wfn.org | Frank Diaz Appointed Interim Executive Director

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17-September-1996 
 
 
96365    Frank Diaz Appointed Interim Executive Director 
         for What Many Anticipate to Be a Prolonged Term 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
ST. LOUIS--The current acting executive director of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) was appointed as the denomination's interim executive director for 
an indefinite period by the General Assembly Council Executive Committee 
(GACEC) here Sept. 13. 
 
     The Rev. Frank Diaz, 63, of Louisville has been associate director of 
General Assembly Council (GAC) operations for the past four years.  Diaz 
has been the denomination's acting executive director since July, when the 
General Assembly failed to confirm the election of then director the Rev. 
James D. Brown. 
 
     Brown's contract expired Sept. 16. 
 
     "I feel humble about the fact that they have the confidence to name me 
to the position," Diaz said, acknowledging that he is temporarily stepping 
into what has at times been a volatile job for its two former one-term 
occupants, Brown and David Stoner.  Given the office's history, a 
consultant will be hired to study and perhaps redefine the position as part 
of a critique of relationships among top General Assembly offices approved 
during last summer's Assembly as part of a mandated review of the church's 
structure. 
 
     But Diaz insists he is undeterred. 
 
     "I think these times are a great opportunity for us.  I think we need 
these kinds of times to give a hard look at how we're doing things ... and 
to redirect [ourselves] in positive ways to strengthen [our] ministry," 
Diaz told the Presbyterian News Service at the end of the meeting here, 
where the GACEC began strategizing how to both prioritize cuts and raise 
money to meet a projected $2.4 million budget shortfall in 1998. 
 
     The vote to appoint Diaz was unanimous, the GACEC announced after its 
brief personnel session.  A compensation package is currently being 
developed. 
 
     The GAC will be asked to confirm the appointment later this month.  
 
     "We wanted somebody whose faith is strong, who has management, 
financial and communication skills -- someone who has the ability to 
articulate the faith as well as build relationships," said Jinny Miller of 
Mishawaka, Ind., who chaired the Council's search committee for an interim 
executive director.  "I think Frank's ability to build relationships ... 
was very significant. 
 
     "And he can relate not only to pastors, but to elders, as someone who 
has been there.  He served on all these different governing bodies as an 
elder," Miller told the Presbyterian News Service, citing Diaz's service as 
moderator of Mission Presbytery and as a three-time General Assembly 
commissioner, where he chaired two review committees. 
 
     Diaz was ordained at 49 after working 13 years for Texas Instruments 
and  running his own real estate and management company.   He served 
congregations in San Marcus, Braunfels and Austin, Texas.  He came to the 
Presbyterian Center in June 1989 to serve as the General Assembly Council's 
coordinator for policies and special projects. 
 
     In a prepared statement, the search committee describes Diaz as a man 
who has "excelled in business, yet while heading his own firms, he found 
time to serve at all levels of the church as a layperson.  His work as 
pastor of three small churches has given him a keen sense of their needs 
and challenges, and his service to the GAC has expanded that sense of 
including the entire denomination." 
 
     The statement credits Diaz with proposing that the GAC begin 
evaluating and prioritizing its programming for 1998 "in light of the Great 
Ends of the Church" in the denomination's "Book of Order" -- the 
methodology the Staff Leadership Team adopted in its initial budgeting 
meeting in early September.  It says that Diaz has served the GAC "quietly 
and faithfully for seven years" and that he understands "the issues, the 
inner workings of the PC(USA), and has strong open relationships with the 
staff and leaders of our church." 
 
     Though the length of this interim remains vague, a number of GACEC 
members are expecting it to be prolonged in order to consider the outside 
consultant's recommendations before hiring another permanent executive 
director. 
 
     Board of Pensions chair Eugene Sibery of Cape Coral, Fla., told the 
GACEC that the special committee to employ a consulting firm intends to to 
do so by Dec. 3, with the hope of having a completed report by the February 
Council meeting. 
 
     Sibery, who chairs the special committee, told the Presbyterian News 
Service that the Council may be urged to wait until the Assembly considers 
the consultant's recommendations before hiring.  "Its almost impossible to 
interpret the role and nature of the office without the consultant's 
report," he said. 
 
     The GACEC voted to  appoint a search committee for an executive 
director at the GAC's September meeting, acknowledging its need to work 
with the consultant's process and to set a slower pace than it originally 
had anticipated. 
 
     Stated Clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick backed a slower search, 
telling the GACEC that the denomination needs to "look at our history" in 
order not to replicate the same dynamics within the organization that have 
cause repeated losses of employees because of structural problems. 
 
     GACEC member Fred L. Denson of Webster, N.Y., voiced a compromise 
position.   "I don't think we can afford to wait to get the [search] 
process started," he said, "but let's draw a distinction between what we 
need to do to start the process and to form a search committee ... and a 
timeline." 
 
     Miller told the Presbyterian News Service that the action gives the 
search committee itself authority to decide how it will proceed. 
 
     Diaz said he believes the role of the Office of the Executive Director 
is not as ill-defined as the interrelationships between entities within the 
denomination.  There is particular confusion about what authority Corporate 
and Administrative Services (CAS) has over the financial operations of the 
other offices, Diaz said, adding, "There are systemic problems." 
 
     The review committee defined those problems as "some competing, even 
contradictory expectations for the various offices, with overlapping 
authorities, and discord in the working relationships of the five 
independent entities of the GA, as well as the friction within the GAC 
itself." 
 
     The committee felt -- and the Assembly agreed -- that since much of 
the conflict "revolves around resource allocation and fiscal integrity," 
outside intervention was needed. 
 
     Since that time, the chief executives and chairpersons of major GA 
entities have signed a statement of cooperation designed to repair past 
difficulties. 
 
     Five applications for the interim director's job were received by the 
search committee -- including three white men and one white female. 
 
     Diaz, who is Hispanic, is married to Shirley Diaz, an administrative 
assistant in the racial-ethnic office of the National Ministries Division. 
They have six children, all living in Texas. 

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