NASHVILLE (BP) — A rewritten Business and Financial Plan to be presented at the June annual meeting is designed to strengthen transparency and oversight for trustees who are approved to those positions by messengers, says Executive Committee (EC) President Jeff Iorg. 

“One of our trustees said a strength of the new document is how remarkably consistent it is with upholding trustee governance of the entities,” Iorg told Baptist Press (BP) on Thursday (Feb. 20). “One of the goals was to clarify that the Business and Financial Plan must reflect the constitution and bylaw standards and that the boards are ultimately accountable for the entities. I agree that this is a strength of the document as well.”

Iorg gave five convictions that guided the creation of the document in his address to Executive Committee members Monday night. The first is that Southern Baptists govern entities by electing trustees, who are expected to fulfill the Business and Financial Plan.

The others are:

• The plan must emerge from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) constitution and bylaws.
• The plan must focus on general principles rather than specific methodologies.
• It must call for transparency by entities in business and financial decisions.
• It must use plain language, with technical or legal jargon appearing only where necessary for clarity.

Streamlined and updated

The proposed Business and Financial Plan, at 1,956 words, is substantially shorter than the current version that weighs in at over 3,300. That wasn’t necessarily the focus, but a byproduct of a desire to simplify the plan and use more basic language.

“The goal was to write a document that eliminated duplications and removed archaic issues and when it turned out to be shorter, that was a benefit,” he said.

A section about new enterprises that included hospital propositions was removed, for instance, as was another about publications. Almost all publications are hosted on websites now, Iorg explained.

“Those kinds of things were removed because they aren’t applicable anymore to the way we do business,” he said.

Strengthened accountability

Iorg cited to EC members various areas of the plan where trustee accountability was strengthened and reiterated those in a phone call with BP. Those steps expand trustee accountability and oversight in areas such as audit practices, use of restricted funds, compensation and executive expenses, fundraising practices and internal controls.

The proposed plan states that any member in good standing at a Southern Baptist church in friendly cooperation with the SBC can receive descriptions of compensation processes, personnel practices and salary structures from entities upon written request to the respective entity’s chief financial officer.

Currently, the Business and Financial Plan states church members may have access to such information, but no clear path is given for obtaining it. 

The revised plan came about largely due to referrals of motions adopted by messengers at SBC annual meetings in recent years that related to business and financial components of the SBC and its entities. An overall response to those concerns through a new Business and Financial Plan was the best course, Iorg told trustees on Feb. 17.

Open to adjustment

Recommending the new plan doesn’t set anything in stone, he said.

“If we discover deficiencies, the Business and Financial Plan can be amended until we feel it is adequate for its purpose,” said Iorg, who repeated that in a press conference the next day. “My hope is we will adopt the revised plan, live with it for the next two years, and then adjust any deficiencies or shortcomings as we find them.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)