wfn.org | LCMS - Synod Offers Early Retirement to 90 Workers

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The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Board for Communication Services

LCMSNews -- No. 41
July 18, 2002

Synod offers early retirement to 90 workers

By Paula Schlueter Ross

In an effort to minimize involuntary staff reductions due to budget cuts, 90
employees of "corporate Synod" have been offered early-retirement options.

The offer was made earlier this month to all workers age 55 and up who have
completed at least five years of service.  They have 45 days to make a
decision.

The early-retirement option is just one of the measures being taken by
corporate Synod to offset $9.1 million in budget cuts made by the LCMS Board
of Directors in late May.  The cuts were made from budget requests submitted
by the Synod's program boards, commissions, offices and departments.

The $89.6 million budget adopted by the Board for the fiscal year that began
July 1 is some $10 million less than the budget adopted a year ago.

The early-retirement offers are a first for the Synod, according to Barbara
Ryan, executive director of Human Resources, who said she expects "very few
takers."

"People are here because of the ministry and they like working here," Ryan
said.  She also described the early-retirement packages as "moderate, not
rich."

Knowing that certain Synod departments will be hard pressed to cut costs,
Ryan said the early-retirement offers are intended as a "voluntary effort at
attrition," a hopefully less painful way to cut spending.

About a dozen positions need to be eliminated and some vacant posts will not
be filled, according to Chief Administrative Officer Brad Hewitt.  He called
the early-retirement option an "important tool" for trimming next year's
budget and subsequent budgets.

"If employees are considering retirement soon anyway, the voluntary
early-retirement offers are intended to speed that process along, resulting,
we hope, in fewer other necessary cost-cutting measures," Hewitt said.

Some immediate results of the budget cuts on LCMS program boards follow:

-- The Board for Communication Services will cut its "Reporter" newspaper to
eight pages each month, unless advertising sales are sufficient to produce a
larger publication.  Reporter has been 16 or 12 pages.

-- The Board for District and Congregational Services will not fill two
vacant staff positions, one full-time executive staff person will move to
60-percent time, and an additional staff member may need to be eliminated or
become part time.

-- The Board for Higher Education is eliminating promotion and recruitment
programs aimed at middle- and high-school students, and is cutting some
programs that provide cash support to Concordia University System schools.

"Ultimately, these cuts reduce scholarships, capital expansion, student
programs and our institutions' competitiveness across the nation," said
Charles R. Caciano, the board's director of financial affairs and chief
financial officer.

-- The Board for Human Care Ministries expects to lose one or more workers
through early retirements, and "services which absolutely must be continued
will likely be done by contract," according to Executive Director Rev.
Matthew Harrison.

--  The Board for Mission Services has eliminated 2.5 staff, postponed
filling four missionary positions and removed three missionaries from the
field six months early; decreased church support in Central Europe, India
and Kazakhstan; reduced church planting, conferences, blind-ministry and
vicarage support in North America; and reduced support for mission
societies, theological education by extension, the volunteer-missionary
program and missionary training.

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