The District Service Center is open for business!
By Brant Henshaw | Photo by Jesse N. Love
In November 2013, the support for three districts and their superintendents consolidated with a smooth transition to a new model of working. In mid-December, the Vancouver District joined the Puget Sound, Seattle, and Seven Rivers Districts within the shared support system. The Tacoma and Inland Districts will join in March and July, respectively.
So how did we get to this new model of working?
As the recovery from recession took hold in 2010-11, several United Methodist Conferences around the country studied and then moved to consolidate multiple district offices into a central working area. Internally in 2012, the PNW Treasurer’s office began to seriously look at this structure as a way to hold costs in check and continue to shrink the Conference budget as a way to relieve pressure off of the local churches’ shared ministry (apportionment) costs. At the end of that year, the Appointive Cabinet considered a proposal to not have a physical office outside of their home.
The move to this new model came with the recognition that most local church contact with their district office comes from:
• E-mail
• Phone calls
• USPS
• Face-to-face visits.
With a reduction in infrastructure (offices, copiers, phone lines, etc.) which we had multiples of, it is projected to save $120,000 in the first year (2% of the Conference budget) with additional savings in the second year. Already, we had a pilot situation to learn from with the Puget Sound District working from home offices and we had the workspace of the Seattle District office in which to house your team of admins.
A talented, personable team of three has been brought together to:
• Enable streamlined and consistent communication among all ministry settings
• Provide information and answer questions in a timely fashion
• Provide administrative support to the superintendents.
Jonathan Assink
Seattle • seadist@pnwumc.org
Vancouver • vancouver@pnwumc.org
Skylar Bihl
Seven Rivers • sevenrivers@pnwumc.org
Tacoma (starting March/April) • tacomadist@pnwumc.org
Jan Hiatt
Puget Sound • Pugetsound@pnwumc.org
Inland (starting 7/1) • Inland@pnwumc.org
The District Service Center provides for the administrative needs of the superintendents and resources local churches. The DS’s have had to adjust to working from virtual offices even more than they had in the past and develop new patterns of workflow with documents, calendaring, etc. The Service Center brings a collaborative approach to providing service to the churches of each district. Each administrative assistant serves as a primary contact for two districts, but is able to answer general questions for all districts.
Any of them can be reached via phone at 1-888-818-4288 and by fax at 206-870-6811
A District Service Center team member will be at each District Training event this Spring and will be assisting with registration at Annual Conference. Please introduce yourself to them so they can get to know the churches and people doing ministry.
Interesting and very important concept. As an employee of a company that does a lot of “virtual meetings and virtual contact” it is important to get a face to face meeting occasionally (other than at annual conference) so that the faces and the intentions and concerns are more clear. That way the virtual paradigm has a much better chance of enriching rather than separating our group conversation and tasks and support.