Interpreter at least 30 days
prior to a session. The shorter pre-publication time of the newsletter
would permit inclusion of items received several weeks after the current
cut-off dates. The docket would still be published on the Internet and
in Interpreter.

GCFA received a report of an agreement between the denomination's Board
of Global Ministries and the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference that
would provide $1 million from the board toward unfunded pension
liability of  pastors who served in the missionary conference. The
General Council of Ministries (GCOM) was also involved in the process, a
part of advance negotiations for the 2001-04 budget.

Budgeting for the next quadrennium was begun at this meeting by four
budget task groups of the council.

World Service recommendations are being developed through a process that
includes a consultation of GCFA and GCOM and representatives of the
eight program agencies in February. GCFA will establish a total sum of
World Service for proposal to General Conference at its May meeting. A
second consultation will be held in September with the final
recommendations for General Conference to be decided at the joint
GCFA-GCOM meeting Nov.12-16 in Chicago.

In other business, GCFA directors' actions included the following:
* accepting the 1999 budgets of the churchwide agencies;
* responding in written form to an extensive presentation of the
Connectional Ministries Funding Patterns Task Force for the task force's
next meeting in February;
* hearing a report from the denomination's Connectional Process Team,
which is working on the structure for a global church;
* agreeing that the Connectional Process Team could use most of its
budget for 2000 by the end of 1999, when it will be completing its
report for General Conference;
* allocating $70,000 to the Churches Center for Theology and Public
Policy from the Methodist Corporation Trust Fund income;
* accepting the 1999 budget of the Commission on United Methodist Men,
contingent on its receipt of a loan from the United Methodist Men's
Foundation; and
* approving the financial plans for two events in 1999: the Women's
Congress, a project of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women,
and Youth '99, sponsored by the Board of Discipleship.

Bishop Donald A. Ott of the Michigan Area conducted the meeting in the
absence of Bishop Richard C. Looney of the South Georgia Area, who did
not attend due to the serious illness of his wife.
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