United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Videoconference Report
Milford, Ohio
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Chairman Robin Webber called the meeting to order at 4:13 p.m. E.D.T., and the meeting was opened with prayer. Of the 12 Council of Elders (CoE) members, 11 were present. John Elliott was still traveling in international areas.
President’s Report
Church president Victor Kubik welcomed everyone and went through describing various activities:
Financial: The last four annual Holy Day offerings so far have come to $2.14 million and are projected to be around $2.2 million once all donations are received. Last year it was $2.07 million. We have been blessed and thank God for that. The 403(b) matching program began on Oct. 1 for Church employees who wish to participate, and a health savings account (HSA) match is planned for implementation in January 2015. The compensation committee has been reviewing employee bonuses that will be coming out next month.
Ambassador Bible College (ABC): The renaming of Ambassador Bible Center to Ambassador Bible College has taken place. We are now in the process of seeking U.S. Immigration approval for ABC as a school that can admit students from areas outside the United States under F-1 (Student-Academic) or M-1 (Vocational-Training) visas.
International Report: Aaron Dean visited South Africa, Malawi and Zambia during the Feast of Tabernacles. The Church’s Philippine office is moving in January from Davao to Manila. Ebola continues to be a concern in international areas and is affecting some of our movement in serving our brethren in Africa.
Ministerial and Member Services (MMS): The upcoming United Youth Camp meetings will be held at the home office from Nov. 10-12. Also the next regional area conference will be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Nov. 16-18.
Media: Because of their expanding audience, ION Media Network has made a business decision to place their own Network Programming to begin at 9:00 a.m. every day. This change to 9:00 a.m. start time becomes effective January 1. Therefore, Beyond Today is going to lose its Sunday morning position on ION. The good news is that ION has been growing in overall viewership, thus prompting their decision. The Church is looking at the best options for Beyond Today airtime, and it appears that Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. for the same price we are now paying will be preferable. More good news is that this is full network broadcasting with cable, satellite and all 61 O&O (owned and operated) stations in all 210 U.S. markets. We’d be reaching all 116.4 million Households in the U.S. In other words, all 315 million people in the U.S. from current census data. Media and Communication Services is also looking at some other alternatives to ensure the best decision is made in this regard.
The CoE then went into a scheduled executive session for about 50 minutes to cover a couple of items and then they came back into open session.
Robin Webber turned the meeting over to Roc Corbett to go through the ongoing review of our Bylaws. Roc Corbett, the chairman of the Roles and Rules Committee, went through the timeline for getting this review done. The goal is to have the review done by the end of the December CoE meetings so the General Conference of Elders can review them from mid-December through January before the CoE makes a final recommendation for ballot at the February CoE meetings. The meeting was then turned over to Bill Eddington, an advisor to the CoE for this process, to go through the Bylaw review.
The CoE adjourned at 7:37 p.m. (EDT).
-end-
Council Reporter
Shawn Cortelyou
© 2014 United Church of God, an International Association