(By Leslie Scanlon, The Presbyterian Outlook). The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board is considering an approach that would reduce the size of the board by more than half – and would cut formal representation on the board from advocacy and advisory committees in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The proposal – being described as a white paper – comes from the board’s Governance Task Force, and is expected to go to the Way Forward Commission for consideration on its Feb. 7 conference call. The board’s executive committee discussed it in a conference call Jan. 26.
The proposal calls for the size of the board to drop from its current size of 40 voting members and 17 nonvoting members (with voice but not vote) to a board with 16 voting members and 8 nonvoting members. The change would need approval from the General Assembly – or possibly from the Way Forward Commission instead, which has the power not just to recommend but to act.
Among the groups that would lose non-voting slots on the board, if the proposal is approved, are ecumenical advisory members and representatives of the:
- Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy;
- Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns;
- Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns;
- Committee on Theological Education.
The Governance Task Force, in making the recommendation, cites the 2016 report of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Review Committee, which stated that a board of 57 members and its current structure is “unwieldy and outdated.”
It proposes a new board structure described as being “nimble, responsive and focused.”
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Reality has finally set in, they could also close the office in Washington DC and United Nations office as well. President Trump like alot of other people can’t really see what the UN does for the US except be anti- Israel and anti- US, well on second thought, maybe the pcusa should keep their office at the UN.
For the past generation or so, the PCUSA has lectured itself and anybody else foolish to listen that numbers, metrics do not matter. That as the entity continued on its slide from over 4 million to going under 1 soon, all in a single lifetime for many, that numbers are irrelevant. That the systems of the bureaucracy, the mechanics of the institution. The Louisville, DC, UN nexus would just carry on. The various tribes and identify lobby groups that dominate the PCUSA would just continue as always. Maybe out of their own arrogance, hubris or simple magical thinking, they just assumed people and money would go on forever. Well this is what the liberals and leftist power structure failed to account for. Mathematics does not care about your ideology or wishful thinking. Sooner or later numbers matter, math counts. And less means less. They can go to 3 on a board or simply go away. Hint, nobody is going to miss you.
I’ve served on numerous non profit boards, some of which are government subsidized (taxpayer supported). Often times when I witnessed boards dramatically reduce their size, they publicized certain boilerplate excuses for such actions; ie save money, save time, more efficiency, etc. But the self serving leftists/anarchists are always once step ahead. Think. If you serve on a board with 40 voting members, then reduce it to only 16 voting members, you’ve more than DOUBLED the power of the remaining 16. I’m certain PCUSA already has handpicked who the remaining 16 will be; I’d conclude there will be 12 or 13 hard line milk toast socialists (a super majority), with a couple of ‘token’ moderates.