LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 112

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112

SYNOD REPORTS
Department of General Services

Department of Human Resources

In support of our Lord’s command to the Church to share the news
of the forgiveness that is ours in Christ, the Department of General
Services is responsible for “developing and administering building,
information and office support services to the entities of the LCMS
International Center properties and other corporate organizations
of the church in their support of the LCMS mission and ministry
objectives.”
General Services is comprised of the following service operations: Business Services, Research Services, Facility Services,
Purchasing Services, Travel and Meeting Planning, and the Office
of Rosters and Statistics. These groups serve all four corporate and
trust entities housed in the LCMS International Center properties
(The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Concordia Plan Services,
the LCMS Foundation, and the Lutheran Church Extension Fund).
Approximately 30 full- and part-time employees presently work in
these five areas.
• Business Services contains units in General Services that support
business activities of the entities housed at the International Center
as well as district offices, congregations, recognized service organizations (RSOs) and rostered church workers.
• Research Services provides a full range of research design and
analysis services. Over the past three years, Research Services has
provided a great deal of assistance to the seminaries, various districts, and the Res. 8-07A Task Force, which is considering how
LCMS districts might be configured in coming years. Another significant effort included developing a pilot project with the Missouri
District to study the relationship between congregations and the district office.
• Facility Services provides support services to the International
Center in St. Louis. Major projects undertaken by the Building
Operations unit of Facility Services over the past three years include
the relocation of the KFUO studios from the seminary campus to
the International Center and the installation of a generator to provide backup power to the IC to allow critical business processes
to continue in the event of an extended outage. Crossroads Café is
operated by Facility Services and provides cafeteria, vending, and
catering services to the IC properties.
• Purchasing Services works with International Center organizations
to develop purchasing requirements and bid specifications for the
procurement of goods and services. Additionally, Purchasing oversees the LCMS Group Purchasing Agreement, which negotiates
volume-based discount pricing with selected vendors on behalf of
8,000+ churches, schools, and other LCMS organizations.
• Travel and Meeting Planning provides event-planning services,
including travel, housing, transportation, and conference needs for
LCMS organizations. These services are provided for events across
the country, including the Synod’s conventions. Since the 2010
LCMS convention, this department has planned or assisted with
over a thousand external (off-site) events, accommodating an estimated 200,000 people. In addition, Travel and Meeting supported
more than 15,000 meetings and activities at the International Center
buildings during that same period.
• The Office of Rosters and Statistics compiles and maintains the
official LCMS rosters of congregations and church workers.
Additionally, this office maintains rosters of schools, congregational lay leaders, recognized service organizations, and LCMS
high school youth. Much of this information is available on the
LCMS Web site and is available to all congregations, schools, districts, and boards, as well as to other approved organizations.
David Fiedler, Executive Director (until recently)

The Department of Human Resources provides leadership to
the human-resources function in service to church workers at the
International Center and those throughout the Synod. The department is keenly focused on creating a caring and supportive work
environment so that employees may give their most effective service
to the Lord and to the Synod. The department has a direct relationship to the Synod Board of Directors and endeavors to support the
Board of Directors’ philosophy “to be good stewards of the dollars
entrusted to us, pay fair salaries, and reward performance in order to
be able to attract, motivate, and retain employees.” The Department
of Human Resources coordinates the development and administration of personnel policies, procedures, and supporting systems within
and between boards, commissions, departments, entities, and agencies of the Synod.
During the last triennium, the department was intimately involved
with the 2010 convention resolutions to restructure corporate Synod.
The department assisted with the analysis of the functions required in
the new structure and helped develop organization charts and position
descriptions. Each position was evaluated, re-pointed (grade classified), and assigned to the appropriate area. Human Resources staff
worked on or provided technical support to the restructuring work
groups. The department was an integral part of the communications
team to ensure the employees were kept apprised of the status of the
initiative.
As the Department of Human Resources endeavors to continually
refine the day-to-day processes and procedures, the major goals for
the next triennium are (1) the development of proficiency and compliance training; (2) implementing Lutheran U for all International
Center employees; (3) improved employee communication tools;
(4) enhanced automated processes, and (5) continued upgrades to
the Human Resource Information System. Accomplishment of these
objectives will lead to enhanced services to boards, commissions,
agencies, departments, and corporate entities supported by the Synod
so that they can concentrate on giving their most effective service to
their mission.
Val Rhoden-Kimbrough, Executive Director

2013 Convention Workbook

Department of Information Technology

The Information Technology (IT) department manages LCMS
information technology services, resources, and strategy. It provides
information technology services to LCMS corporate Synod (boards,
commissions, departments, and offices) and the LCMS Foundation.
The strategically aligned services provided by the IT department and the vendors it manages include network administration,
data management and application hosting, network security management, software development and maintenance, e-mail, Internet
access, Web-application hosting, personal productivity and collaboration, IT support desk (help desk and microcomputer support),
technical training, and IT project and policy management. The IT
department currently supports the technology needs of more than
500 business users.
Technological advances continue to impact our world and our
church body in significant ways. The pace of those advances and
the evolving needs of corporate Synod and the LCMS Foundation
challenge us to make appropriate use of God’s gift of technology.
The IT department’s services align with Information Technology
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards and enable the department
accountably to serve the Synod and the LCMS Foundation with the
best possible stewardship.
Over the past triennium, the IT department has led or supported
the following initiatives: the many IT-related activities associated with
the restructuring of the national office of the LCMS and the Witness,