Last year the Pacific Union executive committee voted to reduce expenses by making one of their quarterly meetings a telephone conference. Their September 5 meeting was the first such teleconference. Union officers and local conference presidents, who were already together for Presidents Council, met at the union office; others participated by phone.

The main item of business was selecting a new union president, to replace Tom Mostert, who will retire at the end of the year, after serving for nearly 22 years. Ricardo Graham, union executive secretary, noted that when a president is chosen at a constituency session, the nominating committee is made up of the union executive committee, plus eleven other representatives. But the Pacific Union bylaws state that when a president is replaced between sessions, they are chosen by the executive committee alone. That selection will be made at the next meeting, November 15.

But the process started at the September meeting. Almost immediately Mostert left the room and Don Schneider, North American Division president, assumed the chair—by phone.

Schnieder asked the committee members to send him two things before Oct. 25: the criteria, attributes and skills they believe are most important for the next union president, and the name or names of those they believe should be considered for the position. Schneider said he will compile the names submitted, add their employment history, and return the complete list to committee members at least two weeks before the next meeting. On November 15 the committee will discuss the names and choose one by a series of secret ballots. The committee voted to approve this process, then invited Mostert back in to chair the remainder of the meeting.

The committee next approved ordinations to ministry for eight candidates: Justino Aguilar, Bryan Del Valle, William Gager, Thomas Calton Garner, Ron Gerking, Stephan D. Mackey, and Daniel Efrain Suarez, all from the Central California Conference, and Michael Elias, from the Southern California Conference.

They also voted ministerial scholarships/internships for Heather Marie Barbian and Clifford Stephenson Lim, from the Southeastern California Conference; Tiago Arrias, Christopher Famisarian, Yonny Jimenez, Derick Littrell, Tony Parrish and Chad Washburn, from the SCC; and E.J. Collins from the Northern California Conference. And they approved Anthony Kelley, also from SCC, to pursue a Doctor of Ministry degree.

The committee voted to continue sending the monthly Adventist Review to every Adventist in the Pacific Union. (If you are not getting it, check with your church clerk).