wfn.org | Board of Global Ministries cuts staff

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 9, 2001  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{456}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Citing economic restraints, the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries is reducing its staff by about 20 percent.

Positions that had been budgeted for but not yet filled were the first to be
eliminated. The cuts in executive, professional and support staff positions
are accompanied by reductions in spending for office operations, materials
and services; program expenses; and staff travel. It is estimated that those
measures will reduce spending by $6 million.

The board has more than 300 employees, but agency officials refused to give
an exact number of total staff.

Executive and professional staff members whose positions were cut were
notified on Oct. 8. Support staff notifications were planned the next day. A
few staff members had been told the week before that their positions would
be eliminated. Departments that lost more than one position included mission
volunteers and electronic media services.

During an Oct. 8 meeting with the entire staff, the Rev. Randolph Nugent,
the board's chief executive, referred to the negative impact of the global
economic situation and a declining stock market that was badly hurt by the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

"Our board has been and is being affected by this situation," he said. "What
has occurred in the board is not a management problem ... what we have been
affected by is an income problem."

Part of that income problem, he added, stems from the fact that general
funds coming from the church as a whole are lower than originally projected
by the denomination's General Council on Finance and Administration. The
2000 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's top legislative
body, also budgeted $8 million less for the Board of Global Ministries for
the next four-year period than it had received from 1996 to 2000, according
to Nugent.

When the stock market was at an all-time high, the mission agency was
encouraged to put its profits from investments into new and expanding
mission programs. "Now, we're in a situation where the impact of the market
on the Board of Global Ministries in the last two years has been a $23
million write-off," Nugent said.

He also blamed the "10-10-10" mission initiative for unexpectedly increasing
the board's costs. Designed to help the church's annual (regional)
conferences become involved in the selection of missionaries, the initiative
allowed conference committees to identify 10 people for mission services, 10
mission placement sites within the conference and 10 new covenant churches
in the conference to help support the expense of the new missionaries.

Although the program was popular, the number of churches identified to lend
financial support was insufficient. The Board of Global Ministries also
became responsible for insurance costs, which Nugent said were higher than
anticipated. "We have been having to pay a significant amount of money in
medical costs," he added.

The agency spends $3.5 million per year on salaries and salary-related costs
for 10-10-10 missionaries and $140,000 per year for health and other
benefits. Overall, the Board of Global Ministries supports 2,300 mission
personnel serving in 71 countries.

In addition to the staff reductions and cuts in travel and operating costs,
the agency also is forced to shift funds intended for certain programs. "We
have reduced and eliminated significant programs, over $3 million worth of
programs where commitments already have been made and where people have been
expecting that we will deliver the programs," Nugent said. 

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United Methodist News Service
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