Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
178.1-178.2 below), this maintains a
level of staffing with the centre-based
staff teams which is broadly similar
to the staffing level recommended
by the 2007 Conference primarily to
oversee the education and formation
of student ministers. Clearly the
responsibilities of the centre-based
staff teams within the Network are
far from limited to the education
and formation of student ministers;
equally capacity has been built
into the regional teams to support
the education and formation of
student ministers. Consequently
the Committee is confident that the
provision of 16 posts across the
centre-based staff teams is both a
prudent and sufficient investment of
resources.
176 Both Cliff College and the Queen’s
Foundation already support a number
of staff posts which are not funded by
the Methodist Church. This reflects
the fact that both centres already
serve significant constituencies
outside and beyond the life of the
Methodist Church – self-supporting
students in the case of Cliff College
and, in the case of the Queen’s
Foundation, a mixture of Anglican
ordinands and self-supporting
students. While the Committee
expects that posts sustained through
fee income and other partnerships
within the centres will be seen as
posts within the Discipleship and
Ministries Learning Network of
the Methodist Church, it is also
recognised that posts sustained in
this way to serve needs which are
outside the goals of the Network
will be additional posts within the
centre-based staff teams to the 16
posts identified here. The Committee
expects that bonds of colleagueship
and the exchange of ideas and
expertise among the Network’s
staff – whatever their location and
whatever the source of the funding
which supports their particular post
– will be a welcome, energising and
connexional mark of the Network.
177 Both of the centres identified
below have and will continue to
require bursarial staff, working to
support administrative, domestic,
premises-based and other bursarial
functions. For the avoidance of doubt,
these are not included within the
posts discussed here, which are
practitioner-educationalist posts. An
allowance for bursarial staff is made
within the financial arrangements
proposed for the centres.
The coordinating team
178 We recommend the establishment of
a coordinating team within the single
team of expert staff. The coordinating
team will be made up of eight posts:
178.1 A director (principal) of Cliff College:
with responsibility for overseeing the
community of faith at Cliff College,
for the performance, efficiency and
effectiveness of the centre and
its staff team, and for the centre’s
contribution towards the goals of the
Network; with responsibility also for
the aspects of the life of the centre
Conference Agenda 2012 715