One-fourth of Missouri Baptist
Convention staff taking severance
___JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP)--As the new year begins, the Missouri Baptist Convention will experience what is believed to be the largest staff turnover in its history.
___A total of 28 employees--one of every four of the 101-member staff--will leave their positions after accepting a severance option expected to cost the convention nearly $770,000.
___The large response to the severance offer is expected to be felt across the organization.
___"To my knowledge, there has never been this much turnover at one time in the history of the MBC," said Jim Hill, the state convention's executive director. "We have a lot more staff leaving than I had anticipated."
___The convention offered an across-the-board severance package to employees in anticipation of a major staff restructuring. That restructuring, however, was not the major reason cited by employees taking the exit option.
___Employees taking the offer cited several reasons, but more than half indicated political conflict between moderates and conservatives was a contributing factor, Hill said. Conservatives won officer elections for the third year in a row this fall and now control the process for nominating convention committees and boards of trustees.
___Other reasons included difficulty with transition in the New Directions restructuring plan and desire to take early retirement or move toward a new career or ministry opportunity.
___Hill said the amount of experience leaving the Jefferson City offices adds up to 417 years. "That's a loss, because there is so much history," he said.
___Although he did not expect so many people to accept a severance deal, Hill believes offering it was the right thing to do.
___Some areas of the day-to-day operation of the convention staff will be affected, he acknowledged. "Any time there are this many vacancies in an operation, there will be a lull in the work. There will be a period when we won't be able to do an event, or there will be something we can't staff, or a request we can't respond to."
___Hill said he hoped to fill many of the vacancies by Feb. 1. "I think our organization will experience some grief over this--there is always a grieving process," Hill said. "And that is healthy and natural. I think so far, they have been handling it well and are looking to the future. We're going to survive it."
___Nine of the 28 staff vacancies won't be refilled.
The Baptist Standard
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