Ilinois—Legal Notice

Notice is hereby given that a special constituency session of the Illinois Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will be held at Broadview Academy, LaFox, Illinois, with the meeting called at 10:00 a.m., Sunday, June 13, 2004. This session is for the purpose of considering the future of Broadview Academy; and to transact such other business as may properly come before the constituency. Delegates are those duly elected by the churches of the conference and delegates-at-large as provided in the constitution. Each church is entitled to one delegate for the organization and one additional delegate for each fifty members or fraction thereof, based on actual church membership as of September 30 of the year preceding the meeting.

Ken Denslow, President

Rick Remmers, Secretary

Illinois —At a special meeting of the Illinois constituency on Mar. 7, delegates considered the future of Broadview Academy (BVA). After much discussion regarding educational needs and options, constituents voted down a recommendation from the Conference Executive Committee to close Broadview Academy at the end of the current school year. This action was taken largely on the strength of a promised grant of $2 million arranged for by a BVA alumnus.

An offer received from another not-for-profit organization to purchase the 140-acre campus for just under $10 million, roughly double the appraised value, was also considered. Constituent and alumni support of the school and its continued operation resulted in a defeat of the motion to close BVA by a 5 to 2 margin. Efforts are now focused on planning for its success.

Two additional actions were taken to address the issues and challenges ahead. First, it was voted to establish an educational task force to promote, market, develop, and finance Christian education. Second, an action was taken to restructure the subsidy by involving the educational task force. As a result, the conference subsidy would be limited to $200,000 for the 2004–2005 school year, and all additional subsidies would be generated through the activities of the educational task force and the BVA Alumni Association. Currently, BVA is receiving about $400,000 from the conference operating budget for the 2003–2004 school year.

After the conclusion of the previous actions, delegates indicated their support by pledging $61,000 in response to a special appeal.

Gary Burns, Lake Union communication director