United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report

 Tuesday, March 5, 2002 - Cincinnati, Ohio

            The Council of Elders ended its current round of meetings today with a discussion of succession planning and an executive session to wrap up numerous items of business dealing with personnel. 

Succession Planning 

            The Ethics, Roles and Rules Committee has been working on a standardized procedure for succession planning for the office of the Church president. While the procedures discussed and approved today deal with the current transition, they are intended to serve as a guide for the future.  

            Committee Chairman Gary Antion moderated discussion on the document the committee brought to the meeting today. It contains five sections:

·        Succession planning objectives

·        Succession planning responsibilities

·        Announcement and transition

·        Council expectations of the president

·        Council performance measurements for the president. 

As Mr. Antion pointed out, several of the steps (in the five sections of the document) have already been done, or are in progress for the current transition. The Council members suggested a few edits, then unanimously approved the procedure. 

            Les McCullough suggested setting up a task force to set out clearly all the action steps that need to be taken in the next two months. After discussion, the Council agreed on the following members of the task force: both outgoing and incoming presidents, all the committee chairmen of the Council, the assistant to the president, and the operation managers. This creates a task force of eleven men. Victor Kubik, as chairman of the Media and Communications Committee of the Council, will work with the “Announcement” portion of Section 3 of the procedure; otherwise, the task force will work on the needed actions steps called for.  

            John Jewell suggested that Gary Antion chair the task force, and the Council agreed.  

            At this point, the Council moved into executive session to discuss the personnel issues still on their docket. Following the conclusion of the meetings, Secretary Gerald Seelig released the dates of the following Council meetings, all to take place at the home office in Cincinnati:

·        August 5-8, 2002

·        December 11-17, 2002

·        February 26-March 4, 2003

·        May 6-8, 2003 

The date for the General Conference of Elders for 2003 will be May 4-5, 2003, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

-Doug Johnson

© 2002 United Church of God, an International Association