United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report
March 5, 2008 - San Antonio, TX

Chairman Robert Dick called today's meeting to order at 9 a.m. After the opening prayer, Charles Melear provided location information for the February 2009 quarterly Council meeting.

GCE Planning Task Force Update

Mr. Dick reviewed the schedule of events and the theme of the May 18, 2008, GCE annual meeting in Mason, Ohio. Informational brochures will soon be sent to the elders.

The planning task force recommended an online Q&A format so that elders could ask questions regarding the Strategic Plan, budget and other approved topics. This type of format was done last year and it worked well, allowing all elders access to the same questions and answers, rather than only those attending the GCE meeting.

The Council members discussed whether the Q&A could be done on the GCE Web-based forum that is currently being beta tested. Some expressed concern that not all the elders will be able to access the Web-based forum, whereas, last year, all elders were able to read the questions and the responses.

The Council discussed options of using both the Q&A format from last year and the Web-based forum. Jim Franks advocated using one part of the Web-based forum for the Q&A and another part for discussion, especially since there is the ability to delete postings that contain erroneous information. Mr. Dick mentioned that discussion on the issues was certainly appropriate, but, as noted earlier, posting factual errors or imputing motives is not.

Both Clyde Kilough and Mr. Dick noted that last year answering the questions took a great amount of time, and that sometimes it took several days to research and fully answer a particular question.

The Council chose to use the two-week beta testing period to see what could be done on the Web-based forum in providing a venue for the Q&A. Since a teleconference had already been set for April 1, the decision on this issue will be one of the agenda items for that meeting.

The international elders on the Council (Leon Walker, Bob Berendt and Bill Eddington) will propose ideas for the annual international elders meeting on Friday, May 16. The last item of the GCE meeting discussion verified that the international reports this year will be from the areas of Canada, the Caribbean, Ghana, the Philippines/Asia and the United Kingdom.

Information to Be Sent to the GCE

The Council voted unanimously to send the GCE two items: the letter concerning bloc voting and the summary of the recent Elder's Forum survey.

Executive Session

The Council concluded the open session shortly before 11:30 a.m. and went into executive session for the remaining 30 minutes.

John Foster
Council Reporter

© 2008 United Church of God, an International Association