wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] GAC is at a governance crossroads

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8939 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05525
Sept. 29, 2005

Council at a governance crossroads

A large, communications-savvy GAC -
or one that's leaner, and action-oriented?

by Jerry L. Van Marter

SACRAMENTO, CA -More effective communication, or more efficient governance?

	Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s General Assembly
Council (GAC) face a distinct choice as they mull two proposed models for the
council's future work.

	By February 2006, the GAC will be asked to vote to become either a
60-member group with a new focus on better communication between council
members and PC(USA) governing bodies, or a 27-member council designed for
more efficient governance of the church's mission enterprise.

	Or something in between.

	"Our first goal," said Carol Adcock, of Fort Worth, TX, chair of the
GAC's Governance Task Force, "is to facilitate communication and strengthen
our connectedness. We've gathered considerable information, but these models
are still very much a work in progress."

	The task force will bring a recommendation to the GAC in February for
presentation to next summer's 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL.

	The 60-member GAC ("Model 1") would draw 43 members from
geographically clustered presbyteries and four from the synods. Eight
additional members would be elected at-large. The council also would include
the current and immediate past General Assembly moderators; a representative
of Presbyterian Women; and two youth/young adult members. Four of the
presbytery representatives would be presbytery executives; one of the synod
representatives would be a synod executive.

	GAC members would be responsible for facilitating communication
between the council and the middle governing bodies.

	One-quarter of the presbyteries and one-quarter of the synods would
be represented on the GAC at all times. Presbyteries and synods would
nominate their representatives, in consultation with the General Assembly
Nominating Committee (GANC). For communication purposes, presbyteries would
be clustered in groups of four, and one GAC member would be assigned to each
cluster.

	Model 1 is a result of interviews with 24 focus groups around the
PC(USA), conducted by the denomination's Research Services Office. 

	"We heard from the focus groups that our essential problem is not
structure but our inability to communicate with members of our congregations,
our middle governing bodies and all of our concerned constituents," Adcock
said. "Model 1 begins with the assumption that the GAC should be ... able to
communicate back and forth with the GAC and constituent groups." 

	"Communication is hard to define," one task force member noted during
the council's Sept. 23 meeting here. The Rev. Steve Benz, the executive of
East Tennessee Presbytery, went on: "We believe it means dialogue - two-way
communication. We believe it means 'Come to me, listen to me, care about me.'
It means connectedness through communication."

	Model 2 would take the council in a different direction. The
27-member GAC would include four members from each of the three previous
General Assemblies; 12 at-large members nominated by the GANC and elected by
the Assembly; the current and immediate past General Assembly moderators and
a representative from Presbyterian Women.

	The rationale for Model 2, Adcock told the council, "is to consider
the governance option of a council small enough to provide the elected
members the opportunity to form an efficient ... decision-making body."

	A GAC whose members were drawn primarily from the ranks of General
Assembly conmmissioners would "be better able to reflect the will of the
church," said the Rev. Susan Andrews, a task force member and former Assembly
moderator. She said such a council also "would be more strongly accountable
to our highest representative governing body."

	Communication is not the focus of the Model 2, Andrews said. "This
model envisions a different kind of connectedness, which would grow out of
the mandate of General Assembly," she said. "The role of the GAC members
shifts from communication to enacting and interpreting the decisions of the
General Assembly."

	Model 2 acknowledges the focus-group feedback by assigning "the
primary responsibility for improved communication to a corps of regional
staff persons located in presbyteries," Adcock said. 

	How such a corps would be formed and how it would function have not
been determined.

	The current GAC has 71 members. Its work is structured around the
three ministry divisions - Congregational Ministries, National Ministries and
Worldwide Ministries - plus support functions (Mission Support Services) and
financial safeguards (Audit Committee).

	Both proposed new models would reorient the council's work around the
PC(USA)'s four priority goal areas: Evangelism and Witness, Justice and
Compassion, Spirituality and Discipleship, and Leadership and Vocation. 

	A Model 1 council would have four support committees; each member
would serve on one priority committee and one support committee. A Model 2
council would have just one support committee.

	In Model 1, GAC members would serve single four-year terms. In Model
2, each member would serve a single six-year term. Both models include
provisions for Book of Order-mandated balance in terms of geography, gender,
racial-ethnic background, age, physical condition and clergy/lay membership.

	The task force wants feedback on the proposed models. "We'd like to
hear from every corner of our church family," Adcock said. 

	Feedback should be sent by email to Beth Basham in the GAC executive
director's office at bbasham@ctr.pcusa.org.

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