Louisiana paper accepts convention control

ALEXANDRIA, La. — Just 14 weeks after rejecting the idea, trustees of the Baptist Message of Louisiana voted 6–1 Aug. 30 to dissolve their board and move the newspaper under the control of the executive board of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

Meanwhile convention leaders set the stage for Oklahoma’s John Yeats to become editor of the Baptist Message Jan. 1, after current editor Lynn Clayton retires.

Yeats, editor of the Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma, is scheduled to be elected director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention at the September meeting of the executive board. In that role, he would become editor of the Baptist Message if the transfer is approved.

In May, the newspaper’s trustees voted 8–4 against moving to convention control. But after hearing a presentation from Yeats and debating the proposal in executive session, they voted overwhelmingly to approve the transfer, which was proposed in May by the convention’s new executive director, David Hankins.

The move must be approved by two-thirds of the messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention in November. Trustees approved resolutions calling for the convention to dissolve the newspaper’s corporate status and elect Yeats to the combined post. The current trustees would serve as a transitional advisory committee until 2007.