Entity relationships remain unsettled
By Tony W. Cartledge
BR Editor
ASHEBORO - The relationship between the Baptist State Convention (BSC) and the Baptist Retirement Homes (BRH), Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina (NCWMU) and the five institutions of higher education were addressed during the BSC Executive Committee meeting Jan. 30, but remain unsettled.
Baptist Retirement Homes
BRH president Bill Stillerman first proposed a new relationship for his institution in August of 2005, arguing that the financial climate requires BRH to have greater control of its own governance. The Executive Committee approved a plan by which BRH would begin to appoint its own trustees and give up all BSC funding over a four-year period. The Executive Committee reversed course the next month after convention attorney John Small reviewed the plan and said it amounted to a severance of relationship. In December 2005, the BRH board voted to change its bylaws and begin appointing its own trustees.
The BSC and BRH have been involved in periodic dialogue since that time. The Board of Directors voted in September 2006 to begin escrowing money budgeted for BRH, but Convention messengers voted in November that all funds for 2006 be forwarded to the agency. An escrow remains in place for 2007.
The Convention also elected five persons to serve as BRH trustees, even though BRH had already appointed people to those positions.
BSC president Stan Welch named a blue ribbon panel to study the issue, continue dialogue with BRH and make recommendations, and the Convention affirmed it.
The committee made its first recommendation to the Executive Committee Jan. 30, asking the Convention to seek a third-party legal opinion to supplement opinions staked out by attorneys representing the BSC and BRH.
After some discussion about the potential cost, the Executive Committee approved the request.
Woman's Missionary Union
NCWMU changed several elements of its charter in April 2006, including a change in nomenclature that dropped the word "auxiliary" in favor of "partner" to describe its relationship with the BSC. Other changes regarded governance and the hiring of WMU staff.
The BSC administration has challenged the changes on several points, arguing that the term "partner" could create issues of liability and that NCWMU must follow BSC hiring and employee policies, which include endorsement of new staff by the executive director-treasurer.
Dialogue has been ongoing. Top BSC administrators, BSC officers, and officers of the Board of Directors met with more than 60 NCWMU leaders and staff Jan. 19 to discuss the issues, but reached no resolution.
NCWMU executive director told the Executive Committee the organization is willing to continue dialogue and would consider compromising in some areas, but considers the hiring issue to be non-negotiable.
John Butler, executive leader of Business Services for the BSC, talks with NCWMU Executive Director Ruby Fulbright. (BSC photo by Norman Jameson)
NCWMU Executive Director Ruby Fulbright said NCWMU had been unaware of that practice, but would be willing to work within the procedures for the executive director to sign off so employees could get paid. Executive director-treasurer Milton Hollifield said he had not sought any additional power. "I'm just fulfilling my responsibility that has been carried out through the years," Hollifield said.
The basic issue is whether the executive director's signing off on the paperwork amounts to final approval of new NCWMU staff, or if it is simply a perfunctory administrative procedure.
BSC administrators insist that the Convention is ultimately responsible for all employees, so it is both appropriate and necessary for the executive director to give final approval of all new staff members.
Fulbright said NCWMU has always assumed it was hiring its own staff without needing the executive director's approval.
Don Warren, in his last meeting as chair of the Executive Committee, addressed Fulbright: "you're asking for an exception to the standard procedure allowing you to hire your own people. Yes or no?"
"Yes," Fulbright answered.
A motion to continue the dialogue was approved with some opposition.
Higher Education
Brian Davis, executive leader for Administration and Convention Relations, reported that Hollifield had received a letter Dec. 6 from the presidents of Campbell University, Chowan University, Gardner-Webb University and Mars Hill College. The letter noted that actions taken at the annual BSC meeting in November created an incompatibility between Convention documents and the schools' internal documents.
An amendment approved at the annual meeting changed a provision that formerly allowed the college and universities to appoint up to 50 percent of their trustees, with respect to the total number, and to give up a proportionate amount of funding. The amendment changed the language to allow the schools to appoint up to 50 percent of the trustees to be appointed annually, rather than with respect to the total.
Wingate University, which had announced prior to the convention meeting that it planned to appoint all of its trustees for the next two years, was not included in the Dec. 6 letter.
The letter requested the appointment of a committee to study a new relationship between the BSC and the schools, with the discussion to include the issue of self-perpetuating boards for the schools.
Davis, who also serves as executive director of the Council on Christian Higher Education, said subsequent conversations had been held with all five schools. Instead of appointing a separate committee, the presidents were now requesting that the Council on Christian Higher Education be empowered to undertake a study addressing the issue of a new relationship between the Convention and the schools, with particular attention to matters of governance and finance.
After some discussion, the Executive Committee approved the motion with no opposition.
The Council on Christian Higher Education, meeting later that afternoon, adopted a preliminary proposal from the five college presidents as a starting point for discussion. The proposal addresses the issue of a gradual move toward self-perpetuating boards, and changes in Convention funding.
The council plans to work on further details and present the proposal to the Executive Committee on March 6.
