Tri-State Superintendency

Art Tordoff on Tri-State Superintendency Committee

The Tri-State Superintendency Committee is similar to local church committees known Staff Parish Committees. It works as a liaison and advisory committee for the District Superintendents and the various parishes in the Tri-State District. In order to become a member it is necessary to be nominated by someone, usually that is already of the committee and then approved by the New England Conference.

Presently the chair of the committee is Reverend David Calhoun of the West Scarborough Methodist Church. Presently there are 13 members of the committee representing all areas of the Tri-State District. Walter Kimball from the Thornton Heights United Methodist Church is also on the committee. Most often when the committee meets it is at the Greenland United Methodist Church or at Eliot since they come closest to the middle of the district.

When I became a member of the committee I was told that it would meet two to four times during the year. Business has been such that since I became a member at the end of September we will have met three times before the middle of December. Well, some one was right! We will have met between 2 and 4 times by the end of this year.

Meetings to date have not been well attended. The type of work that we have been called together to do has been to advise District Superintendents Mike and Jan Davis on matters concerning their office staff in Lawrence and to hear about the work load that they have divided between them. We are presently in the process of developing and piloting a new evaluative tool to determine the effectiveness of the District Superintendents. This latter activity is what has taken the most time to date. No satisfactory evaluative tool has been in place prior to this time.

So far I have found the meetings rewarding including the ride to Eliot or Greenland with Reverend Calhoun on whatever night of the week we meet. I have also met some really great folks who are serving on this committee and who may have a really different perspective on matters than I do.

Art Tordoff