United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Bob Dick, John Elliott, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online

Review of the Strategic Plan, Operation Plan and Budget—Dan Dowd

Dan Dowd, chair of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (SPFC), went through a brief review of the Strategic Plan, Operation Plan and Budget. A thorough review of all them is done every three years. Mr. Dowd suggested adding an outcome indicator to the Operation Plan to help see how many teens still attend church at the age of 25. The Council agreed to the addition.

John Miller also presented some ideas to change the strategic plan format and give additional indicators to track the progress. The Council discussed these ideas for about an hour with additional input given. The Council unanimously decided to remand these ideas to an ad hoc committee consisting of Dan Dowd, as chair, Peter Eddington, Victor Kubik, Len Martin, John Miller, Chris Rowland, Rick Shabi and Mark Welch. They will work out more details and bring it back to the Council in the February meetings.

Historical Archive Project—Bob Dick

The historical archive project (HAP) was discussed in the August 2020 meetings and remanded to an ad hoc committee consisting of Bob Dick, Frank Dunkle, Darris McNeely and Katherine Rowland. The committee was created because of the importance of providing a plan to archive our UCGIA historical documents. The full task force study was presented to the Council for review. The Council discussed it for about 30-minutes and unanimously approved a resolution for creating an archive of historically important documents.

Retirement Discretionary Assistance Policy—Dan Dowd

The SPFC along with Chris Rowland and Rick Shabi were tasked in the December 2019 meetings to review and edit the retirement discretionary assistance policy. The policy was presented to the Council with suggested edits to clarify and make it easier to read. After reviewing and discussing it for about an hour, the Council unanimously approved it.

Some other questions came up through the process of editing the policy and during these current discussions. The policy was remanded to the SPFC to generate a list of other thoughts to present to the Council.

Doctrine Committee Update—Mario Seiglie

A brief update was given on four completed projects by the Doctrine Committee (DC); none of the four projects received any support from the DC or its sub-committees. Presenting these projects follows the guidelines for the DC to inform the Council of their completion and the authors were informed there was no support.

The fourth of these projects was to review the “Born Again” paper. The DC unanimously found it to be fundamentally sound. The Council requested further editing in a few areas of the “Born Again” paper to help with clarity. Chairman Martin remanded it back to the DC.

The DC is currently working on an extensive write-up of the Calendar paper being headed by Jorge de Campos. The DC is also reviewing the “Voting and Involvement in Politics Study Paper” as it was assigned by the Council in the August 2020 meetings.

Online Discovery Advertising and Newsmax TV—Peter Eddington

The Council was presented with two ideas for advertising campaigns from Peter Eddington. The first one was online Discovery advertising that goes across Google accounts. Google learns what a person is interested in and sends advertisements based upon that. It was discussed and unanimously approved to use an additional $54,600 from reallocated, unspent funds from other areas of the 2020-21 UCGIA fiscal budget.

Newsmax TV’s audience has grown exponentially since November. We have an opportunity to air two-minute short-form videos with Beyond Today content offering church literature for very affordable rates right now on Newsmax TV. This may be a perfect opportunity to take advantage of before the rates go up. Mr. Eddington requested three of these two-minute slots per week in prime-time television spots (7 p.m.-12 a.m. eastern time) for six months.

Mr. Shabi mentioned, since we have funds available in the current budget that will be unused, we might consider increasing the frequency.

The whole Council was encouraged by this opportunity and unanimously approved to take advantage of this timing as quickly as possible with up to seven spots per week.

GCE Planning—Charles Melear

The Council was presented with a proposed resolution to recognize a GCE Planning Committee to plan the annual GCE meetings rather than a Council planning task force. The current committee represents the Council, administration, elders and elders’ wives. The Council had discussion and unanimously approved the resolution. The committee consists of: Charles Melear, chair, Dan Berendt, Peter Eddington, Lisa Fenchel, Frank Fish, Vic Kubik, Andy Lee, Len Martin, Darris McNeely, Tony Wasilkoff and Mark Welch.

Chairman Martin asked Charles Melear his thoughts on the May 2021 GCE meetings. Mr. Melear felt the attendance would be lower, but there would be in person meetings as well as videoconferencing for those who wouldn’t be able to make it.

The Council went into executive session at 5:21 p.m.

The Council adjourned at 5:56 p.m.

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Bob Dick, John Elliott, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online

Proposed Amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws—John Elliott

John Elliott, chair of the Roles and Rules Committee (RRC), presented a proposed amendment to Bylaw article 8, Section 8.4.2. Joe Greene submitted the proposed amendment. The amendment proposed would add a requirement that the Council could not have an elder who is a direct report employee of Home Office administration, or who is not a direct report employee to an Operation Manager. The Council discussed it for about 50 minutes and the requirement of at least four Council members approval will put it forward to be presented to the GCE for their consideration in May 2021.

A second proposed amendment was to the Constitution. Peter Eddington and Andy Lee submitted this proposed amendment. The amendment proposed would add a category of elders who are non-balloting elders. The Council discussed this for about 60 minutes and the requirement of at least four Council members approval will put it forward to be presented to the GCE for their consideration in May 2021.

The Council adjourned at 12:32 p.m.

-end-

Council Reporter

Shawn Cortelyou

[These are not the official minutes from the Council meeting. Elders can find those at the Home Office with the Council Secretary. Video recordings are posted for the elders on the UCG Ministerial Resource Site.]

© 2020 United Church of God, an International Association