Accountability policies set for NAMB leaders

Accountability policies set for NAMB leaders

At their Oct. 4 meeting, North American Mission Board (NAMB) trustees approved a new set of policies and guidelines designed to clarify existing procedures and implement new accountability for future leaders of the Southern Baptist entity.

The specially appointed executive level policy committee presented a report that was adopted unanimously by NAMB trustees. The committee, chaired by Larry Thomas of Heber Springs, Ark., was created following a March 24 trustee report that detailed concerns about former NAMB President Bob Reccord’s leadership. Reccord resigned April 17.

A cover memo from the committee stated, “Throughout these recommendations, you will see certain threads repeated: Full disclosure, accountability, priority of NAMB ministry over personal ministries.”

The committee report focuses on four areas of oversight: presidential accountability; issues raised by Capin Crouse, an independent auditing firm; changes to NAMB’s bylaws; and a set of miscellaneous recommendations.

In the area of presidential oversight, trustees approved a requirement that NAMB’s president spend no less than 60 percent of his time on campus at NAMB. The president can request an adjustment in this percentage from the trustee executive committee.

In addition to an annual review process already in place, the new policies require the president to submit a “Quarterly Deliverables” report to trustees.

The trustees’ financial services committee also has been charged with conducting an audit of executive level financial transactions once every two years.

The new policies also require that NAMB’s president obtain trustee approval before implementing a new strategy or initiative or before making a significant change in an existing initiative.

Areas addressed at the recommendation of Capin Crouse included conflicts of interest as related to NAMB staff engaging in outside employment, receiving honoraria, serving interim pastorates and accepting gifts. The approved document also included guidelines for determining the ownership of intellectual property.

“NAMB is not a platform to profit from personal ministries,” the committee stated. “Our concern for this perceived abuse is a primary motivation behind our management recommendations in this section.”

The policy document also includes an in-depth description of how NAMB’s request for proposal (RFP) process should work when contracts or agreements involving more than $100,000 or for periods greater than a year are being considered. This section of the document is meant to “prevent a repeat of past controversies over outsourcing,” the committee stated. Reccord was criticized by trustees for outsourcing NAMB’s media operations to an outside firm without following adequate RFP procedures.

A detailed “open door” or whistle-blower policy also was approved, included to ensure protections for employees who feel their job may be at risk if they speak out against or question leadership practices or policies.

NAMB bylaws dealing with presidential authority and the appointment of committees also were amended to better reflect the new policies approved by the trustees.

In a section of the policy document titled, “Trustee Recommendations Related to Committees,” the policy committee made several recommendations for future action related to building strong relations with state conventions, improving NAMB trustee orientation and employee compensation.

In other business, the trustees:

• approved 60 new missionaries and endorsed 38 chaplains.

• heard that a select list of candidates has been determined in the presidential search process.

• approved a 2007 budget of $124.3 million, which is a record budget but only $300,000 more than the current year.

• recognized two employees who are leaving. John Yarbrough, vice president of strategic initiatives, has been at NAMB nine years and is leaving to return to the pastorate. Martin King, who joined the then-Home Mission Board in 1992, leaves as director of convention relations to become associate executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association and editor of the Illinois Baptist newsjournal. (BP)