MCC board examines governance, diversity

Devising a new framework for governance, ensuring greater ethnic and racial diversity in its leadership, and an increase in spending on its international programs were among the issues discussed at the June 8–9 annual meeting of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) binational board.

MCC interim executive director Bert C. Lobe, left, with MCC U.S. executive director Rolando Santiago during the MCC binational board meeting in Akron, Pa. Photo: Barb Wiebe/MCC

Though MCC has been looking for new ways to redesign its leadership structure and philosophy for some time, the sudden departure in October of executive director Robb Davis forced the organization to study even more closely how it conducts its work.

MCC leaders agreed that the relief agency’s theological grounding and its role as a ministry of the Anabaptist churches must remain central.

“How’s the ecclesiology of MCC different from the Kiwanis Club?” asked MCC Canada executive director Don Peters, echoing a concern that MCC has lost some of its church-based identity in recent years.

Acting binational interim director Bert C. Lobe presented a short- and long-term framework, affirmed June 9 by the board, for re-envisioning MCC’s governance structure. This plan, the early stages of which already have been carried out, includes meetings with denominational and conference leaders about their expectations for MCC, ensuring that all provinces and regions have representation on the agency’s executive board, and holding a series of summits to clarify MCC’s immediate and long-term priorities.

Other priorities would be to examine how MCC relates to other groups such as Mennonite World Conference and the Brethren in Christ church, as well as how the agency perceives its role on the global stage.

Board treasurer Vidya Narimalla said he was excited about MCC’s governance dialogue but asked why the perception exists that non-Anabaptists cannot survive in MCC’s power structure.

“There’s definitely a perception that outsiders don’t make it inside the system, can’t make it inside the system,” Narimalla said.

Board member Asrat Gebre, an African American, also expressed concern that more people of colour aren’t represented in MCC’s leadership.

“It’s a white, male-dominated organization,” Gebre said. “So how do you change that? But I am optimistic.”

Lobe said he was convinced that people of non-Mennonite background could succeed at MCC, as long as they share the agency’s “high view of the church.”

In other business

The board heard a proposed budget from MCC controller Ken Langeman that would spend down some of the reserves MCC accrued for relief work after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The board approved a 2007–08 budget projecting $42.5 million in income against $46.7 million in expenses, with the deficit including the spend-down in reserve funds for tsunami relief. About $4.5 million was expected to be spent on tsunami-related work. MCC’s work in Palestine also was to receive about $1.6 million in expenditures. About $4.7 million was to be spent on shipments of relief supplies to Darfur, followed closely by aid to Iraq.

Ten Thousand Villages CEO Craig Schloneger reported a record year for the fair-trade artisan stores affiliated with MCC. Schloneger said the stores produced $23.5 million in sales during the last fiscal year, an uptick of 17 percent. The chain, which has about 200 stores in the United States and Canada, also opened six new stores, built a new warehouse, started a chain-wide gift card program, and held learning tours to visit artisans in Vietnam, Cambodia, Kenya, and Uganda.

—Robert Rhodes for Meetinghouse