wfn.org | "The Dawn" Deficit Jumps to $1.7 Million

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

28-January-2000 
00047 
 
    "The Dawn" Deficit Jumps to $1.7 Million 
 
    1999 budget surplus will help soften the blow 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The deficit for "The Dawn...an Epiphany," the 
millennium-turning youth event of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) which 
General Assembly Council executive director John Detterick has called "a 
spiritual success' but a financial disaster, has jumped to an estimated 
$1.7 million. 
 
    Shortly after the Dec. 28-Jan. 1 event in Indianapolis, Congregational 
Ministries Division (CMD) officials estimated that "The Dawn" - which drew 
2,000 youth and young adults rather than the originally hoped-for 30,000 - 
would lose somewhere between $350,000 and $830,000. 
 
    "We mismanaged this event," Detterick told the Presbyterian News 
Service in a Jan. 28 interview.  "We started raising questions last June, 
but the pattern of Youth Trienniums [which have often exceeded attendance 
estimates] was that registrations came in very late.  Our chief mistake was 
in not realizing that `The Dawn' was not a Youth Triennium." 
 
    Detterick said the financial blow of "The Dawn" is softened somewhat by 
year-end financial estimates showing an approximate $7 million excess of 
revenue over expenditures in the 1999 General Assembly mission budget. 
Shared mission support (unified or unrestricted giving) by congregations in 
1999 totaled $18.4 million, $2.4 million more than the budget and $400,000 
more than in 1998. 
 
    Most of the $2.4 million over budget giving has been earmarked for 
mission programs  - primarily increased evangelism and church development - 
Detterick said.  But underexpenditures of the 1999 mission budget and some 
unrestricted bequests contributed enough to the surplus to cover "The Dawn" 
deficit, he added. 
 
    CMD will be responsible for covering $900,000 of "The Dawn" shortfall, 
Detterick said, and the GAC will cover the rest out of other 
underexpenditures and bequests. 
 
    Detterick also said he wanted to make "The Dawn" financial disaster "a 
positive learning experience in accountability and project management."  To 
that end, he has taken three steps: 
 
    * responsibility for wrapping up "The Dawn" finances has been given to 
Mission Support Services director Joey Bailey 
 
    * "The Dawn" organizers will meet with Detterick, Bailey, GAC deputy 
executive director Kathy Leuckert and CMD director the Rev. Don Campbell 
"to do a very thorough analysis of the planning and conduct of the event to 
identify those things we did well and those things we could have done 
differently or better." 
 
    * the analysis will be used as a case study and will become part of a 
case management course for all Presbyterian Center staff who have project 
management assignments. 
 
    "We mismanaged this event, but it was done by people with a proven 
track record of great success at staging youth events," Detterick said.  "I 
take full responsibility for the financial cost of this one." 
 
    Bailey said that detailed accounting of costs and losses should be 
completed "in about 30 days."  Negotiations with various "The Dawn" vendors 
and performers are still going on, he added, and any "recoveries" from the 
$1.7 will be added to 2000 receipts. 
 
    The size of "The Dawn" deficit "is forcing us to modify some of our 
plans," Detterick told the Presbyterian News Service.  Specifically, he 
said, "I cannot in good conscience recommend $400,000 for recapitalization 
of the National Council of Churches."  He said he would still be 
recommending a contribution to cover the NCC's 1999 deficit, "but at a 
reduced amount." 

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