Council will work on relationships with advisory/advocacy committees
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, February 23, 2001
LOUISVILLE – Discussions have begun on improving the relationships between the General Assembly Council and the advisory/advocacy committees that report directly to the General Assembly.
The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, the Advocacy Committee on Racial Ethnic Concerns and the Advocacy Committee on Women’s Concerns are “us, but not us,” Kathy Lueckert, deputy executive director of the General Assembly Council, told the council’s executive committee. She said the work of the committees “directly impacts the work of the GAC.”
The committees prepare reports for the General Assembly. The General Assembly Council is allowed to comment on the reports before they are forwarded to the assembly, but cannot change them, Lueckert said.
She cited the domestic violence report prepared by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy as an example. “It is a vital, crucial issue. The church needs to be involved,” she said. “However, the committee’s report had 60 suggestions, all with financial implications.”
The financial implications do not come from the advisory/advocacy committee’s budget, and funds not always are found to implement the recommendations. Lueckert said that causes frustrations for the advisory/advocacy committees and the General Assembly Council.
“We realize they are not us and we cannot tell them what to do, but they need to work with us,” she said.
Lueckert said she talked with committee members on how to make the relationship between the two more productive — “for them, for us, and for the whole church.”