GAMC approves reduced 2013-14 budgets, eliminating 13 positions
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, May 17, 2012
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Presbyterian Church (USA) is once again cutting its staff and reducing its budget.
The General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) at its recent meeting voted for a “strategic realignment” that includes
- eliminating 14 current positions
- eliminating 17 vacant positions
- creating 18 new positions
In total, 13 positions have been eliminated, reducing the GAMC workforce from 321 to 308.
“We have made every effort to minimize the number of employees impacted by these changes while also realigning the organization with our strategy,” said GAMC Executive Director Linda Valentine.
“The 2013 budget will be $7 million less than the current 2012 budget of $89 million but $5 million more than the GAMC actually spent in 2011,” said Joey Bailey, GAMC chief financial officer. “We were able to keep expenses low in 2011 due to a number of unfilled positions, and we expect to build on that with this budget by eliminating a number of those vacant positions and taking advantage of process improvements made possible by technology.”
The approved 2013 budget of $82 million and 2014 budget of $78 million will be forwarded to the 220th General Assembly, meeting June 30-July 7 in Pittsburgh, Pa., for approval.
The two-year budget aligns with the GAMC’s mission work plan, which includes six strategic directions:
- “Transformational Leaders: Inspire, equip, and connect the church to: Cultivate, nurture, and sustain diverse, transformational leaders for Christ’s mission.
- “Compassionate and Prophetic Discipleship: Inspire, equip, and connect the church to: Make, receive, and send disciples who demonstrate and proclaim God’s justice, peace and love in an increasingly globalized world.
- “New Worshiping Communities: Inspire, equip, and connect the church to: Ignite a movement within the PCUSA that results in the creation of 1,001 new worshiping communities.
- “Young Adults: Inspire, equip, and connect the church to: Engage and join with young adults in reforming the church for Christ’s mission.
- “General Assembly Engagement: Engage with, respond to, resource and represent the General Assembly in alignment with the vision and mission for the General Assembly Mission Council.
- “Organizational Integrity: Build confidence, trust and engagement in all that we do by being collaborative, accountable, responsive and excellent.”
Valentine told the council that the goal of the mission work plan is to “inspire, equip and connect the church for Christ’s mission.”
Council member and former GA moderator Bruce Reyes Chow wrote in a blog that “These actions, no matter the faithfulness of the strategy or intent, becomes yet another painful part of our journey together as a community seeking its way forward. I have not been silent with folks about my frustrations over past reductions, our focus on self-preservation and our propensity for limited creativity, but in this case, these decisions felt as strategic, true and faithful to the current direction as it has ever been. And while I certainly could argue about that direction and or ways that I would love to see things go – and it really is all about me – I can sit with my vote a little more comfortably than I have been able to in the past.”
Actions by the General Assembly this summer may increase the budgets. Several business items to be considered by the assembly have financial implications – meaning if commissioners approve these items, the GAMC will have to find the money, over and beyond what has already been budgeted, to fund them.
Bailey told the council that if the General Assembly approved every item, that financial implications to the 2013-14 mission budget total $2,159,470; and the 2013-14 per-capita budget financial implications total $817,965.
During the assembly, “We will keep a record of what has been approved,” said Bailey, and on the final day of the assembly, the GA staff will tell the council, “you have added this much to the budget, and we will have to reassess what to cut, or add or whatever.”
The financial implications may increase, since commissioner resolutions will not be submitted for consideration until the opening days of the assembly.
In 2010, the GAMC approved 2011-2012 budgets that eliminated 70 positions, 11 of which were already vacant and other jobs were eliminated through voluntary separation or re-assignment to new positions, which totaled a net of 43.5 positions eliminated.
Earlier staff cuts include:
- 37 national staff positions in the 2005-2006 budgets
- 19 layoffs in 2003 and
- 66 layoffs in 2002
In related news, the GAMC also approved a revised 2012 mission budget totaling $89,091,490.