Episcopal News Service November 13, 2006
Executive Council trims meetings' length to accommodate budget reduction
Election of new member set for November 15
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[ENS] -- The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church decided November 13 to reduce the number of days it meets during the 2007-2009 triennium, in response to having had its budget cut by a third during the 75th General Convention.
The council agreed to meet for three days, rather than its normal four, for most of its meetings, beginning in the fall of 2007. That timetable was required because the meetings department of the Episcopal Church Center's General Convention office had to sign contracts for the first two meetings of the 2007-2009 triennium. Those meetings will be in Portland, Oregon, in March and Parsippany, New Jersey, in June.
Council members said they would need a four-day meeting in January 2009, when they must develop a proposed budget for the entire church during the 2010-2012 triennium. That budget must go to the General Convention's Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance Committee (PB&F) in advance of the 2009 General Convention.
Reducing the meetings by a day will be aided, council members said, by their willingness to conduct some committee meetings electronically in advance of the each council meeting.
The 75th General Convention cut the Executive Council budget for the 2007-2009 triennium by one-third. General Convention manager Lori Ionnitiu told the council that the reduction means that the council will have $75,000 to spend for each of the council's canonically required three meetings each year (Canon I.4.4(a)), as opposed to the $100,000 that was available in the 2003-2006 triennium.
Ionnitiu said that the average cost of an Executive Council meeting during the 2003-2006 triennium has been $92,178. The cost of the triennium's nine meetings ranged from $74,214 to $125,694, she said, adding that those amounts do not include the costs incurred by Church Center staffers who attend the meetings, and invited guests. The most expensive part of the meetings, on average, is the $31,340 spent for lodging, she said.
Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_79660_ENG_HTM.htm
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