Not often do we see an organzation willing to take stock publicly. But the trustees of the mission board of the Southern Baptist convention took the unusual step of self-auditing and responding in detail to a report that questioned the management of the organization. And, as reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the head of the organzation has now resigned.
The Southern Baptists created North American Mission Board in 1997 by merging three older entities (EIN 58-2379481, No Form 990 because it is a church agency). Initially under the leadership of Rev. Robert Reccord the organization consolidated operations and achieved significant savings of $40 million (the current budget is $124 million). But in February of this year, The Christian Index, a publication for Georgia Baptists, ran a long, rambling article ("North America: Hanging in the balance") outlining a number of missteps, failed campaigns, and questionable management practices. The accusations were quite wide ranging, from the serious (layoffs, outsourcing, large contracts let to friends) to the technical (accounting for missionaries who raise their own funds) to the trivial (complaints about the message on the organization's 800 number) and could have been easily dismissed.
Instead, the trustees immediately authorized an audit and scheduled a special meeting for a month later. At that meeting, they presented a 19 page report that addressed the criticism in detail; accepting some, rejecting others. They agreed that the management had not kept the state conventions informed of developments and that the contracting practices, including a lack of competitive bidding and failure to disclose prior dealings, opened the organization up to accusations of conflict of interest and mismanagement (though they did find the outsourcing contracts economically advantageous). Evident in the report is an effort to expose and deal with all rumors and speculation about the organization, whether or not it was mentioned in the Christian Index article.
The trustees chose to institute some "executive level controls" to restore the credibility of the organization. A few high level staff left immediately before the special meeting of the trustees, and Rev. Reccord left about a month later. Whether this was the intent of the trustees is not clear, and the statements about the departure have been conventionally upbeat.
So we can admire the transparency with which the trustees addressed these membership concerns. The hard work starts now—to select a new executive willing to manage this huge organization with increased board involvement and member scrutiny.
