Council sends report of review of
advisory/advocacy committees to GA
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, February 26, 2010
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) voted during its meetings this week to send the report from the Advisory and Advocacy Committees Review Committee to the 219th General Assembly.
Related Articles
Stated clerk, moderator address ‘wave of change’
ACSWP co-chair: Gun violence focus of paper
GAMC not mentioned in proposed nFOG
Presented by GAMC member Douglas Megill, the report has nine recommendations in response to the 218th General Assembly directing the GAMC “to review the service” of the PCUSA’s permanent, advocacy and advisory committees.
The committees reviewed in the report are the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) and the Advocacy Committees for Women’s Concern (ACWC) and Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC).
Megill called the first recommendation – a continuance of the three committees – a “no brainer.” He said the committees feared that the review was a way to dissolve them, but “the church still needs these committees.”
Bill Gray, ACWC’s representative to the council, echoed Megill’s comments. Gray said that the committee “viewed the review as a challenge and as a threat, but it became an opportunity of self reflection and vision.”
The second recommendation is “to review and revise the scope of responsibilities of each of the advocacy committees, and on this basis consider how best to provide staff services.” Megill said that the committees expressed frustration with the downsizing of GAMC staff due to financial problems. He said they felt “they have more to say and less staff to do it. … We are asking the committees to make bricks with straw.”
Another recommendation asked that the committee’s representatives to the GAMC be automatically included in closed meetings of the council. The present policy limits closed meetings to only voting members of council and other persons explicitly invited by them. During GAMC meetings, the committee’s representatives cannot vote on council business, but can contribute to the discussion.
“The review committee felt that it is important to have these folks present in all of the meetings because they have a monitoring function, and they can’t monitor if excluded,” said Megill.
Recommendations also include making more use of social networking Web sites to engage younger people in social justice, and encouraging the GAMC to help find additional fund-raising opportunities for the committees.
Additional recommendations can be found in the online report.