On Sunday, September 11, a little under 900 delegates gathered at the South Atlantic Conference campground in Orangeburg, South Carolina for its 26th Quinquennial Session.
Those delegates elected Elder Calvin B. Preston as President of the 55,000 member conference, which is headquartered in Decatur, Georgia.
Elder Preston has spent all of his 47 year ministry in the South Atlantic Conference, serving as a Pastor, Ministerial Director, Conference Executive Secretary and most recently, as the General Vice President.
He succeeds Elder William L. Winston, who served for two terms as the President of South Atlantic, after serving one term as its Executive Secretary.
The two other Administrative Officers, Elders David Smith and Merkita Mosley, were re-elected to their previous positions-albeit with constitutionally changed titles. Elder Smith’s title is now Executive Vice President (formerly Conference Executive Secretary) and Elder Mosley is now the Chief Financial Officer (formerly Conference Treasurer).
Those constitutionally changed titles were part of a number of constitutional changes approved by the delegates. Among those were:
- The Convening of the Organizing Committee and the Nominating Committee in Advance of the Session
- The Ability of the Executive Committee to Call for A Virtual Conference Session (in the event of another pandemic or some such other extraordinary event)
- The Requirement That In the Event of a Vote to Dissolve the Conference, Such a Vote Could Only Be Done by a Two Thirds Majority of the Elected Delegates. While such a vote is highly unlikely, the fact is that without this vote, a rogue group of delegates could wait until the very end of a session, at a time when most of the delegates have gone home and vote to dissolve the conference. That could be done with a very small group of people if the dissolution requirement continued to be two thirds of the delegates who were voting. It is not uncommon for sessions to end with fewer than 100 people remaining. That would mean that 70 people-or fewer-could close down the conference. Not so anymore.
Elected as General Vice President to fill the vacancy caused by the election of President Preston was Dr. Everton Ennis. Mrs. Kim Gaiter was re-elected as Vice President for Education.
Listed below are those elected to serve as departmental directors for the upcoming quinquennium:
President Calvin Preston
Executive Vice President David Smith
Chief Financial Officer Merkita Mosley
Community Service/Inner City/ASI Joshua Nelson
General Vice President/Religious Liberty Everton Ennis
Vice President of Education Kim Gaiter
Adventist Book Center Sylvia Coleman
Health Ministries Richard Berry
Human Resources/Communication James Lamb
Korean Ministries Don Kim
Ministerial Evangelism/Stewardship Allen Baldwin
National Service Organization Monte Newbill
Personal Ministries/Prison Ministries/Safety Office Frank Harrell
Sabbath School/Children’s Ministries Darryl Howard
Senior Ministries Ralph Peay
Trust Services Associate Dominique Best
Women’s Ministries April Smith
Youth/Young Adults John Newlove