Oct. 15 and 17 members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) met to interview potential strategic planning facilitators to assist the Council of Elders in creating a fully updated Strategic Plan for the United Church of God. (See "Council Pursues Blueprint for the Future," September/October issue, page 1, for more background.) At its August meeting the Council of Elders appointed a three-member Search Committee to begin a candidate search with the hope that interviews could be held just before or after the Feast of Tabernacles. Three strong candidates from firms in Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Atlanta were selected, and all agreed to meet at the home office in mid-October. Vic Kubik, Larry Salyer, Dave Register, Roy Holladay, Clyde Kilough, Bob Dick and Search Committee members Jason Lovelady, Dee Kilough and Linda Register were present for half-day interviews with the three candidates. Request for Proposal Each candidate was initially sent a formal document, referred to as the Request for Proposal, which outlined who we are and what we were seeking. Clearly outlined in the five-page document was the fact that we came into existence to preserve our doctrines and practices at a time they were being abandoned. It was further explained that members of the Council of Elders had in multiple cases more than 40 years of dedication to these beliefs and practices, and our desire was to more effectively carry out our mission of preaching the gospel and preparing a people. Candidates were given a copy of our mission and vision statements and a general census of our physical size as a church and the scope of our work to acquaint them with who we are. Work More Effectively and Bear More Fruit In an introduction to each interview, as chairman of the Council of Elders, I explained to each candidate that our beliefs and practices are deeply rooted and closely held, resulting in a highly focused organization in terms of our mission and our vision. While many organizations may hire a facilitator to help them better understand their mission, that is not our objective. Our search is for a person who can help us map out a plan to do our work more effectively and develop the physical skills to, in our terminology, bear more fruit. Presentations and Negotiations With an understanding of our needs, each candidate put forward a proposal on how their organization could help us. At our request, proposals focused on coaching the Council of Elders in the development of an updated strategic plan with measurable results. One of the requests made of each candidate in our Request for Proposal was to assist us in,"developing a strategic plan that will help administration identify, prioritize, measure and assess our key programs and outcomes that are critical to successfully accomplishing the Church's mission and strategic plan." Interviews ended mid-afternoon, Wednesday, Oct. 17, and the committee members spent the rest of the day comparing candidate strengths and rankings. Jason Lovelady was asked to further negotiate with the preferred candidate on customizing their proposal to better fit our needs. Next Steps in the Process On Nov. 1, as this article is going to press, the committee will be meeting by teleconference to see if there are any last-minute changes to be considered before entering a formal contract. Once one of the three candidates is formally selected, the committee will begin to work on arranging meetings and interviews with Council of Elders, home office staff and others as we work together on a new strategic plan to be presented to the General Conference of Elders. UN