General Convention Manager Named
Diocesan Press Service. May 1, 1972 [72041]
NEW YORK, N.Y. (DPS) -- A manager has been appointed for the Episcopal Church's General Convention which will be held in Louisville, Ky., at the Kentucky Exposition Center in the fall of 1973.
Bob N. Wallace, formerly convention manager with the Louisville Convention Bureau, has been named to head the office through which all plans and housing arrangements for the Convention are coordinated.
Unlike previous General Conventions of the Episcopal Church, the 1973 Convention has no host diocese to make the arrangements. The Louisville site was selected in September, 1971, by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop, acting with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, and on the recommendation of the General Convention's Joint Committee on Agenda and Arrangements.
Mr. Wallace was employed as General Convention Manager by the Joint Committee on the recommendation of its Steering Committee, in consultation with the presiding officers of the two Houses of the Convention. He will work with the leaders of the two Houses -- Bishop Hines, chairman of the House of Bishops, and the Rev. John B. Coburn, of New York City, president of the House of Deputies -- and their designate, Dr. Bruce Merrifield, of Niagara Falls, N. Y., chairman of the Agenda and Arrangements Committee.
Traditionally a host diocese shares Convention costs with the national Church on a 50-50 basis. Since there is no host diocese this time, the Convention must depend on three sources of income: an advance from the Executive Council, registration fees, and renting of exhibit space.
Mr. Wallace hopes to rent twice as much exhibit space at the Louisville Convention as was done at the Convention in Houston in 1970. He is seeking to stimulate interest among a wide range of exhibitors in order to provide sufficient income.
In addition to planning for the 1973 Convention, Mr. Wallace is looking into possibilities for sites for future conventions. He is also seeking to work out more economical arrangements for meetings of the General Convention's boards, commissions and committees, through coordinated efforts.
Assisting Mr. Wallace is Jane (Mrs. Thomas F. ) Taber, Convention Coordinator, who is the liaison with the local diocese, the province, neighboring dioceses, the women of the Church, and the volunteers who will assist at the Convention. Mrs. Taber is president of the Episcopal Churchwomen of the Diocese of Kentucky.
Mr. Wallace, a native of Tulsa, Okla., studied speech and drama at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and received his B.A. degree in history, psychology and sociology from Tulsa University in 1957. He received his M. Div. degree, with a major in religion and psychology, from the Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, in 1960, and in 1963-64, he was engaged in graduate studies at Union Theological Seminary (Presbyterian Church in the U.S. ), Richmond, Va.
Mr. Wallace is a ruling elder and chairman of the Christian education committee in the Harvey Browne Memorial Presbyterian Church, Louisville.
The office of the General Convention Manager is located at 100 North Sixth Street, Suite 305, Louisville, Ky. 40202.