LC: 24. RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONTINENTAL OFFICERS
All the points listed under this section are things that our CROs already do, but including them in the Charter will make it clear to all what the job of the CRO entails and what is expected of them.
Continental officers are responsible to:
A. Fulfill the Obligations of all Family Officers.
B. Regularly keep WS leadership informed of their personal activities, and the general activities of their continental area.
C. Determine major decisions by simple majority vote of their teamwork of officers. In the event of a tie vote, the officers must submit the question to WS leadership.
Because our leadership operates in teamworks, there is no one individual that has sole authority or responsibility. Major CRO decisions must therefore be made by a majority vote of the CRO teamwork after prayer and discussion about the matter. Not every matter has to be decided through voting. However, the major ones, which affect the overall area and/or teamwork need to be decided in counsel and prayer together.
Decisions must be made in counsel, first of all with the Lord, and then together and in agreement on all major decisions. Let their councils make a united decision on these things, no individual making that final decision, but the council making the decision. ... I mean, as well meaning as anyone might be, as good as their motive might be, nobody, no one person alone, has the wisdom, nor should take the responsibility of making such major decisions. They must be made as united decisions of the body (ML #301A:5,7).
In the case of any tie votes ... we ourselves can cast the deciding vote, M & M [WS leadership] (ML #336A:34).
D. Immediately inform WS leadership of all matters having, or with the potential to have a major effect on their, or any other, continental area.
Besides general reporting, the CROs need to keep WS leadership informed of anything out of the ordinary that they perceive is going to have a major effect on the Family in their area, or other areas, for either good or bad.
E. Operate an efficient office to process the Charter Homes' monthly reports and coordinate all necessary communications with the Homes, area officers and WS leadership, as well as offer counsel to the Homes and area officers when deemed necessary.
Every CRO needs to maintain an office to handle the administrative duties for their area, including the reading and processing of Home TRFs, as well as coordination of communications between the different levels of leadership.
We are going to [have Continental Reporting Offices] with only a small, efficient and economical staff to handle all of your ... reports, stats and funds, and to be responsible directly to World Services under our immediate supervision (ML #832:16).
F. Distribute all designated WS literature and communications to the Homes in their continental area.
Each CRO area is responsible to make sure WS mailings are prepared and sent to the Homes, as well as any other communications World Services requests to be passed on to the Homes.
G. When possible, feasible and necessary, to the best of their ability, supply their continental area Homes with important WS publications in the local language.
It is not possible for the CROs to ensure that the national disciples in every language area get the pubs in their language, and especially not all the CM pubs. Unfortunately, we simply do not have the manpower or the resources needed to translate all the CM pubs, or even many GP or DFO pubs into so many languages. However, when it is possible, feasible and necessary, an attempt should be made to do so.
In some language areas we have LIMs which reproduce virtually all the major World Services publications in their local languages. However, in other areas, where the national Family population is not so large, we have Lit-Pics instead of LIMs to translate some of the Family pubs mainly for GP consumption, and occasionally various other pubs for our national disciples. In other areas where there are very few nationals, it has been necessary for the nationals to learn English in order to read Family pubs.
Let's only print the magazine in languages where there's wide distribution and great need, and possibly [have] LIT-PICs who print only the pick-of-lit that is most needed in your particular language area (ML #970:12).
H. Make available, to the best of their ability and resources, good quality outreach tools in an appropriate language to the Homes in their continental area, and oversee the centers that produce such tools.
1. The continental office, with WS leadership approval, may authorize Homes to duplicate their own outreach tools when warranted.
2. The continental office must approve any non-WS audio or video tools produced in their area for GP distribution within a single country.
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a) Non-WS tools to be used for GP distribution in more than one country require WS leadership approval, unless WS leadership grants permission for the continental office to approve the tool for use throughout their continental area.
3. Homes may duplicate WS-produced black-and-white tracts.
The CROs are responsible to supply, as best they can, outreach tools for their area. This is generally accomplished through Service Centers (SCs), which the CRO is responsible to oversee in order to guarantee a continued flow of outreach tools to the Homes.
There may be occasions when an SC will not be able to service a Home or Homes, either because the Home is too distant, or for a number of other reasons. In such a case the continental office may, with WS leadership permission, authorize a Home to reproduce the WS outreach tools on their own instead of being supplied from a SC.
Without this specific permission, Homes are not permitted to reproduce WS outreach tools, except for the black-and-white tracts that WS has produced.
The CRO is responsible to duplicate outreach tools that can be used in the area, but this doesn't necessarily mean that it must be in the language of the area. An example is Norway, where we may not be able to have all of our GP pubs available in Norwegian, simply because we don't have the translators or the resources to translate all the GP material. However, because a majority of the people that we reach in Norway speaks English, the CRO would be fulfilling their responsibility by supplying English lit, as that would be an "appropriate language."
On the other hand, supplying GP pubs in English for Russia would not necessarily be an "appropriate language," since few Russian people can understand or speak English.
I. Establish a Family and Education Department (FED) to offer counsel on the childcare and educational needs of our children, and recommend educational materials and resources.
The concerns of the Family and Education Department (FED) will include many areas of family life, especially those concerning the children and young people, such as: childcare and shepherding, pregnancy and baby care, health, home schooling, teacher training, parenting, JETT/teen shepherding, JETT/teen education, Christian Vocational College (CVC), educational resources, etc.
The word "education," in this sense, does not just refer to scholastic education. The education that our Family children receive in fact includes at least four major areas: the Word, scholastics, vocational training and witnessing. As Dad said, "Our whole purpose is education--educating people in the truth of the Gospel!" (MOP 26:54.)
We've got to make sure we're taking care of our young people, and be sure we're giving them what they need (ML #2845:25).
J. Give or deny clearance, within 30 days of receiving the request, to any person requesting clearance to a country within their continental area.
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1. Except in the case of sensitive countries, clearance is automatically granted if the member does not receive a response to his clearance request from the continental office within the prescribed 30-day waiting period.
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2. Within 14 days upon receipt of a clearance request, the receiving continental office will need to respond to the applicant with a form message receipt, acknowledging that their clearance request was received and including the date that the application arrived, which date begins the applicant's 30-day processing period.
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The Member Evaluation Form has now been discontinued, with the exception of certain Muslim and other countries specified by WS. All clearance applications now only need to include the application form and a Want Ad, unless the applicant wants to open their own new Home in a city presently without a Home, in which case only the Clearance Request Form is needed to apply for clearance.
The continental office will publish the individual's Want Ad, indicating with the Want Ad whether clearance has been granted or is still pending. If clearance is denied the Want Ad will not be published.
Although the applicant receives automatic clearance if the continental office does not deny clearance within the specified time period, members planning to pioneer their own Home are responsible to ascertain whether the city they are planning to move to already has a Charter Home, and if so, they will need to follow the Procedures for Opening a Home in a City That Already Has a Charter Home.
In the Right of Mobility, D. and E., clearance to another area is explained more fully, but in brief:
1.) A person is free to move anywhere within their present country without the permission of the CRO, providing they meet various conditions.
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2.) Members may only move from country to country within their CRO area if they have received clearance from their CRO. A clearance form is available to be used in such cases. (See Clearance Request Form in Appendix B.)
3.) Members who wish to move to a country in a different CRO area must apply for clearance from the CRO area they wish to work in. Again, a Clearance form is available to be used in such cases. (See Clearance Request Form in Appendix B.)
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When seeking clearance to go to another continental area, members should send their clearance request to their ABM or CRO, who will immediately pass it on to the appropriate CRO. The continental office must acknowledge receipt of your clearance request within 14 days. Your clearance request will automatically be granted unless you receive notification from the continental office within 30 days from the date on the notification receipt that your clearance has been denied.
If someone wants to move to a Home in a country in another continental area, they would probably want to write for, and perhaps even wait to receive their clearance before giving their 30-day notice to leave the Home.
When receiving clearance to a country, you have the CROs permission to move to the country; however, it is up to you to find a Home that will receive you before you move to that country, as the CRO has no authority to insist that a Home take someone in. So if you are not in contact with any Homes in your prospective destination, it would be wise to send a Want Ad to the CRO of that area to place in their Want Ad pub, in addition to seeking general clearance to the country. (See Want Ad Guidelines in Appendix B.) Assuming you receive clearance from the CRO, and a Home or Homes responds to your Want Ad, you then could directly work out your arrangements for joining a Home.
Or if you receive clearance to a country from the CRO, you have the right to open a Home in any city that doesn't already have a Charter Home.
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Please note that these clearances are required for moving to other countries or areas. If the main purpose of your trip is to visit friends and relatives and you will not be involved in outreach work, such as a witnessing road team would be, then you would not need prior clearance.
K. Designate Monthly Prayer Days and publish a regular continental area Prayer List.
L. Regularly publish information that is provided by the Homes in their continental area, as to available personnel and the Homes' personnel needs.
Ideally, individuals and Homes will be able to initiate personnel moves themselves, including handling the necessary communications directly between themselves. However, since this may not always be possible, due to a lack of available information, this CRO service has been designed to assist Family members in exercising their Right of Mobility.
The area shepherds will no longer orchestrate personnel changes in the Homes, as this right and responsibility is up to the individuals and individual families to handle. However, if a person wants to move out of their present Home but doesn't know the needs, or even the whereabouts, of other Homes, he obviously won't be able to move very easily, unless he decides to open his own Home. How is he going to know which Homes to write to for acceptance? By the same token, how is a Home that has a need for a person with particular gifts or skills going to know where they can find such a person, or if such a person is looking for a new Home?
Although the CROs will not be orchestrating movement of personnel between Homes, realistically there will be a need for general assistance from the CRO. It seems that the best avenue for this would be for the CROs to regularly publish a "Want Ads" pub, or add this as a section to their newsletters and advisories to the Homes. People in their area that want a change could write and give information about themselves, their skills, experience, etc., to see if any Homes need them. For example, "Single man with two children (ages 4 and 10), handyman, driver, good witnesser and JETT teacher, seeking a Home that needs my abilities in this or another country." Or a Home could write, "Our Home in such-and-such a city needs someone with childcare skills."
Also, for members wishing to move to another continental area, Want Ads could be placed in the appropriate CROs Want Ad pub, by sending an ad to their CRO to pass on to the CRO of the other area.
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It would not be the CROs duty to solicit such information from the Homes, but simply to publish the information they receive each month. For the sake of security, those placing ads in the pub or newsletter may use their ABM as the initial contact point, or a Home can decide by a simple majority to have their postal or e-mail address or phone number printed in a Want Ad pub or the Grapevine. (See LNF 260, point 2, for additional details.)
This Want Ads bulletin should also be used as a vehicle to update all Homes in the area of any Homes that are presently on Probationary Notice.
Perhaps you would like to go but don't know where to go or how or when or with whom. The solution to this latter problem is going to be aided by the establishment of a ... Service Bulletin. This ... Service Bulletin will act as a personnel employment agency listing available jobs and personnel for the disbursement of manpower, like the news want ads, gathering requests from the field for laborers and applications from the laborers for new jobs (ML #330A:26,27)
1. Additional assistance should be provided to single parents and their children seeking a Home.
The CRO has no authority to demand that a Home take new members into their Home. CROs and VSs are, of course, free to approach a Home and, if necessary, ask them to consider taking in certain personnel, particularly in the case of single parents. Each Home has to make that decision of its own volition, but should, of course, act in a loving manner and pray about and consider the request. The CRO may not always be able to find a Home for someone, but they can actively try to offer assistance in this respect.
M. Assign to area officers only those duties that are in compliance with the "Charter of Responsibilities and Rights" and the "Fundamental Family Rules."
The CRO cannot ask their area officers to do something that the Charter and the Rules do not allow them to do.
N. Assume the Responsibilities and Authority of the Area Officers when visiting Homes, if necessary.
Our CROs sometimes visit Homes, and when they do, if they find it is necessary to perform the area officer's responsibilities, they are empowered to act in a similar capacity as area officers.
O. Process Fellow Member monthly reports, and when deemed necessary offer counsel and assistance.
The CROs may offer counsel to Fellow Members when they feel it's necessary, although their main responsibility and obligation is to the Charter Family.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family