GAC begins preparations for biennial assemblies By Paula R. Kincaid The Layman Online Thursday, October 2, 2003 MONTREAT, N.C. – During its September meeting, the General Assembly Council has begun preparing for the General Assembly's move to biennial assemblies by making several changes in the way it does business. Instead of approving the motion from the council's executive committee that the chair and vice chair be elected to two-year terms, the council voted 31-27 to elect the chair and vice chair to a one-year term, renewable for an additional one-year term. Presently, the positions are elected for a one-year, non-renewable term. Vernon Carroll, the council's chair, made the original recommendation, saying the "current terms of chair and vice chair take us from one assembly to another. … Now we are working on two-year work plans, and those kinds of efforts take a lot of input and sheparding by council leadership." He said that the council needed the "consistency of leadership in the two-year term between assemblies." Andrea Stokes, one of two youth members of the council, made the motion, which the council eventually approved, for one-year, renewable terms. "It allows more of the GAC members to have chance at leadership," she said, adding that it also matches the format of how the council's committee chairs are elected. Bill Saul of Long Beach, Calif., spoke in favor of Stokes' motion. "We would not always, perhaps, enjoy the effective leadership we have now, but if we were in a position of ineffectual leadership it would be very difficult to change," he said. The council also revised its meeting schedule. In the years the General Assembly will meet, the GAC will meet three times, in February, June and September. During the off-years, the council will meet only twice, in February or March and in September. In other business, the council: Approved "in principle" a new program area "Stewardship and Funding," which will include the staff, budget and responsibilities of the current Office of Stewardship and Mission Funding and Development Program Area. GAC Executive Director John Detterick said combining the two areas will "make sure that funds development is grounded in stewardship." The new program area would be lodged in the office of the executive director, which, according to the rationale, "would signify to congregations and middle governing bodies that the GAC is serious about providing these services and would signal to all three ministry divisions that the services offered by this program areas are intended to be available equally to each of them." Renamed the Office of Theology, Worship and Discipleship. The new name is "Theology and Worship/Spiritual Formation." Approved the 2003 Restricted Funds Grants totaling $1,030,301. All governing bodies can apply for the grants, and the recommendations are made to the council by the Restricted Funds Oversight Committee.

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