By Jerry Love, Louisiana Baptist Foundation
ALEXANDRIA – Continuing on its wave of good news this year, the Louisiana Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees met April 27 for its quarterly meeting.
Trustee Wayne Hunt, pastor of Coteau Baptist Church in Houma, opened the meeting with a brief devotional.
His text from Colossians 3:2 revealed that, if we are raised with Christ, then we are to set our minds on things above. We should stop dragging around the sin and the old ways of the life we lived prior to knowing Christ as our savior.
“Leave those things at the foot of the cross and walk with joy and victory and peace,” Hunt said. “And you’ll see others’ lives changed because of the change they’ve seen in your life.”
The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ was followed by good news from the Foundation’s investment consultant. Investment Committee Chairman Brent Cating introduced Lee Morris, managing director of Graystone Consulting, to report on the assets held by the LBF.
The return for the equity portfolio was 4.72 percent for the first quarter of 2010, while the fixed income investments earned just less than 3 percent for the period.
Morris reviewed current economic data and trends with the board. His assessment remains optimistic; he pointed out that returns will most likely be positive but not overly strong.
“The return expectations for equities for the next few years I don’t think will be that high; I think in the single digits,” Morris said. “That’s what we will base our assumptions, forecasts and spending goals on.”
The move by the board in the January meeting to place part of the assets of the Foundation in a preferred stock portfolio so far has added value to the total return.
The change was made to add income while reducing volatility of the overall investment mix of the Foundation.
After reviewing individual manager performance, the Investment Committee made a decision to change one of the fixed income managers. Because of administrative and ownership changes at Metropolitan West that has negatively affected their customer service, the Committee voted to recommend moving these funds to the management firm Weaver Barksdale.
Much of the discussion in the Operating Committee held later in the morning centered on the procurement of a new attorney for the board of trustees.
Robert Nida, longtime board attorney, is retiring and has encouraged the board to seek new board counsel.
After reviewing suggestions from the previous meeting, the committee members discussed the process for soliciting and hiring a new attorney.
After much discussion and clarification of the process the committee referred the hiring of the attorney to the personnel committee of the board of trustees.
The Audit Committee met briefly before lunch with Ernest Sasser of Payne, Moore and Herrington, LLC, of Alexandria.
The committee commissioned Sasser to proceed with the annual audit of the Louisiana Baptist Foundation’s operations. The audit is to be completed prior to the July meeting of the Trustees.
During the full board of trustees meeting in the afternoon, the trustees approved all motions brought by the Investment and Operating Committees from the earlier meetings.
No new business was presented to the board during the meeting.
The next scheduled meeting for the Louisiana Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees is July 27.
To learn more about the work and ministry of the LBF and to see a list of current trustees, seewww.LBFinfo.org.