SCC

FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

Auldwin Humphrey Auldwin Humphrey Secretary (Ext. 129)


Margaret Weathers
Margaret Weathers
Administrative Assistant for Executive Secretary
(Ext. 132)

Monthly Update From the Executive Secretary

I received an E-mail from a good friend of mine, reminding me to update my Website. It was not that I did not know that my Website needed to be updated. But sometimes, you just need to be reminded that someone else notices. Besides, I am always on the Church Clerks to keep their church Website updated, so I need to follow my own advice.

I promised you a “behind-the-scenes” look at Campmeeting. Most people have no idea of how much it takes to put together a Campmeeting-so many details. I wanted to have you kind of follow me around for one day of Campmeeting so you could have an idea of the enormous work that a lot of people do in order to make Campmeeting work.

I couldn’t do this the way I planned, but I can give you a little idea:

My “Campmeeting” starts a few days before the real Campmeeting begins. Actually, my Campmeeting preparation starts earlier than even that-late March or April, or, for the President’s office, earlier than that. But around late March or April, the Communications Department of the conference, led by our Director, Elder Michael Harpe, and his secretary, Mrs. Ellowyn Bell, begin asking the Conference Officers and the Departmental Leaders to give them their Campmeeting seminar information ( the names of their seminars, who’s doing them, etc.)

That is fairly easy for me. My office schedules a meeting with the Church clerk and a meeting with the Constitution and Bylaws Committee every Campmeeting. I usually ask my Administrative Assistant, Mrs. Weathers to get the information to Elder Harpe’s office before the deadline and I am through with that part .

My first pre-Campmeeting meeting is with Mrs. Sabrina Cotton, Vice President for Finance at Oakwood University and the Conference Treasurer, Philip G. Palmer. We meet in Huntsville, the first Sunday in May. Vice President Cotton also arranges to have the Chief of Security for Oakwood University, Lewis Eakins, and by phone, others join as well.

The main topic of discussion for this particular meeting are buildings that we need to use for Campmeeting. It is not simply a matter of informing Oakwood University and Oakwood University SDA Church of what buildings that we need . First, we have to talk to Oakwood University about those buildings. Which ones are available? Which ones are being used for summer school? Which ones are being renovated and as such, are not available ?

Even before that, there has to be a meeting with Elder Auldwin Humphrey, our Ministerial Director, who coordinates our seminars. He tells us what buildings that he would like to be able to use and we address that with Vice President Cotton.


Then, the focus moves to Chief Eakins, for it is his security staff who will need to open the buildings and rooms that we need opened. So, the questions now get directed at him: Here’s what we need opened and when-can you open what we need open when we need it opened? Here are the times that we think we’ll need extra security-will that be a problem? What about parking? Will our staff members who need special parking passes and/or reserved parking spaces be able to get them? When can they get them? We discuss other security issues that can’t be discussed here ( for reasons of security).

My next major pre-Campmeeting meeting comes a few days later. I meet in my office with the Camp Superintendent, Elder G.L. Byars, the Children’s Ministries Director, Mrs. Brenda Harrigan, the Children’s Ministries Campmeeting Coordinator, Mrs. Emyria Furman, the Campmeeting Seminar Coordinator, Elder Auldwin Humphrey, the Youth Director, Elder Vandeon Griffin, the Associate Youth Director, Elder R.C. Parham the then ABC Manager, Ron Dickerson and the Transportation Coordinator, Ozia Brown. The Prayer Ministries Coordinator, Elder I. Roy Rugless joins us via phone.

This meeting is mostly about facilities and equipment. Who wants to meet where? Who needs musical instruments? Who needs musicians to play those instruments? Who needs tables? Who needs chairs? How many do you need? When do you need them? What kind of audio/visual equipment do you need?

Based on this meeting, I send out 2 memorandums. One is to the Treasury Department, who is responsible for getting the audio-visual equipment that we need. The other is to the Cleveland Wilson, the Campmeeting Music Coordinator, who is responsible for getting the musical instruments that we need.

Right about this time, I make my 2008 Campmeeting Manual. It is a 12 page book that outlines the Campmeeting-related things that needs to be done by my office before, during and after Campmeeting. It lists what has to be done relative to Campmeeting, who is supposed to do it, when it is supposed be done, and a place to check off when it gets done. There are 4 copies; one for me, one for the Administrative Assistant to the Conference Executive Secretary, one for the temporary secretary that works in my office around this time of year, and one for my mother ( she likes to read it). My copy goes with me virtually everywhere during Campmeeting, including, on the pulpit during Divine Worship. Because each Campmeeting is a little different, a different book gets made every year.

The biggest obstacle for me, coming out of these meetings, is getting enough tables and chairs for Campmeeting. At this second meeting, when everyone gets through telling me how many chairs and tables they need ( the biggest request for tables and chairs comers from the Children’s Ministries Department-their program is growing by leaps and bounds), I discover that I am going to need about 2,000 chairs and about 100 tables. The conference does not have that much of either ( though we probably bought that many chairs, once upon a time ).


Therefore, from the time that I arrive on the Sunday before Campmeeting until Campmeeting begins ( and, this year, even after that) much of my time is spent chasing down tables and chairs. First, I’ll ask Ozia Brown, the conference’s Print Room and Transportation Manager, to give me a hard count on exactly how many chairs the conference has. Then, beginning that Monday before Campmeeting, I begin making my “chair and table rounds”, where, between the University, the University Church and several of the other local churches, I talk to every entity I know, asking them the same question; “Can you let me borrow every table and chair that you have for Campmeeting? “ To get all the tables and chairs that I need, I talk to 9 different entities. Everyone is so cooperative, for which, I am very grateful.

The only bad thing is that that means picking up tables and chairs in 10 different places ( the 10th place is a storage facility in Huntsville that the conference rents) over a period of 4 or 5 days, using 5 different vehicles, 3 of whom we have to rent. In addition to arranging the rentals, my office arranges for drivers for those vehicles, and, in the situation that calls for an overnight stay for one of the drivers, arrange for a hotel room. Then, once we are finished using those tables and chairs, arranging to have them returned to all of the places from where we got them and getting all of the rental vehicles ( which are all trucks).

It takes about 4 days to set up for Campmeeting. A big part of that is putting up the 7 tents that are used during Campmeeting. We bring the younger Pastors in early and they set up everything, under the leadership of Camp Superintendent Elder G.L. Byars. They do outstanding work.

The work doesn’t stop once Campmeeting begins. There is always something that needs adjusting, coordinating, changing. For example, on Sabbath, there are large crowds. That means, that we have to provide overflow areas. Those overflow areas have to selected, opened, equipped and that equipment checked to make sure that it is working properly. I usually get security to take me around in a golfcart to check all of that.

Additionally, since everyone is together, there are always a lot of meetings during Campmeeting. In addition to our daily 8:30 a.m. Pastors Meeting, during Campmeeing, I was involved in meetings with the following groups: The Church Clerks, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, the Conference Pastors ( as a whole) , the Conference’s Ministerial Interns, the Pastor’s Wives, the Women’s Ministries Leaders, the Conference Office Secretaries, Supplemental Retirement Participants and the Conference Personnel Committee.

We start taking things down on Thursday. It literally takes all day Thursday and all day Friday-you have no idea. The goal is to finish before 10:00 a.m. on the final Sunday of Campmeeting. We have one final conference staff meeting in the university cafeteria. We eat together, the Conference President makes some remarks, and everyone goes home.

Well, that is just a little about some of what happens behind the scenes during Campmeeting. I believe that Campmeeting is a wonderful and blessed time. But, it takes God, and, a whole lot of His people, working a whole lot of hours, to make it all happen.

August/September Sabbath Schedule for the Conference Secretary

2- Memphis Longview Heights
16-Greenwood, Mississippi
23- Tuscaloosa ( Maranatha), Alabama
30- Jackson( Mississippi) New Heights


September

6- Lexington Lima Drive-Spanish
13- Frankfort, Kentucky
20- Vicksburg, Mississippi
27- Pastor’s Retreat ( Gunthersville, Alabama