Bethel University

“The university's executive committee is comprised of the board chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, assistant secretary and other trustees as selected by the board. The executive committee has the power and authority to act as delegated between board meetings.”

“The members of the university include regularly organized baptist churches which are members in good standing of the converge elected delegates of member churches, regularly elected members of the converge board, the president of the conference, the officers of the biennial assembly of the conference, the chief administrative officer of each conference district, the president and chief academic officers of bethel university, the members of the board of trustees of bethel university, and the duly confirmed full time faculty members of bethel seminary serve as delegates to the biennial assembly of the university with voice and vote.”

“A majority of the university's board of trustees are elected by the delegates at the biennial assembly. Additional board trustees may be appointed by the board of trustees subject to confirmation by the delegates at the biennial assembly. Two representatives of the district executive ministers council are appointed by the board of the council. The president of the converge and the president of the university serve as ex-officio members of the board of trustees with voting rights.”

“Amendments to the university's governing documents, its affirmation of faith, election and/or confirmation of board members, election of a president, confirmation of the provost and full time teachers in the seminary are subject to approval by the delegates of the university.”

“The form 990 is prepared by the university's public accounting firm based on data provided by management. Once a draft of the filing is available, management reviews the return and provides feedback on changes to the document. The public inspection copy of the form 990 is provided for review to all board members, including the audit committee, prior to filing.”

“The university's conflict of interest policy applies to trustees, governors, officers, and employees who influence the actions of the organization or make commitments on its behalf. All trustees, governors and officers are required to complete and sign an annual disclosure form. All individuals are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest before a transaction is consummated. If it is not clear whether an employee has a conflict, the decision is made by the relevant supervisor - the board chair, department chair, dean, vice president or provost. In the case of trustees, the decision is made by the board of trustees. An individual with a potential conflict abstains from voting on the matter and withdraws from any relevant discussion. The board of trustees votes on whether the transaction is just, fair and reasonable to the organization. The minutes of the meeting of the board or committee shall reflect the conflict of interest was disclosed and that the interested individual was not present during the final discussion or vote and did not vote.”

“The compensation of the president, other officers, and key employees is determined by the compensation and performance committee of the board of trustees in accordance with its executive compensation policy, reviewing benchmark data, utilizing the methodology of the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness test established by the irs, using compensation advisers, and reviewing the individuals performance. This process was last conducted in 2019 for j. Barnes, president; p. Brooke, chief financial officer; d. Harless, executive vp & provost; and j. Laluzerne, sr vp strategic planning.”

“The university's governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are available to the public upon request.”

“Change in gift annuities -45,971. Change in pension liability -5,196,082.”

“The process for the oversight of the audit and selection of an accountant has not changed from the prior year.”