Dawn’ losses may affect proposed PCUSA bailout for NCC
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 31, 2000
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Because “The Dawn … an Epiphany” was a financial disaster that lost an estimated $1.7 million, the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will be asked to appropriate less than the $400,000 requested earlier to bail the National Council of Churches out of its $3.9-million 1999 deficit.
John Detterick, the General Assembly Council’s executive director, said the size of “The Dawn” deficit “is forcing us to modify some of our plans. I cannot in good conscience recommend $400,000 for recapitalization of the National Council of Churches.”
He said he would still recommend a contribution to cover the NCC’s 1999 deficit, “but at a reduced amount.”
Presbyterian headquarters in Louisville has received a flurry of calls and letters opposing the proposed $400,000 bailout of the National Council of Churches. Those responses did not take into consideration the financial loss resulting from “The Dawn,” a year-end youth and young adult event that was supposed to attract 30,000 people. Only 2,000 attended.
Officials of the Congregational Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (USA) estimated earlier that “The Dawn” would lose between $350,000 and $800,000. They also said that loss could be covered by profits from previous youth events.
But Detterick said “The Dawn” deficit must be made up by $900,000 from the Congregational Ministries Division and the rest by the General Assembly Council from underexpenditures and bequests.
The Office of the General Assembly, through Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, has already committed $100,000 toward the bailout fund for the National Council of Churches. Kirkpatrick and Detterick together recommended an additional $400,000 appropriation by the General Assembly Council. But that was before they learned that “The Dawn” lost $1.7 million.
Detterick blamed the financial disaster for “The Dawn” on mismanagement. “We mismanaged this event,” Detterick told the Presbyterian News Service. “We started raising questions last June, but the pattern of Youth Trienniums [which have often exceeded attendance estimates] was that registrations came in very late. Our chief mistake was in not realizing that ‘The Dawn’ was not a Youth Triennium.”
According to an audit by independent consultants, the finances of the National Council of Churches were also mismanaged. A report presented at the NCC’s 50th anniversary meeting last December cited a significant risk of errors or fraud with “reportable conditions rising to the level of material weaknesses.”
That is a condition, according to accounting terminology, “in which internal controls do not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that material errors or fraud may occur and not be detected in a timely period by employees in the normal course of performing assigned functions.”
Detterick said the financial blow of “The Dawn” is softened somewhat by year-end financial estimates showing an approximate $7 million excess of revenue over expenditures in the 1999 General Assembly mission budget.
Shared mission support (unified or unrestricted giving) by congregations in 1999 totaled $18.4 million, $2.4 million more than the budget and $400,000 more than in 1998.
Detterick said he wanted to make “The Dawn” financial disaster “a positive learning experience in accountability and project management.” To that end, he has taken three steps:
- Responsibility for wrapping up “The Dawn” finances has been given to Mission Support Services director Joey Bailey.
- “The Dawn” organizers will meet with Detterick, Bailey, General Assembly Council deputy executive director Kathy Leuckert and CMD director the Rev. Don Campbell “to do a very thorough analysis of the planning and conduct of the event to identify those things we did well and those things we could have done differently or better.”
- The analysis will be used as a case study and will become part of a case management course for all Presbyterian Center staff who have project management assignments.
“We mismanaged this event, but it was done by people with a proven track record of great success at staging youth events,” Detterick said. “I take full responsibility for the financial cost of this one.”
Bailey said that detailed accounting of costs and losses should be completed “in about 30 days.” Negotiations with various “The Dawn” vendors and performers are still going on, he added, and any “recoveries” from the $1.7 million will be added to 2000 receipts.
The Presbyterian News Service contributed to this story.