November 27, 2002

NASHVILLE – The United Methodist Church's U.S. association for church secretaries received approval for a program of advanced certification to supplement its existing certification process.

The Professional Association of United Methodist Church Secretaries had submitted a proposal to the denomination's General Council on Finance and Administration that was approved Nov. 23 by the council's directors.

The association represents nearly 600 members in local churches, general agencies and other offices throughout the denomination.

The group had sent its proposal for the advanced certification program to the finance agency a month earlier, requesting authorization and a $5,000 grant from the General Administration Contingency Fund for 2003. The grant would cover 45 percent of the program's cost for the first year, with the remainder coming from the member registration and the association.

The proposal also included a request that the denomination's finance agency budget $5,000 every other year starting in 2005, to support the certification program, with a 10 percent increase over the previous amount for each two-year period.

The secretaries' association has offered a certification program to its members for 17 years. The advanced program will give certified members an opportunity for continuing education. About 500 church secretaries have become certified since the program began in 1985.

Before the vote, the proposal had received approval from finance agency's connectional services and finance committees.

Curriculum for the advanced certification will focus on communication skills, self-assessment, conflict management, theology and the church, balancing life and work, time management and an individual project to be chosen by the member with assistance from an instructor. Individual projects will focus on value to the church or community and personal development.

The association will notify its members of the program by mail. The program will begin with a Feb. 21-22 session at United Methodist-related Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

Sheilah Kyburtz, the association's national president, said the advanced certification would be "beneficial to church secretaries and all churches ... especially in this day and age with things changing so quickly." She expressed appreciation for the finance agency's long-standing support of the group.

More information is available at www.paumcs.org, the association's Web site.

United Methodist News Service