United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Meeting Report

Dec. 16, 2008 (Part 2)—Milford, Ohio

President’s Report (Continuing Tuesday’s Report)

The second goal of the Strategic Plan (SP) is Congregational Care. As in the previous goal, following are five objectives with results and expectations:

1. Maintain current pastor/congregation ratio in order to provide pastoral care for all congregations: For long term planning, all U.S. elders were surveyed for possible employment as Church pastors. From these we expect to hire new pastors to maintain our current pastor/congregation ratio for the next three years.

2. Increase satisfaction of members (measured by pastoral assessment and member surveys): Members were surveyed during the spring of 2008, and identified areas of both strengths and weakness.

3. Increase percentage of youth retained: We are working on developing tracking systems to determine a baseline from which we can measure future success.

4. Increase percentage of pastors trained in conflict-resolution skills: The regional pastors have been given the task of developing a program for conflict resolution based on internal and external resources. From this a one-day seminar will be scheduled for pastoral training beginning in July.

5. Increase member satisfaction with educational programs: From the member survey, we have now established benchmarks for evaluating satisfaction in all areas of education.

As in the previous goal, the above objectives are supported by strategies. In this area there are seven strategies; each will be listed with results and expectations:

• Strategy: Develop a comprehensive training program for ministerial candidates, including facilities for the development of pastoral candidates to meet our current and future needs, to ensure that there is a pastor to care for each congregation:

A meeting was held in May of 2008 to lay out a plan for “short-term” and “long-term” plans for ministerial development. This plan was given to the Council of Elders for their consideration in August of 2008, and we are awaiting further direction from the Council.

• Strategy: Develop a program to train all Church pastors in conflict-resolution skills to improve member satisfaction:

The above-mentioned task given to the regional pastors should be completed by April of 2009, and seminars begun in July.

• Strategy: Provide pastors with training and biblical research material to improve quality and depth of speaking:

A survey of current available resources will be completed and shared with the ministry in the spring of 2009.

• Strategy: Develop and implement strategy to best utilize technologies, facilities and resources to maximize reach and effectiveness of all educational programs:

Experimental online ABC classes for newly hired pastors began in September. Our goal is to expand the classes after assessing the first year.

• Strategy: Educate pastors on how to encourage and improve member service and involvement, in order to promote spiritual growth:

We are in the process of determining how to best accomplish this; including surveying pastors to determine best practices they already have in place with local programs, with emphasis on improving delegation and member participation.

• Strategy: Improve youth programs to be used in local congregations and regions to teach the benefits of God’s way of life:

From our youth surveys we have established benchmarks for all of our youth education programs. We are analyzing the effectiveness of all programs and identifying best practices that will help pastors meet the needs that vary greatly from one congregation to another.

• Strategy: Revise assessment programs to better evaluate the spiritual growth of congregations:

We currently have an assessment program that includes a congregational survey. Doug Horchak is now overseeing the development of a new tool that will give us a better picture of the spiritual growth of the brethren.

The third goal in the Strategic Plan is Organization: This goal has five objectives and three strategies:

1. Increase satisfaction level of employees and elders (survey): All home office employees completed an Experience of Work (EOW) survey, which established the baseline figures and provides the basis for future measurements.

2. Increase home office employee satisfaction with internal communication (survey): Same comment as in point one concerning establishing baseline measurements.  

3. Increase satisfaction with teamwork (survey): Same comment as above.

4. Increase number of employees who exceed performance expectations (performance review).

5. Increase level of success in achieving the objectives in the Strategic Plan. This objective is still a work in progress.

·        Strategy: Develop a plan to communicate with employees to increase satisfaction and effectiveness:

On June 25, the president requested that each area of operations select two employees to be part of a Communication Committee. The committee members were: Richard Kennebeck (chairman), Gary Antion, Aaron Booth, David Johnson, Ina McLemore, Clint Porter, Connie Seelig and Donna Surratt. He commissioned the team with the following: 1) clarify expectations and identify issues that impact effective communications in the home office; 2) propose strategies to improve communications; 3) develop a monitoring plan. On Oct. 3, the committee presented their results to the management team. The committee did a thorough and professional job, and as a result the management team has been able to adopt a number of the suggestions immediately.

·        Strategy: Develop a comprehensive human resources program (including training, performance standards and employee relations) to better serve organization and employee needs and thus increase effectiveness, teamwork and satisfaction:

As soon as the selection of the HR team was completed, the primary focus during the summer months was to establish a baseline of employee satisfaction (EOW survey, see above). In addition, the HR team identified key deliverables that must be met in order for this strategy to be successfully implemented. The following is a sample of the key deliverables identified: update job descriptions, develop HR training curriculum, formal employee performance appraisal, review retirement policy, study salary and compensation ranges, and revise the HR policy and procedure manual/employee handbook.

·        Strategy: Design and implement a systematic plan of communication to the employees and elders to inspire a shared vision. This strategy is still a work in progress, requiring additional Council involvement.

The Council had given grades of meeting expectations for the objectives in all three goals. They were then asked by Mr. Fograscher to review the process they had just experienced in assessing and grading the objectives. Some comments were:

·        We now have figures in areas that were originally filled with “To Be Determined.”

• Assessment tools, such as surveys, have now been developed to help us accurately evaluate our progress.
• There is a sense of accomplishment so we can move forward.
• It is good to have discussions with Council and administration together.
• Procedures now in place give us a glimpse that the organization can transcend any individual in this room; this is a structure that will keep things going in the future.

Consideration of New Objective

Mr. Holladay asked if the strategy of establishing a media mix to achieve our targets could be moved to be an objective under Public Proclamation. He said many members and elders would like to see Beyond TV move to the same level of consideration as the other objectives involving the Internet and print. This led to a lengthy discussion among the Council and administration, which Mr. Fograscher helped to facilitate.

Regarding this new proposed objective, Mr. Salyer said we first need to determine the outcomes we desire. For instance, are we going for reach or for response? Right now the cost per response is low on free cable-access TV. It is good to test the market first, to come up with a realistic baseline figure.

After much deliberation, the following proposal was put forward as a new objective: “Achieve target number of BT responses to: baseline, 1^st year, 2^nd year.” The Council was asked to comment on whether to accept this proposal as a new objective.

Mr. Kilough said that he is not against this in principle, but in the process. He was concerned that with a lack of study on this, to decide now to put this as an objective is moving too fast. He asked to give it time as we are currently looking at this very thing as part of the media mix strategy. He also noted that if some were concerned about the speed with which our current SP came to be, this is doing the same thing.

Aaron Dean, Robin Webber, Paul Kieffer and Victor Kubik stated that this item needs to be moved up higher in the Strategic Plan (SP). It needs to be given attention and given a higher focus. Mr. Kilough reiterated that he was not against it being an objective, but that the original SP took days putting things together. He said if we are going to embed this in our documents, we need to spend more time analyzing this.

Mr. Dick referred to Spring Board (the training source for the Council on strategic planning). He said that implementation belongs to staff, and both the promoters and implementers of objectives need to have a common view.

Mr. Kilough said that TV has to be in our mix, but we could box ourselves in with this statement until we have time to even review the wording of it. Bill Eddington said that we wouldn’t be losing anything by waiting to the February meetings; then we can see how the strategy regarding the media mix is progressing. He also said this new objective will add another strategy. Jason Lovelady said that this is an issue that would drive the budget, and a number of factors would need to be considered.

Eventually, a vote was taken. The motion to consider including this new objective: “Achieve target number of BT responses to: baseline, 1^st year, 2^nd year,” in the Strategic Plan for the next fiscal year was carried by seven (Bob Berendt, Aaron Dean, Paul Kieffer, Roy Holladay, Victor Kubik, Darris McNeely and Robin Webber).

Closing Remarks

There were eight minor action items that came out from the review of the Strategic Plan. Most of those items will be presented to the Council in the February meetings. Some of the items included synchronizing the templates of all reports, establishing baseline figures for some of the objectives and clarifying a word or two in a few of the objectives.

Mr. Fograscher noted that the Council and administration made great progress in putting together everything in the SP in the time it took. He then concluded by asking for things the Council thought went well in the meeting. Some of the comments follow:

• We have a structured process that took us through the day and ended in product.
• It was good to dialogue with the operation managers and hear their expectations.
• We followed the meeting ground rules.

• The review from the president had a high level of detail.
• We have clarity and everyone was able to speak and contribute.
• There is a sense of security that the process has given us.
• We can talk about anything that relates to the plan.
• It has helped us to define what we are doing.
• We had an opportunity to hear from those who had concerns about an issue.
• This process helped us to be committed to the whole Church even though we may see some things differently.

The Council was asked what things could be done differently in future meetings to assess the Strategic Plan. Comments included:

·        It would help to prepare better by reviewing the Strategic Plan documents ahead of time.

·        All should have a copy of Spring Board on hand as we go through the process.

·        This is not easy work—it is a challenge and the preparation is vital.

Both Mr. Kilough and Mr. Dick, on behalf of the Council and administration, thanked Mr. Fograscher for all his time and involvement that he provided in today’s meeting.

John Foster

Council Reporter

Ó 2008 United Church of God, an International Association