Council for Health and Human Service Ministries

From the President

Photo of Bryan Sickbert In 2005, CHHSM adopted Filling Our Basin, a five-year strategic vision developed through a thorough examination of our organization's value, vision and governance. Here's what we said we wanted to do:

  • Achieves value for our members by managing and nurturing their relationship to the UCC and providing programs and networks that advance members' identity and integrity as faith-based ministries.
  • Provides added value by brokering access to business partnerships that create opportunities for members to realize benefits that exceed the cost of CHHSM membership.

Filling Our Basin has not sat on the shelf gathering dust. Nearly every aspect of what we do at CHHSM--and, through telecommuting, even where we do it--has changed since 2005. As we near the five-year mark of Filling Our Basin, the board and the staff spent time at the November board meeting evaluating what's new, what's worked and what hasn't, and what we want to reconsider.

You can see the presentation from the board meeting below, but here are a few highlights:

  • Since 2005, we've reduced overhead by $40,000/year and saved our membership $3,093,000 through business services programs.
  • We've consecrated 43 Diakonal Ministers and introduced 300 CHHSM leaders to appreciative practices.
  • We've established and nurtured partnerships with the Pension Boards-UCC, Financial Development Ministries, United Church Funds and several vendors. These relationships have helped us build a non-dues revenue stream and provide flexible business services that can adapt to market conditions and membership needs.
  • Our annual meeting is stronger and better attended.
  • Board and staff members have visited 94% of CHHSM members, and we've renewed strong connections with many UCC conferences and regional CHHSM groups.

We've faced some challenges, too:

  • Although our business services and consulting services are successful and efficient for members who use them, the growth curve has been steep.
  • Telecommuting saves us money and time, but we've learned that we also have to schedule time for the entire staff team to be together.
  • CHHSM's geographic regions allow us to form closer relationships with members and UCC conferences, but our regional boundaries don't always align with our member's relationships.
  • The Diakonal Ministry program is strong, but the ecumenical Faith-Based Leadership Institute through which we have delivered it is not sustainable. We need to explore new ways of delivering this core CHHSM experience.

Overall, we have concluded that the value proposition and business model developed through Filling Our Basin is a sound foundation on which to build CHHSM's work for the next five years. We will tweak where needed and reinvent where required. But the framework of the plan continues to provide a platform from which we can strategically and generatively pursue CHHSM's mission to sustain and advance the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.

Bryan W. Sickbert
President/CEO

Filling Our Basin

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