Meeting Minutes List

Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasiCommission on Finance, Administration, Pension, & Benefits AGENDA NOTES – THURSDAY, March 19, 2026
ATTENDING:
1 Harrison Bell
2 Sam Gregory
3 Vivian Kinnear
4 Bishop Auta (NT) OUT
5 Luvo Thwethwa (SAT)
6 Sung-Soo Kim OUT
7 Jennifer Lineberry OUT
12 MEMBERS; 3 STAFF ATTENDING
8 Sherry Austin
9 Chris Akers
10 Jim Noble
11 Joy Perry
12 Matt Seel
13 Rhonda Bourgeois 14 Richard Croll
15 Olandor Boyce (LT) STAFF:
1 Molly Williams
2 Mike Schafer
3 Matt Conover
WELCOME AND PRAYER –HARRISON
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES FROM LAST MEETING – VIVIAN
• Commission approved March 5th meeting minutes.
CONNECTIONAL COUNCIL UPDATE – SAM & MIKE
• The Contract Policy was accepted by the Connectional Council (CC) with friendly amendments to remove potentially problematic language without adding new requirements.
• $75,000 was set aside from contingency earnings for non-US annual conferences to hold their first annual or convening conference, with $40,000 allocated specifically for this purpose. This is a one time assistance; conferences were clearly told that no ongoing support would be provided.
• The Strategic Planning Task Force gathered broader input through small group discussions while at the Atlanta meeting.
• The conference partnership model needs a strategy as to how to move forward differently, reaching its limits as US conferences are tapped out with multiple partners.
• It is a noteworthy mention that unprecedented unity was witnessed at the CC meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
• FINANCIALS
o FINANCIALS ON THE WEBSITE – MATTHEW & MOLLY
▪ Quarterly financial reports will be posted to the website.
▪ The audit completion remains pending, causing delays in posting comprehensive end-of-year performance.
OLD BUSINESS
• INSURANCE SUB-TEAM – CHRIS & RICHARD
o Health Insurance and Benefits
▪ Reviewed pros and cons of multiple options: current, self-insured, stipends • Larger annual conferences (AC) have less anxiety about insurance and more capacity to handle changes.
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• Smaller ACs lack infrastructure and bandwidth to manage their own insurance programs.
▪ Commission needs to provide clear recommendations to CC before General Conference (GC).
▪ Must address both immediate clarity needs for 2027 and long-term strategic direction • Clarity on requirements for part-time vs. full-time coverage, spouse/family coverage requirements.
o Self-Insurance Option Analysis
▪ Appears to offer cost savings and control over the education of insureds on healthy ideas.
▪ Doesn’t require significant upfront reserves, as claims would not be seen for at least 2 months as they work through the system, but some seed money would be necessary, lots of planning, and careful construction.
▪ May not be attractive to all conferences, particularly those with negative historical experiences
o Coverage Requirements and Clarity Needs
▪ Significant clarity needed on coverage requirements, particularly for spouse/family coverage
• No documentation showing GMC mandates coverage for spouse/family • 75% coverage doesn’t align with the 30+ hours requirement; percentages vary ▪ Current system allows some room for subjective interpretation.
• Different presiding elders and conference superintendents are making hours subjective to help churches and clergy agree on compensation packages ▪ Need a clear mandate from CC on minimum requirements
• That health insurance is mandatory for pastors, pension is mandatory, but health insurance for spouse/family is in the annual conference decision. Some dependent premium plans are 85%, some 100%.
o Laity Coverage Question
▪ Self-insurance may offer more flexibility for including lay employees
▪ Need to clarify payment structure and requirements for lay employee coverage ▪ Currently, lay employees refer to those receiving paychecks from the GMC, not local church employees.
o Trinity Conference Concerns
▪ Concerns are valid but must be balanced against the needs of smaller conferences ▪ Selective partnerships could recreate insurance discrimination problems ▪ Need to emphasize collective responsibility while addressing legitimate concerns o International Pension and Benefits
▪ International retirement benefits are a critical unresolved issue
• African pastors who left UMC to join GMC need to know what retirement plan exists in the GMC.
▪ A Foundation structure may be necessary to manage international retirement funds. • International conferences could send contributions back to the US as part of global church funds, which could be invested and managed centrally, then sent back upon retirement.
• Licensing restrictions prevent us from doing retirement plans for individuals in other countries, but we can manage funds for the global church.
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• Liberia has a pension system where pastors contribute to annual conference pension plans
▪ Olander and Luvo will work together to draft a plan for international retirement benefits
▪ Communication is needed for all international conferences about expectations and options
• Most African pastors don’t pay taxes or Social Security, so they put money in church pension plans and expect pension payments upon retirement. Does
each AC need to organize its own pension plan? If so, has this been
communicated to non-US conferences?
o Strategic Planning Next Steps
▪ Need to gather input from conference leadership before finalizing recommendations. ▪ Must present clear options to CC showing movement and direction.
▪ Timeline is tight with GC approaching.
o Fundamental Considerations
▪ Fundamental tensions exist between movement flexibility and denominational structure.
• A movement’s purpose is to minimize structure, facilitate, and coach
conferences strategically to build solutions, creating structure only where
necessary.
o Harrison: CC likely wants to move away from mandating things in BDD
that don’t apply to everyone.
o Mike: GMC philosophy is that conferences have freedom as long as
they don’t violate BDD. This is a core value.
• A denominational purpose is to build an organized structure of support
through shared resources from which to operate.
▪ Need to determine if self-insurance can work on an opt-in basis or requires universal US participation.
• Trinity’s proposed legislation, if passed, could raise questions of whether it eliminates self-insurance or makes it optional.
• LEGISLATIVE GAMEPLAN
o Legislative Timeline and General Conference Preparation
▪ CC requested legislation by April 6th, but April 2nd is Maundy Thursday during Holy Week.
▪ Harrison proposed April 9th as the next meeting for 2 hours to get all legislation on the table, approve or reject, and decide what to forward to CC.
▪ Legislation from CC carries more weight than legislation from lower bodies. ▪ Commission will return to regular meeting rhythm after April 9th.
o Email communication will occur between now and then on specific legislation pieces. o Response needed to Brian Eble's amendment regarding multi-year budget requirement. • CONNECTIONAL FUNDING UPDATE
o Olander and Rhonda will provide an email update before the April 9th meeting. o They will present the full plan at the April 9th meeting.
o Partnership with the Assembly of Bishops is a key strategy for communication.
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CLOSING PRAYER – Matt Seel
Next meeting: APRIL 9,2026 at 7 AM Central Time (Daylight Savings Time)
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