Meeting Minutes List

Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasiGeneral Conference Commission (GCC)
February 10, 2026
9am EST
Voting Members Present: Shalom Azabe, Tim Beardsley, Mary Blagojevich, Beth Ann Cook, César Gazza, Joy Griffin, Tsvetan Iliev, James Kawadza, Chipau Audu Kilyobas, Bridget Kirk, Carol Loeb, Norma Morrison, Davies Musigo, Mack Parker, Bill Patrick, Charles Puno, Stacy Taylor, Jay Therrell, Molly Williams
Non-Voting Members Present: Laura Ballinger, Ginger Barbee, Rhonda Bourgeois, Dianne Burnett, Mike Grant, Tom Lambrecht, Tesia Mallory, Lamar Oliver, Becci Wood
Not Present: Sterling Allen, Elie Diko, Jeff Greenway, Nicolas Munongo, Mike Schafer Opening Prayer: Mike G.
Minutes: Motion by Mary, seconded by James to approve minutes from January 27 meeting. Approved 16-0
Assembly of Bishops, Bishop Greenway:
• No report
Connectional Council Report, Mike Schafer:
• No report
Event Project Manager, Becci:
• 546 registrations to date
• Next wave of registration invitations for the rest of the delegates, volunteers and exhibitors will be in the next week or two.
• Still organizing hotels/dates and volunteer arrivals.
• Reserves will not be able to stay with delegation.
• Continue to keep schedule confidential.
• Team Leaders continue to send list of items for purchase in SA to James. May be covered under SA tourism grant.
• Team Leaders - make travel arrangements for in person meeting.
Housing/Logistics, James:
• Be very specific when requesting in country purchases.
• A commercial printer and two desktop printers will be available on site.
Legislation, Tom:
• Connectional Council did not approve the proposed allocation of delegates due to some inaccurate numbers which may have been caused by barriers in language, culture, internet issues, violence in some countries, confusion as to what FTE really means, etc. Tom and Jeff Jernigan (Nigeria) will be working diligently with each
specific country to get more accurate numbers. The deadline was extended by 48 hours for all conferences. Tom should have numbers by Wednesday. Motion by Tim, seconded by Jay that we do an email vote on Thursday to affirm delegation allocation numbers to keep process, before it goes to the Connectional Council. Approved 18-0-0. (See email vote results at the end of these minutes.)
Agenda, Norma:
• Any specific schedule additions, please hold for the team leaders meeting in May. • Any agenda items, send to Norma
• Bishop emeriti arriving on the 29th (only 2 coming at this time).
• Ok to share arrival times.
Petitions, Lamar:
• Fielding questions regarding deferred petitions - must be resubmitted.
Communications, Dianne:
• Christen is now on maternity leave
• Subteam meeting with videography in SA
Credentialing/Registration, Carol:
• Discussion of registration volunteers centered around not enough hotel rooms so registration volunteers would not be able to arrive before the 28th even though registration starts of the 28th. Becci is trying to secure another hotel. Also, if they can’t arrive before the 28th, the published agenda needs to be changed.
Finance, Molly:
• Worship team budget - moved around a few line items. Does not affect overall budget.
• Meeting on Monday (2/16) instead of Wednesday, any requests, please send before this.
Sponsorships, Mack:
• Not for profit company (MA lighting - church media and production) requesting exhibit space. Motion from Sponsorship team that participating business organizations are asked to enter into a mutual agreement affirming their endorsement of and adherence to the Global Methodist Church mission and vision statements. Question by Tom if this is enough? How do we know what a company may endorse on website, etc? Who would vet this company? Motion by Beth Ann, seconded by Chipau to refer this motion back to Mack and the Finance team with a plan to how they’re going to vet these organizations related to our concerns about LGBTQ issues. Approved 10-0-2 abstentions
Hospitality/Volunteers, Stacy:
• Invitations to selected volunteers are all out; Not selected letter will go out in a few days; Team Leaders will contact each of the volunteers with specific information
regarding the volunteer role and arrival times. These details will be finalized by Becci and Stacy and communicated to the team leaders.
Missions, Tim:
• Added Gashi Matonga as a sub team member to replace Emma McPhail • Working with James on logistics for busses for Mission Experience • Thinking about getting t-shirts specific for the Missions team, with branding. Would other volunteer groups consider this?
Prayer, Laura:
• Working on volunteers; communicating via What’s App
• Considering the stole wearing idea
• Working on the 40 day prayer guide
Translation/Interpretation, Bill:
• Following up on Kudo agreement, after review and response from sales representative. Will be moving forward if comments are part of the agreement.
Worship Team, Tesia:
• Working on speaker elections, will bring to GCC for approval soon • Davies and James working on choirs from around South Africa
• Delegating tasks to new sub team members
• Filling out volunteer applications
International Relations, Elie:
• No report
Chair, Mike G:
• Let Mike know if there will be any petitions coming which include legislative changes to the Book of Doctrines and Disciplines regarding the General Conference commission.
• Petition coming from Conferences Commission - does the General Conference Commission want to have representation on the Connectional Council? Discussion - that perhaps this is not necessary.
• Petitions regarding the 4 or 6 year gap between General Conferences? Do we want to put a voice to our preference? The GCC will have a loud voice in this. • Team Leaders or Executive team may meet on Thursday, February 19 at 10:00EST.
Next meeting: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 9am EST
Motion to adjourn by Jay, seconded by Bridget. Approved 12-0-0
Meeting closed in prayer by Mary.
Minutes submitted by Stacy Taylor
EMAIL Vote (Thursday, February 12) regarding proposed Delegation Allocation Numbers AND increasing South Africa by 2 delegates - which ultimately increases the total number of delegates to 422. APPROVED: 18-0-0
This proposal will be sent to the Connectional Council for approval.ze this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.