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2012-04-02 issue:

Good news for The Mennonite

by The Mennonite staff

Print Article

The board of directors for The Mennonite, Inc., met at College Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind., on April 13 and held a joint meeting with the Executive Board during one session. Both boards use a modified form of policy governance in their operating philosophy.

Everett Thomas, editor, asked for a joint task force to develop a policy that would guide the relationship between the two boards. Such a task force would also address succession planning for the editor role.

Board members for The Mennonite, Inc. (left to right): Sheri Wenger, Lancaster, Pa.; Barth Hague, secretary-treasurer, Newton, Kan.; Jason Moyer, Iowa City, Iowa; Susan Sommer, chair, Tremont, Ill.; Sarah Burkhalter, Seattle; Gerald Mast, vice-chair, Bluffton, Ohio; Steve Edwards, Goshen, Ind.; Shé Hall, Hampton, Va.

The board for The Mennonite also learned that it ended its fiscal year on Jan. 31 with a small margin.

Craig Yahne, an independent auditor who examined the operation’s books, reported a profit of “a penny less than $1,300.”

Thomas had told the board at its October 2011 meeting he expected to end the fiscal year with a small deficit.

“I was surprised,” Thomas said on April 16. “During our last fiscal year we had some extraordinary expenses. These included all the costs for moving the Goshen office to the new offices in Elkhart, and we walked away from more than $6,000 in leasehold improvements to the Goshen office. In addition, we had the expenses of sending four staff members to cover the 2011 convention in Pittsburgh.”

As in each past meeting, the board discussed the magazine’s moratorium on letters to the editor and articles that address Mennonite Church USA’s teaching position on sexuality.

While the decision to maintain the 12-year-old  moratorium is the responsibility of the editor, Thomas asks for counsel at each board meeting.

As a result of the most recent discussion, Thomas will develop a new policy for content that broadens the criteria to include letters and articles that help Mennonite Church USA in its discussion of any controversial matter. That policy will be tested with the board at its fall meeting.

The April 13 meeting was the first meeting of the board in which all eight board positions were filled, leading to perfect attendance of both board and staff members.

She Hall, from Hampton Va., joined the board as the second of two co-opted members, a status provided by the bylaws of Mennonite Church USA.

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