wfn.org | GAC Restructures Executive Director's Office;

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17-October-1997 
97399 
 
    GAC Restructures Executive Director's Office; 
    Begins Accepting Applications for Director Position 
 
    by Alexa Smith 
 
SAN ANTONIO--The General Assembly Council (GAC) has authorized a 
reorganization of its Office of the Executive Director (OED) that creates a 
clear hierarchy within the denomination's administration  and renews its 
emphasis on strategic planning for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    The new OED structure establishes the executive director as the 
denomination's chief administrative officer and creates at least two other 
positions within the OED -- a deputy executive director to oversee 
planning, mission funding, middle governing body relationships and 
communication and to direct the Council's operations in the absence of the 
executive director, and a deputy for finance and technology to supervise 
the denomination's treasury, accounting, distribution  and property 
operations. 
 
    Similar positions have existed in prior GAC structures, though most 
recently the financial officer's position was not lodged in the OED.  The 
deputy executive's position expands the duties of the former GAC operations 
officer. 
 
    Changes were mandated by the General Assembly last June in response to 
an organizational critique by Arthur Andersen, LLP, a Washington, D.C., 
consulting firm.  A 10-member GAC work group proposed the new OED 
structure, which the Council approved at its Sept. 22-27 meeting here. 
 
 
    "The most serious indictments of the Council [leveled by Arthur 
Andersen]," said work group chair the Rev. John Evans, "are prioritization 
-- we don't know how to say no.  We aren't doing strategic planning well. 
We aren't doing funds development well. 
 
    "This design is trying to put [those functions] in the OED in broad new 
ways.  These are key functions that belong to the whole enterprise," said 
Evans.  He stressed that under the new design the executive director will 
be freed up to be creatively involved in strategic thinking that involves 
not only the ministry divisions in Louisville, but the whole denomination. 
 
    "This person," interim executive director the Rev. Frank Diaz agreed, 
"has to have a bigger, wider vision ... looking not only at the picture 
here [in Louisville], but the whole denomination." 
 
    The Arthur Andersen report described the duties of the executive 
director as a "mission impossible," with unclear authority and diffuse 
expectations.  It also identified confusion about lines of reporting within 
the organization's Louisville structure, as well as among the six national 
Presbyterian agencies -- the GAC, the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian 
Foundation, the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program, the Presbyterian 
Publishing Corporation and the Office of the General Assembly. 
 
    The new design calls for "intentional, periodic support, evaluation and 
developmental assistance to the executive director" and establishes the 
executive director as head of staff, with the deputy executive director 
assuming those responsibilities when the executive is away from the 
Presbyterian Center. 
 
    "This," Evans told the Presbyterian News Service, "nails down the 
authority of the executive director."  Also, he said, the design broadens 
the mandate of the members of the Staff Leadership Team (SLT) to work more 
cohesively rather than focusing almost exclusively on their own areas of 
responsibility. 
 
    The revamped SLT is to include the executive director, the deputy 
executive director, the deputy for technology and finance and the directors 
of the three ministry divisions. 
 
    The new design also grants permission for the interim executive 
director and the stated clerk to explore development of a joint staff 
position to strengthen ties between the General Assembly and the 
denomination's synods and presbyteries. Diaz told the Presbyterian News 
Service he hopes to fill such a position on an interim basis until 
recommendations arising from an ongoing study of ties with middle governing 
bodies are complete. 
 
    Attempts from the GAC floor to make the OED design more specific were 
repeatedly rejected by the Council, including an attempt to create a deputy 
executive for program planning position and a move to assign middle 
governing body relationships oversight directly to the executive director. 
 
    "We must allow for flexibility in the decisions we are making now," 
said work group member the Rev. Cathy Chisholm, who said the Council is not 
ruling out other configurations in the future.  "It is only to be expected 
that the new executive director will provide significant input into 
designing the future shape and functioning of that office." 
 
    Chisholm said the Council was deciding on a "basic concept" at this 
meeting so that a search may begin to get interim employees into place in 
the deputy executive director and joint middle governing body relationship 
slots.  Robert McKee, a retired banker from Iowa, has been serving as 
interim financial officer since G.A. "Pat" Goff resigned under pressure 
earlier this year. 
 
    Alluding to the fact that the denomination's first two executive 
directors -- David Stoner and the Rev. James D. Brown -- each only served 
one term, Evans told the GAC: "We've got to find a new and different way to 
be supportive of the director. We gotta quit taking 'em in, chewing 'em up 
and spitting 'em out." 
 
    Other issues raised by the Arthur Andersen management study are 
currently being addressed  by an 18-member Special Committee for the Review 
of the General Assembly, which was elected by the Syracuse Assembly last 
June. 
 
    The Council also approved a job description for the executive's 
position and applications are being accepted by the executive search 
committee until Dec. 31, 1997.  More information and application forms are 
available from Lynda Ardan, Chair, Executive Search Committee, c/o B. Novy, 
2242 E. Fifth St., St. Paul, MN 55119.  Ardan said she expects the GAC to 
elect an executive in time for confirmation by the General Assembly, June 
13-20, 1998, in Charlotte, N.C. 

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