Greetings, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Over the next few months, if you happen to stop by the conference office, you will see many changes in progress. In our ever-changing financial landscape, our goal is to be good stewards of our resources and be prepared to continue God’s work in our conference no matter what the church looks like after General Conference 2020.
Various changes you will see as of June 30, 2020:
The Rev. Dr. Anita Powell will retire as Director of Connectional Ministries. The Rev. Dawn Taylor-Storm, South District Superintendent, will move into this role as of July 1, 2020.
The position of Administrative Assistant to the Director of Connectional Ministries will be eliminated. Felicia Anderson, who has faithfully filled this role over the last seven years, will receive a severance package and move on to another job outside the conference. We are sad to lose Felicia and continue to pray for her as she prepares for this next step.
Gordon Hendrickson is retiring (again!) from the position of Coordinator, Congregational Development. Conference leadership, in collaboration with the Director of Connectional Ministries, is evaluating this ministry and how it will be served in the conference.
The Rev. Tracy Bass, East District Superintendent, will be transferred to the Virginia Annual Conference.
The Rev. Lin George will retire as District Resource Assistant after working with the District in some capacity since 1996! Lin will continue to serve as a local pastor appointed in the conference.
Beginning on July 1, 2020, The Rev. Evelyn Kent Clark and the Rev. Dr. Andrew Foster, III, will begin serving as District Superintendents of the South District and the East District, respectively.
Regina Raiford Babcock, our Database/Administrative Assistant to the office, will be dropping the database portion of her position. Regina has moved to the lobby and is acting as our receptionist – a friendly face to greet guests who visit the office – as well as maintaining her role as Office Administrative Assistant, including the work of the Director of Connectional Ministries.
In addition to outsourcing our IT services, we have moved most of our processes to the cloud over the last three years. The result is that we no longer need a full tower of servers to host our programs and an entire room of equipment. This room will be refurbished into a suite of offices and conference space for the Mid-Atlantic United Methodist Foundation. The Foundation rents space from the conference and will pay for this transformation in return for reduced rent.
The office of the Executive Director for the Board of Benefits will be reconfigured to include the Benefits Support Associate, Madeline Gonzalez-Lopez, and will now be the Benefits Suite. Madeline will be taking on more intentional work with our database.
Lindsey Cotman, our Media Support, will be moving into the current North District Office, and space currently used by Lindsey and Madeline will become a conference area. Lindsey will be taking on more registration and event set-up work, including district events.
The current office for the Executive Director for the Mid-Atlantic United Methodist Foundation will be reconfigured into the Accounting Suite for both Beth Lishon, Accountant, and Lawrence Lee, Comptroller.
John Coleman, Director of Communications, will move one office down the row and will now be located next to the Office for the Director of Connectional Ministries.
On July 1, 2020, all District Offices will now reside in the Conference Office. Each District will have an office in the back hallway between the Accounting Suite and the Director of Communications. We are excited to have the DRA’s join us in the office and believe this will facilitate better use of resources, talents, and skills toward the ministries in each District. The North District has led the way over the last two years, teaching us how to better work remotely.
The copier room will be divided into two spaces: A mechanical room to separate our remaining server and the electrical panels from a more usable work area for our copier, postage machine, and worktables.
We have purchased a less expensive, but more user-friendly database system, updated our payroll to Paychex (coordinated with Wespath), and upgraded our financial software. All these changes were part of a strategic plan for streamlining our processes and producing the reports and outcomes requested by staff and local churches. Additionally, you will be receiving information directly from Paychex, who has partnered with Wespath to offer a discounted service arrangement as your payroll provider.
Finally, we will be making much-needed updates to our electrical and networking systems.
As you can see, there is much going on around here! All these changes will be taking place between now and July 1, 2020. Please be patient with us as we live into new roles and locations while continuing to serve your needs. Keep our church, our conference, leaders, members, and staff in prayer.
Grace and Peace,
NancyJo Fielding, Director, Administrative Services
James P. Brown, Conference Treasurer
