General Conference Bulletin, vol. 5
GENERAL PLAN FOR REORGANIZATION OF INSTITUTIONS
W. T. Knox
1. All institutions to be owned directly by the people, either. General Conference, Union Conference, State Conference, or organized mission field. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.5
2. The electors or constituents of each institution to be the membership of the denominational body owning same. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.6
3. Where possible under existing corporation law, the controlling boards of all institutions to be elected by the Conference. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.7
4. The power of all boards to be limited as follows: (a) No disposal or transfer of institutional property to be made without a vote of the electors or constituents authorizing same; (b) no large additions or extensions to be made to existing institutions without the electors or constituents authorizing the needed improvements; (c) changes and amendments to be made to Articles of Incorporation only by action of electors. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.8
5. Where institutions are of a profit-earning nature, the Articles of Incorporation to be so formed that the electors or constituents be empowered to appropriate the profits at each annual meeting to either the betterment of the existing institution or to the starting or advancement of some other missionary, philanthropic, or benevolent enterprise. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.9
6. Where the law is such that Conference trust associations can not operate institutions, that the Conference Association is recommended to own the property, and same to be operated by a corporation created for the express purpose of operating said plant, but the operating company is to be responsible to, and controlled directly by the Seventh-day Adventist Conference, as far as possible under existing state laws. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.10
7. All institutional property to be treated as departments of Conference work, and where possible to be represented on the Conference Committee. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.11
8. That an advisory committee of three be appointed by this Conference for the study of institutions and to render such assistance in the carrying out of these recommendations as may lie in their power. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.12
C. H. Parsons,
W. T. Knox,
L. R. Conradi,
S. H. Lane,
W. D. Salisbury,
Committee.
With the reading of this report, I move its adoption. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.13
E. T. Russell: I second the motion. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.14
The Chair: It is open for remarks. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.15
C. H. Parsons: I wish to offer a few words of explanation as to what was in the mind of the committee on these various recommendations. First, the idea is that all institutions,—publishing, educational, or sanitariums,—should be owned directly by the people, either General Conference, Union Conference, state conference, or organized mission field. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.16
We start out with the accepted proposition that the parties that create the institution, that is, the section of the denomination that creates the institution, should be entitled to ownership. We do not mean in this that the ministers are to own it, or that the doctors are to own it, or that the professors are to own it, but that the people of the conference are to own it; that physicians, ministers, educational men, and people alike, should become united in their efforts to make the institution a success; that this thing of division among us into bodies, representing distinct lines of thought, should cease, and we should become united in all this work. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.17
There is no drive at any individual, or any set of individuals. All we have in mind in connection with this is to get together as brethren and united in all of the work. I am a firm believer in the doctrine that it takes everything in the third angel’s message to make a complete Christian. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.18
You will notice that we have General Conferences. Union Conferences, state conferences, or mission fields. It may be in the order of God’s providence that each one of these, or some of them, will have to own institutions. We can not tell how that will be worked out, and we did not desire to limit the operations of the plan. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.19
C. N. Woodward: Now this is an important question. I wish it could be printed before we consider it. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.20
On motion, action was deferred until printed, and the matter was made the special order for the next meeting. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.21
The Committee on Plans and Constitution submitted a further partial report, one resolution only being prepared, as follows:— GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.22
“We recommend, That the General Conference offices be removed from Battle Creek, Mich., to some place favorable for its work in the Atlantic states.” GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.23
After questions and suggestions regarding further report of the committee bearing on the same question, it was voted to defer consideration until a further report could be made. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.24
On motion, Judge Jesse Arthur was invited to address the Conference on the subject of the investment offered in the bonds issued for the rebuilding of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. While the matter was being discussed, it was voted that certain provisions of the trust deed should be printed on slips for the delegates, and the Conference adjourned. GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.25
W. T. Knox, Chairman.
H. E. Osborne, Secretary.
A Correction
Through an oversight for which the editors are not responsible, an omission of a few words occurred in paragraph seven of Sister White’s talk on Wednesday morning. April 1, on “Unity of Effort.” published on page 58 of the last number of the “Bulletin.” The paragraph should have read as follows, the italicized words indicating the words omitted:— GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.26
“And let me say that God does not design that the sanitarium that has been erected in Battle Creek shall be in vain. He wants His people to understand this. Now that the building has been put up, He wants this institution to be placed on vantage ground. He does not want His people to be looked upon by the enemy as a people that is going out of sight.” GCB April 3, 1903, page 67.27