wfn.org | Benefits board adopts strategic directions

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 20, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{519}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by two sidebars, UMNS stories #520 and
#521. 

EVANSTON, Ill. (UMNS) -Directors of the United Methodist Church's pension
and health benefits board believe their agency offers the best coverage and
investment returns around, but they say it must do a better job of getting
the word out.

Educating people about the board's plans, expanding coverage to more church
employees and improving service to current participants are a few of the
challenges that the directors hope to address with the adoption of a set of
"strategic imperatives" for the 2001-2004 period. Meeting Nov. 17-18, the
directors of the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits also
approved forming a Benefits 2004 Task Force and adjusting a key credit rate
for plan participants (see UMNS story # 520).

"In retrospect, this will have been a watershed meeting," top staff
executive Barbara Boigegrain predicted afterward.

During the past four-year period, the agency has focused largely on
reorganization issues, converting computer systems and improving customer
service. Now, much of that work is complete, and the board is moving ahead
with plans for the future.

"We are closing a quadrennium marked by tumultuous transition," Boigegrain
told directors. She likened the pain that the agency has gone through to
"necessary surgery," and said that the board has earned the opportunity to
continue its work and move ahead.

"We have not met all of our goals, and we continue to strive toward those,"
she said. The board must continue to ensure that its performance benchmarks
are appropriate. Having completed a series of regional benefits conferences,
the agency also must keep communicating with conference benefits officers.

In the meeting's opening session, the board approved three strategic
imperatives:
·	To ensure the ongoing integrity and credibility of the board.
Outcomes of this will include having the ability to provide accurate
information about every account all the time, having the ability to
consistently measure what the agency does, and institutionalizing research
and planning to enable alignment with the board's mission and vision.
·	To enhance services to current plan sponsors and participants.
Outcomes will include providing access to reports and other data online, and
making education and other resources readily available and appropriate to
the particular audience.
·	To provide competitive services and reach unserved participants.
Outcomes will include obtaining a better knowledge of the market and of the
competition, as well as growing the agency's asset base.

The board administers pension and health benefits on behalf of the church
for about 25,000 retirees or survivors and 40,000 active clergy, lay
employees and their families. It manages the largest pension fund of any
denomination and is one of the biggest institutional investors in the
country. Chairman is Bishop William Morris of the church's Nashville (Tenn.)
Area.

A gap exists between people served by the board and those whom it is
directed to serve, Boigegrain said. The agency serves U.S. clergy and a
portion of lay employees of the church, but a sizable number of lay
employees are not covered. 

The agency also doesn't provide coverage to the international community.
However, the board has started working on the General Conference mandate to
look into providing benefits internationally. Boigegrain and Gale
Whitson-Schmidt, chief financial officer, will travel to London and Geneva
in December to meet with representatives of several organizations, including
the International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches, to learn how
those groups handle their international benefits.

Several board members emphasized the need to educate people about the
board's plans. Joel Huffman of Scottsdale, Ariz., said that often when
people move their funds out of the board's management, they don't realize
until later what they've done to themselves. "We do have very competitive
plans," he said.

"Somehow we have to make the church understand the tremendous quality that
lies behind" the agency's investment and benefits plans, Boigegrain said
later, in an interview. "Frankly, they are better than anything
(participants) can get in the secular world."

In addition to adopting the strategic imperatives, the board approved a
proposal to form a Benefits 2004 Task Force. The new group will pick up
where the Benefits 2000 Task Force left off, focusing on reviewing and
making recommendations regarding the benefits offered by the board. Its work
will provide the basis for benefits legislation that will be proposed to the
2004 General Conference, the top lawmaking body of the United Methodist
Church. Bishop Bruce Blake of the Oklahoma Area, a former board chairman,
will lead the task force.

In other action, the board:
·	Heard a report from Boigegrain on the agency's first donation of
used computers to a church organization. Because of depreciation and the
need to keep up with the latest technology, the board changes out about 100
of its 320 personal computers every year. The first donations are going to
the Strengthening the Black Church initiative, and two computers also have
been given to the church's Native American International Caucus.
·	Attended a department fair in which the members met staff and
learned more about how the agency works. 
·	Presented the annual Clay F. Lee Award to former board member Robert
Stevens (see UMNS story #521).
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United Methodist News Service
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