this is an email i sent to the friends i have at our conference's youth ministry institute 2. i wasn't going to say anything, but word was getting out and i was getting asked questions. beth who is mentioned is our director of youth ministries for the conference. you first saw news of this on the blog late last night or early this morning.
here is a short list for the time being. trying to be factual &:~)
- thursday beth got her 90 day notice of termination of her employment as it currently stands with the conference office. she was not happy
- in this meeting there was some discussion, but no plan on what the conference was going to do about FRESH, the sounds game, nashville shores, & the conference mission trip as that would be after beth's last day. they basically asked her to hang on and do those events. i suspect they didn't have a concept of the summer calendars that youth people go through
- there reasoning for the change was a restructure to the ccom. but there was no plan given as to this restructuring or how events or youth ministries will be done in the future.
- she is going to be given a severance pay that i think goes through august
- on friday beth was awarded her sabbath leave, which she is taking now and is part why her severance goes to august (i think)
- we found out that susan groseclose (children's ministries) was given similar information monday.
- beth has been calling folks as she has been able
- some, but not all of the ccym knows of this situation
- sara williams (conference youth president) has called and gave the bishop her opinion on the situation, her father said she did a really good job with that. no youth, certainly not the ccym, were consulted on this change so sara was pretty angry. seeing that the conference staff works for the ccym & other committees.
- there is talk of convening an unscheduled ccym meeting to discuss this and next steps, which will probably include a resolution to make sure that there is at the very least a part-time person dedicated to the needs & coordination of the youth ministries of the conference
- beth and i talked today, i will be working with the ccym to plan out fresh in june. anyone want to lead a session? &:~)
- after that? i don't know
- i hate that many of you are finding out this way, but you can only tell this story so many times in a day and you get angry, and it is beth's story to tell, so i have stayed quiet myself. even had a long conversation with anne carty at cokesbury after i heard and couldn't tell.. that is tough for me. &:~(
if you want to know what you can do. i would write and call the bishop (i think brett sent out an email with [email protected], and lloyd mabry ([email protected]). it is my experience that when things like these start rolling in the church it is impossible to reverse. but who knows. i would take exception, and i will myself, to the way things are/were handled and that the ccom staff is not to benefit the staff but the laity and without any clear answers or plan this change is a reflection of poor judgement and poor management. the tennessee conference is one of the highest functioning conferences in the nation, maybe world, when it comes to youth ministry.
