Election of Church Departmental Directors

[Stan]

Some Conferences have modified their bylaws so that the Departmental Directors are not elected at session but rather appointed or reappointed by the Conference Executive.

Thoughts on this??

[Clio]

We're too dependent on the "corporate" church for being spiritually fed?

Actually, I don't really see that it makes all that much difference. As long as it's not perfunctory, but a process that includes prayer, and prayerful listening to be sure His will is sought.

I think there is sufficient autonomy and free will for either way to make sense as best meets the needs of those being served and ministered to by that conference.

Clio

[Jerry D Thomas]

The plus side is that departmental directors don't have to go into a constituency session wondering if they'll be employed at the end of the day. I've seen more than one case where a director was completely surprised by a constituency vote.

The down side is that conference administrations can keep someone in a director's position even if they're not doing the job well--or remove someone who is doing the job well, for political reasons. This sometimes happens when performance expectations of the conference office is different than the expectations of the members in the pew.

[Gregory Matthews]

Constituency: The issue is that the departmental director is responsisble to the constituency, and does not report to the President.

Appointed: The issue is that the departmental directore is reponsible to the President, and not the constituency. As such, the director serves only at the pleasure of the President, and can be easily removed.

NOTE: Yes, I do know that the Executive Committee may be invovled in the second case.