[1]DALLAS (BP)–The Southern Baptist Business Officers Conference met in Dallas March 17-19. The conference elected Stephens L. Baumgardner, director of the Florida Baptist Convention’s business services division, as general chairman for 1998 and honored Roger W. Hall of Dallas with the Taylor Daniel Award of Merit.
The conference, founded in 1963 with the encouragement of the Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, has continued under Annuity Board sponsorship through 34 annual meetings at the board’s Dallas offices.
In 1963, there were 32 business officers of colleges and seminaries present. Their program included workshops on fringe benefits, accounting and problem-solving. The following year a meeting was added for state convention officers.
Since then, the conference has grown to its present five divisions: Benevolent Institutions, Churches, Educational Institutions, Agencies, and Conventions & Foundations. Attendance this year was 180, with representation almost evenly divided between church and agency/institution members.
The general chairman is elected annually from the five divisions on a rotating basis.
Issac Flores, business manager for the Hispanic Baptist Theological Seminary in San Antonio, Texas, was general chairman for the 1997 conference, with a theme of “The Power for Change Beyond What We Ask or Think,” based on Ephesians 3:20. Member participants and guest consultants led 23 separate workshops of specific interest to the five divisions.
[2]Dan Pryor, a management and leadership specialist from Pryor and Pryor of Dallas, led three plenary sessions on the topic, “Our Personal Response to Change — the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Elected to serve with Baumgardner to plan the 1998 conference are divisional representatives: Dixie Martin, Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home; Terry Cothran, Gwinnett Metro Baptist Association, Lawrenceville, Ga.; Nancy Mihura, Oklahoma Baptist University; Steve Lawrence, Baptist Sunday School Board; and Barry Shirley, Mississippi Baptist Convention Board. Diana Anderson, executive secretary in the institutional accounts department of the Annuity Board’s marketing division, was re-elected secretary-treasurer.
Roger W. Hall, chief financial officer and treasurer for the executive board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, received the 1997 Taylor Daniel Award of Merit from the conference.
The award was endowed by the Daniel family in 1989 to provide annual recognition for an outstanding practitioner in the field and discipline of Baptist business and to honor the memory of the late L. Taylor Daniel who was an executive officer for the Annuity Board almost 20 years. Daniel was instrumental in the founding and development of the Southern Baptist Business Officers Conference.
Hall was presented the award Monday evening at a dinner hosted by the Annuity Board. The veteran business officer was cited for going beyond the duties of accountant and administrator to become “a caring individual (who) always has time to listen and respond to requests for help concerning both your business and personal problems.”
An ordained minister and certified public accountant, Hall came to his present position in 1983 from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo., where he received a theological degree and was vice president of financial affairs. He previously served as director of business services for the Missouri Baptist Convention. His undergraduate degree was from Southwest Missouri University, where he taught accounting and served as vice president of development and planned giving. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army in which he held the rank of captain and served in Vietnam.
Hall and his wife, Donna, are members of First Baptist Church of Oak Cliff in Dallas where he serves as a deacon. They have two married daughters and two grandchildren.
Also held in conjunction with the business officers’ conference was this year’s meeting of the Southern Baptist Computer Users organization.
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