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

Thursday, March 11, 1999 — Cincinnati, Ohio

Council members today wrapped up what was, by all accounts, a very profitable week of meetings and activities. After a morning executive session covering several personnel issues, they spent the afternoon attending to miscellaneous items remaining on the agenda.

Dan Deininger

Update on the conference cybercast

Dan Deininger, an elder from Helena, Montana, gave a very favorable report on the success of the prototype cybercasting of the Annual Meeting of the General Conference of Elders. Mr. Deininger coordinated this project, which allowed elders on the Internet to listen in live to the meetings and selected seminars.

Before the conference began over 30 locations (representing a potential cyber attendance of just over 100 elders and wives) had registered to access the cybercast. On each connection anywhere from one to 10 people listened in. Most of the connections were from the United States, but others joined from Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom. During the conference weekend additional elders requested access and also listened. All the sessions, including Sabbath services, proceeded without any significant problems.

Nearly all of the cyber attendees responded via e-mail to express gratitude for providing the cybercast as a way for them to participate. Some of the participants additionally benefited by learning how they could use cybercasting to reach scattered brethren. Mr. Deininger listed several ways to improve its effectiveness in the future, but overall, this trial run clearly demonstrated how this technology can be used, not only for conferencing, but for many other educational presentations to the ministry and the church.

Miscellaneous business

Howard Davis

Following came another status report, a 10-minute update on the television and radio programs in the northwest United States. Howard Davis, an elder from Portland, Oregon, reported that 30-40 church areas have inquired about using local cable television access. As President Les McCullough announced recently, to bring a uniformity in standards and representation of the UCGIA, locally-produced programs are now under the oversight and coordination of the Home Office. We have quickly learned several things from the unexpected opportunity recently offered by a radio station in the Portland area to air a broadcast, Mr. Davis stated. The original plan to simply rebroadcast the audio version of the television programs has not worked effectively, he said, but we will continue to explore and test other formats for this medium.

Richard Pinelli, operations manager for Ministerial Services, returned with the edited version from yesterday’s discussion on the employment policy for United States ministerial transfers and after brief review the Council unanimously approved it.

Council members then resumed the work they began yesterday on the pressing issue of putting forward needed amendment changes. The end result was a unanimous resolution to send to the General Conference of Elders the amendments to the applicable articles of the Constitution and Bylaws.

General Counsel Larry Darden reviewed the minor changes suggested to the Statement of Belief paper on jury duty. The Council unanimously repealed the existing statement and adopted the new document, which will soon be sent to the GCE.

Aaron Dean updated the Council about some individuals in the Far East who share similar beliefs and have contacted the church. He is planning to be in Thailand in the near future and will seek to communicate further with them.

The Council set its next three meetings for May 12-18 in Cincinnati, August 25-September 1 in the northwest United States (tentatively), and December 1-December 7 in Cincinnati.

Publishing the Council voting records

Finally, the Council made a significant policy change to publish voting records—each member’s name and how he balloted on each issue—in future Council reports. It is not a case that the voting records are not public, but that they are not easily accessible; they are listed in the Secretary’s minutes and are only available for review at the Home Office.

Roy Holladay raised the issue by stating, "We all realize that the Council is very open...and have so many ways of recording what goes on. However, in talking with some elders who came here to the General Conference it seems the last area anyone really has questions about is that they would like to see the voting records of the Council."

Pros and cons can be made for each side of this issue, he said. The major concern voiced in the past when this matter has been considered is that someone can easily assume and misinterpret the rationale behind someone’s vote. "Voting records don’t tell the whole story, because they don’t tell why a person makes a decision, or a decision of conscience," Mr. Holladay stated. On the other hand, if people communicate with Council members to understand why they may have voted one way or the other, it could lead to much better understanding all the way around. Mr. Dean stressed this point, saying, "We really want the elders to ask us to explain why we vote certain ways."

Approval for this resolution was unanimous by the quorum present, although Jim Franks, Burk McNair and Joel Meeker were absent, having left earlier to catch flights home.

- Clyde Kilough

© 1999 United Church of God, an International Association

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