The
Massachusetts Conference Board of Directors has taken a leap of faith
by going forward with the substantial increase in staff salaries that
was approved at Annual Meeting last June.
The
increases – ranging from 12 to 23½ percent – went into effect January
1st, and will be paid for through a $3 per member increase in Fellowship
Dues for 2002.
Annual
Meeting delegates approved the plan last June after hearing from the
Board that staff salaries had lagged far behind what was fair and competitive.
Board members struggled over whether to go ahead with the entire increase
now, or wait to see whether the money needed comes in from churches.
“We
have a budget process that means we never quite know what we have until
we’re almost through the year,” said Board member Wayne Frigard. “Because
of the way that Fellowship Dues and Our Church’s Wider Mission are collected,
it is really a matter of faith and covenant with the member churches
that they’re going to come through.”
Frigard said he at first felt that the increases should be postponed
until the budget picture was clearer, but as the Board and staff discussed
the issue, his thinking changed.
“The Conference delegates were quite clear as to what they intended.
It was an overwhelmingly favorable vote,” he said.
Frigard was partly swayed by the fact that delegates voted to pay the
$3 increase all at once, instead of going with the Board’s original
plan to phase it in over three years.
“They gave a directive loud and clear to the directors, who had proposed
a more moderate approach that they rejected. I think we have to take
the delegates at their word,” he said.
Dawn Hammond, Associate Conference Minister for Policy and Finance and
staff to the Board, said members felt it was “neither just nor practical
to continue to have salaries lagging.”
Last
year, several search committees complained that the salaries were too
low to be competitive. And a study by the Board showed that the compensation
paid to Associate Conference Ministers during 2001 was 22 percent lower,
on average, than that received by senior pastors at large Conference
churches.
“Board members concluded that the justice and competitiveness issues
were compelling enough to warrant some risk. The Board is confident
that the churches will come through,” Hammond said.
The largest salary increase went to Associate Conference Ministers,
who received a 23½ percent increase, putting the average salary at $67,600,
with no social security offset. Conference staff do not receive social
security offsets, as is recommended for local pastors, because the Conference
employs both lay and clergy persons in these positions.
Middle management staff, such as program associates and Conference center
directors, received a 12 percent increase, placing their salaries in
the $36,000 to $43,000 range.
Support staff at the Conference and Area offices received 17 percent
increases, putting the average wage at $15.65 an hour.
All the increases included a 2 percent cost of living increase.
Conference Minister and President Nancy S. Taylor said the Board is
putting its faith in the local churches.
“They
put faith in the delegates who voted affirmatively to increase the Fellowship
Dues by $3,” she said. “It is faith that the delegates will continue
to interpret their enthusiasm and intentions to their local churches
and Associations.”
“In taking this leap of faith, the members of the Board are standing
on our historic, biblical and theological understanding of covenant:
we are in this together. We belong to one another. We are part of a
whole,” she said.
Board members and staff have been presenting information about the Fellowship
Dues increase at various Association meetings, and said they have not
been getting any indication from delegates that churches would be unwilling
or unable to pay the $12 per member total Dues.
“Of course, we are concerned that the economy is not what it was in
June when the vote took place,” Taylor said. “On the other hand, an
increase of $3 per person will not be a hardship on most of our churches.
After all, that works out to the cost of three cups of coffee per member
for the entire year.”
“Some churches are being creative about the increase: they are asking
each of their members to add three dollars to their pledge, Taylor said.
“Other churches, praise God, have decided to pay over and above the
$3 Dues increase in order to ‘make up’ for the churches that cannot
or will not choose to pay the increase.”
Following last year’s Annual Meeting, the Board sent four different
letters about the increase to pastors, moderators, delegates and Conference
committee members. A Sunday bulletin insert was also developed.
The Board plans to continue its educational efforts through Association
visits, postings on the Conference Web site, and through presentations
at this year’s Annual Meeting.
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