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Wednesday 7 January 2009

IBS-STL Announcement

Over the past twelve months this country has suffered the effects of the global economic crisis, from which the Christian sector is not immune.

Due to the need to address the serious downturn in trading, both in the wholesale distribution and retail sectors, the leadership of the Charity has decided to restructure its UK operations. Graham Sopp will step down from his role of UK Chief Executive and take a new role of European Ministries Director, which will include responsibility for UK Resource Development and Fundraising.

Fred Slack will leave his role as Director of UK Fundraising after a suitable period of handover.

Keith Danby, IBS-STL Global President, will assume the responsibility of leading the UK Charity with immediate effect and will lead an in depth review of all aspects of the ministry in preparation for the new fiscal year. Further details of the new structure will be available following the completion of this review.

Keith Danby said, “These are unprecedented times and require every organisation to look closely at its costs, and how best to serve its customers in the existing uncertain economic climate. The work of creating, distributing and selling the Word of God and other biblical resources is of such importance that we must discover ways to balance viability with missional passion and zeal. The former International Bible Society has successfully managed to balance this tension for 200 years and the former Send The Light ministry for 50 years. The merged ministry of IBS-STL is committed to maintain this balance moving forward”.’

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suspect the "downturn in trading" for STL here in the UK has far more to do with your implementation of SAP — which really has sapped everyone's energy and resources! — than the "global economic crisis".

If a senior position had to go, perhaps it should have been whoever was responsible for that debacle rather than Fred?

But however events are interpreted, I take this opportunity to wish those whose roles are changing every success in their new positions.

It's good to see you starting at the top: so many organisations start at the bottom by cutting jobs for their most vulnerable employees.

Anonymous said...

I notice that backorders are starting to come through in the post in small packets. One today had 5 CDs in and another Jiffy bag had 1 book and 1 CD. This seems very wasteful of time and resources (and potential damages)especially as we get STL parcels on most days. Has the backorder system gone wrong again?

Trust Media Blog Team said...

Hi Geoff

This is an issue we have experienced since go-live and is largely, although not exclusively related to the high number of backorders migrated from our old system to SAP. We have addressed a number of the causes, but in some cases this will only take effect on new backorders not existing ones. Over time we expect the incidence to reduce and are of course focussed on minimising the problem as it reduces our efficiency.

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