wfn.org | GAC Executive Committee Discusses Arthur Andersen Report

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

13-May-1997 
97200 
 
                GAC Executive Committee Discusses  
                      Arthur Andersen Report 
 
                           by Gary Luhr 
 
SEOUL, Korea--The General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Committee 
discussed the recommendations in the recent management study by Arthur 
Andersen but made no official response during the committee's April 25-May 
3 trip to Korea. The committee will recommend a response to the full GAC 
when the Council meets in Syracuse, N.Y., in June, just prior to the 1997 
General Assembly. 
  
     The report contains recommendations regarding the office of the GAC 
executive director, Corporate and Administrative Services (CAS) and 
relationships between the GAC and the other national entities of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The recommendations include 
 
     * making CAS more responsive to other church entities 
     * dividing the duties of the executive director's office between an 
       executive director and a "chief operating officer" 
     * establishing a "blue ribbon commission" to propose a new 
       organizational design for the PC(USA) based on a unified vision of 
       the church at the national level. 
 
     The study was mandated by the 1996 General Assembly in response to the 
report of its Quadrennial Review Committee. Because of delays in choosing a 
consultant, the final report was presented to the Executive Committee in 
April, three months after its original due date. The GAC must respond to 
the recommendations with a full report to the 1997 General Assembly. 
 
     The Executive Committee generally agreed with the recommendations 
regarding CAS and the executive director's office. There was less agreement 
about the need for a special commission and a new organizational design. 
 
     Fred Denson of Webster, N.Y., chair of the CAS Committee, said the 
report had affected morale among CAS employees and did not reflect changes 
that have occurred since interim CAS director Robert McKee replaced former 
director G.A. "Pat" Goff at the end of 1996.  
 
     "I feel CAS should be given credit for the positive steps taken under 
its present leadership," he said. "I think many of the recommendations 
[concerning CAS] have been accomplished or are in the process of being 
accomplished." 
 
     Denson, who is the GAC chair-elect, also affirmed the need for a 
strong deputy to work with the GAC executive director. The report 
recommends creating a number two position to handle administration, freeing 
the executive director to relate to other parts of the church.  "The way 
[the job] is set up now, there is too much for one person," Denson said.  
 
     To help the search committee that is looking for a new executive 
director, he said, the Council "needs to proceed at a deliberate pace to 
carve out the duties of the position." The search committee, chaired by GAC 
vice chair-elect Lynda Ardan of Clarks Summit, Pa.,  had delayed its work 
pending receipt of the Andersen report. 
 
     Denson said he was less comfortable with having the GAC take a 
position on the recommendation for a blue ribbon commission. "That's a 
General Assembly matter," he said. "It impacts the very heart of how we do 
our business from the sessions up." 
 
     Several committee members felt the report did not adequately address 
the role of elected GAC members.  "The Andersen report is coming out of a 
corporate model," said the Rev. Blair Monie of Dallas, chair of the 
Congregational Ministries Division Committee.  "I'm not sure a commitment 
to our Presbyterian way of doing things is reflected there." 
 
     Sandra Hawley of Bloomington, Minn., chair of the National Ministries 
Division Committee, said the report showed little understanding of 
Presbyterian theology and polity.   "I'd like to see us not create a blue 
ribbon commission but more of a working group to help us see how we can 
work together within our polity and our theology," she said.  
 
     General Assembly stated clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick said the 
report focused on "discontinuities rather than continuities" among church 
entities. "I hope we can build on the energies that have begun," he said, 
referring to what many have perceived as improved relations among the 
denomination's six national entities during the past year.  
 
     The report raises concerns about the autonomy of the six entities -- 
the GAC, the Office of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) Foundation, the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Publishing 
Corporation and the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program -- and 
suggested some consolidation of them. Kirkpatrick, however, called the 
question of whether to have fewer national entities a "dead rabbit trail."     
 
     General Assembly moderator the Rev. John Buchanan called the report 
"refreshingly candid" and said he hoped the GAC would not appear to be 
defensive in responding to it. "They did what you want a consultant to do," 
he said, "to see us as we can't see ourselves because of who we are." 
 
     The Rev. John Evans of Davidson, N.C.,  heads a task group that will 
draft the GAC's response to the report. He said the response, subject to 
GAC approval, will probably call for implementing the recommendations 
concerning CAS and endorse in principle the recommendations regarding the 
executive director's office. The latter, he said, would be implemented 
after the election of a new executive director. 
 
     One possible alternative to a blue ribbon commission, Evans said, 
would be to assign the task of reviewing structure and purpose to the 
chairs and chief executives of the six national entities plus the current 
and several former General Assembly moderators.  
 
     In other business: 
 
     * Interim executive director the Rev. Frank Diaz reported that the 
       Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation, had received an 
       unqualified audit of its financial records for 1996. 
     * Denson reported that the GAC had been asked to lend money to the 
       denomination's national conference center at Montreat, N.C., to 
       cover a $400,000 cash shortfall that resulted from overestimating 
       income at the center in 1996. In response, he said, the board of 
       directors of Montreat has been asked to project their financial 
       needs for the next three years and present a business plan for 
       meeting those needs to the CAS Committee. 
     * Denson said CAS was also trying to help Barber-Scotia College in 
       Concord, N.C., one of the PC(USA)'s racial-ethnic schools, obtain a 
       loan from a commercial bank to pay off debts of approximately $1.8 
       million.  CAS interim director Robert McKee said the loan would be 
       repaid with money from the Christmas Joy Offering. 

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