ACPE May 2010 E-Newsletter

Report of the ACPE Board of Representatives' Spring 2010 Meeting

By Southeast Region Representatives Miriam Needham and Bill Baugh

The Board meeting beganwith the celebration of the purchase of property near the square in Decatur, Georgia, which will be the site of the new national ACPE office. The property is prime real estate and the FCPE was able to raise the cost of $1,025,000.00 through donations within the period between the signing of the contract and closing. The building on the property is not adequate for ACPE's purposes and there will be a capital campaign to build a new building. The Board approved an architectural firm that has already given time on a pro bono basis to draw up plans for a building that will be 'green' and will fit the future needs of our national office, the Academy for Continuing Education, and conference/training space. Presentation of the capital campaign and annual campaign by the FCPE was presented at the membership meeting during the conference.

The meeting was structured around our Strategic Initiatives which were adopted by the Board in 2006 and have provided work group goals since. Here is a summary of the work the Board did related to each of these initiatives.

Organization Relationships in Pastoral Care
The Board heard reports from our seminary representative and our clinical representative the crux of which was that we continue to lose seminaries as ACPE member seminaries and the ACPE still has difficulty bringing our clinical members into an active and engaged relationship with our Association. In response to the Board's growing concern a motion was passed which recommends to the regions that 2 positions be established and funded on regional leadership boards for a faith group/denominational representative and a seminary/graduate school of religion (GSR) representative. Board members were encouraged to communicate to their regions the need to involve clinical members in the work of the region and the Centers, e.g., Clinical members on PAGs. The representatives from each region will make individual contact with each ACPE member seminary/GSR prior to the Fall, 2010, Board meeting with the goal of ascertaining the strengths/weaknesses of the relationship between the school and the ACPE.

The Board supported and allowed to stand a motion from 2006 which instated a policy which said ACPE Centers cannot be dually aligned with CPSP centers. There is a current potential of legal charge from CPSP relating to "restraint of trade" as a result of the above motion, hence the need to review.

Teresa Snorton in her ED's report referred to the new ACPE Academy for Continuing Education website which is accessible through the ACPE website. So far registration for the webinars has exceeded the number expected. She introduced an annual award to honor emerging leadership. The Board passed a motion calling it the "Emerging Leaders" award which will recognize ACPE members who have served 10 years or less, one from each region, who have offered leadership or service to the ACPE community through their initiative, innovation, or leadership at their local center, regional or national levels. Nominations will come from regional leadership to their reps to the Board of Reps for the fall Board mtg. (beginning 2010) for recognition at the following spring annual conference.

Development and Fundraising
Paula Teague, ACPE Treasurer, presented the Finance Report. "....there was a $68,803.40 deficit for 2009. ACPE continues to have declining membership and increasing expenses." The budget presented at the membership meeting and approved reflected the needed changes/increases to cover the 2011 budget. There is concern in the 2011 budget about a "lack of proposed budget adjustments by committee/commission chairs..... it is crucial to form new processes to address the decreasing income and increasing expenses....proposed 2011 budget includes a 15% increase across most fees with budget cuts except for certification...".

FCPE Board of Directors reported on the purchase of the new property. In the visioning for the new building it was reported that the expected cost is "around $11 million, $1 million of which has already been raised" by FCPE. Priorities for 2010 are capital campaign, annual fund, ACPE programs, communications, external marketing. The FCPE Board must increase the percentage of Board of Reps members on its Board so that a majority are ACPE Board. In keeping with that the following were nominated to be on the FCPE Board: Sharon Engebretson, Harry Simmons, Wayne Menking, and Greg Stoddard. The FCPE still struggles to meet its operating budget and so they have borrowed from endowment with the expectation of full repayment. We were told that 5 years is expected for most foundations to be self-supporting. The FCPE is now in its 3rd year. It was resolved that any amount over $50,000 borrowed would require the ACPE President to receive consultation and direction from the ACPE Board of Reps prior to the loan being made.

Multicultural and International Learning
The REM report included an important conversation about the experience of persons of color in the ACPE who continue to report experiences of exclusion and prejudice. The Board responded with a 3-part motion: to invite on-going dialogue in a format determined by the REM; accept REM's invitation to hold a celebration together in Washington, DC in 2012; and propose to REM that beginning in 2014 we hold one national conference per year hosted by REM in alternate years. The proposal will be responded to by the REM leadership.

Contextual and Pastoral Education
The Accreditation Commission approved nine new Centers with four voluntarily withdrawing. The expectation that more centers would close because of the economic crisis has not been proven the reality. There are currently seven active New Generations Project Pilots going on. A concern was expressed as a result of the Educational Complaint process. Five complaints have been received and more are expected. The complaints relate to behaviors of the Supervisors and ways they are managing their programs. Supervisory competence needs to be looked at and ways to increase competence explored. Self-Reporting Non-compliance has worked well as Centers have reported non-compliance and their plans to become compliant.

The workgroup of this initiative proposed 2 new objectives: to continue to research and explore the need and potential structure of a Supervisors' Health Initiative which will provide assessment and referral to SESs and Supervisors who are in need of support and intervention across a broad spectrum of health issues. This resource could be available for self-referral and as a resource for colleagues who may choose to encourage a colleague to seek intervention. This proposal came originally to the Board from the Regional Directors and will be presented to the Board in the Fall, 2010, as a potential proposal. This work group also wants to explore the relationship between seminaries and the ACPE particularly as it relates to seminaries that are accredited CPE Centers.

Supervisory Education and Certification
Certification Commission reported a 66% pass for the 37 candidates meeting during this meeting. The commission is aware of some 200 people in the "pipeline" of the certification process which will potentially overload the commission's dockets in the near future. They are seeking ways to manage that potential with smaller committees, a more concise presenter's report, etc. There are problems with the theory paper process and one suggestion being considered is an educational video for distribution through the website. The work group of this initiative is exploring the potential that the ACPE Academy become a degree granting institution or to establish an entity that can grant degrees via an institution wihtin ACPE in ten years. They will present a progress report on this study at the Fall 2010 meeting with a final report in 2011 that includes strengths and weaknesses. The Board has charged the ACPE Academy to appoint a committee to explore how ACPE can join with selected seminaries and GSRs to encourage degree opportunities for our current students.

Administration, Governance & Business Affairs Work Group
The Board approved the job description of the ACPE History Manager as a volunteer position - to be advertised in ACPE publications. RDs will be contacted for nominations. A short-term task group was assigned to work with John Roch, ACPE office, to explore all options for expanding technology resources in order to better promote ACPE and improve communication among members. The Professional Ethics Commission reported to the Board that the issues that they are seeing in the complaints coming to them are abuse of power, harassment, racial discrimination, poor program management, and ineffective supervision. The Board was reminded that the RDs can be a consultant to respondents who are making a complaint and that the intent is to inform respondents of that fact.

RANC reported that the survey of persons of racial, ethnic, multicultural heritage conveys that for the first year ACPE may be meeting the set percentages of multicultural people in leadership positions that were indicated in the motion of the board at the Fall 2009 meeting; however, the survey is inconclusive because of the small response. The survey instrument used included a racially negating term and while the company has negotiated a change, that fact may have limited the number of responses. The Board approved a motion that the regional reps gather the RANC data of persons of racial, ethnic, multicultural heritage within their region and report to the fall leadership meeting.

Final 2011 Budget Considerations
The Board will continue the Pilot Practice of having only one rep per region attend the face-to-face meeting until such time as the new governance structure may be in place. The reps will participate in all communication/meetings by conference call; both reps will have voice/vote. The 2011 proposed budget was approved with several guidelines which included the following: each committee and commission will be directed to develop a plan for meeting the budget to be presented at the Fall, 2010 meeting; and that the work group charged with governance and organization change will continue to move forward with structural changes that enable the ACPE's mission to be actualized while functioning with efficiency.