superintendent

1999-2000

Rev Dr Gordon Moyes AM
Superintendent

"Wesley Mission surpassed the record-breaking year of 1998-99 [and is] one of the three largest and most significant charities in the nation "

	overview
	mission centres
	results in summary
	superintendent's report
	care services
	community services
	pastoral services
	corporate services
	financial summaries

Key Strategies

1. Increase sources of income
2. Maintain and increase the support of donors
3. Maximise available technology
4. Remain accountable at all times
5. Foster links with key members of the community, including corporates, governments and individuals

Key Result Areas

Praise

Last year I said in this report that the previous year had shown our greatest achievement since Wesley Mission began in Sydney in 1812. It is my pleasure to tell you that for the year 1999 - 2000 we surpassed even that record-breaking year. We are one of the three largest and most significant charities in the nation.

Wesley Mission Sydney is a Christian church committed to the worship of God and service of people in need. We praise God for an incredible year which has capped off every year in our history. We thank God for outstanding members and friends of Wesley Mission and for the generous financial commitment from tens of thousands of individual donors, churches, corporations, businesses and government departments.

Results 

Our financial results for the year ending June 30, 2000 were outstanding. Our revenue was $95.4 million, a 27 per cent increase over the previous year’s revenue of $75.1 million. We ended the year with an operating surplus of $2.37 million, which is dedicated to major new building programs including a large new nursing home at Carlingford to provide superior care for frail aged people.

Our net assets grew to $173 million, an increase of $2 million over the previous year. Our assets including property, plant, equipment, receivables and cash grew by $9 million to $262 million. Our audited accounts are included at the end of this report.

Our “land bank” reached 980 acres and is our reserve for developments in the 21st century putting us in an extremely strong position. Some donors left a portion of their estate to us and we know of some $34 million that has been set apart for our future development.

New Developments

This report makes mention of more than 40 new developments. We have current projects of $14.6 million in hand and new projects in excess of $33 million under development design.

Our Information Technology department was well prepared for Y2K and I am pleased to report that we did not encounter any problems.

Throughout this year we also:

• Built the last stage of 36 new units at Frank Vickery Village and a large state of the art auditorium. We closed the old R H Rayward Lodge and are building a large new one at Carlingford.
• Became the only church to achieve an international standard of accreditation in quality management. All of our centres are on schedule for ISO 9000, ISO 9002 or other major accreditations.
• Opened 39 centres with 230 additional employees on one day. This would probably be a record for any church any where in the world. We purchased more than 50 additional motor vehicles in one month.
• Appointed six new pastoral staff to help us in our expanding pastoral care.
• Established Wesley Palmdale Funeral Service to provide low cost funerals for average Australians, with no money at all going to shareholders or proprietors.
• Built a 60 bed multi-million dollar new Lodge at Vision Valley.
• Recorded 1.7 million hits, in just six months, on our Web Site. My Sermons are read every single day by more than 20,000 people accessing them on the Internet.

Once again we had the lowest cost of operation for any major charity in Australia and were supported by some of Australia’s most prestigious corporations who have developed a partnership in community service.

Staff

We have increased our full-time staff to in excess of 2,500 paid staff with more than 3,500 unpaid volunteers who are trained and committed in helping us with the ministry of Word and Deed.

The National Scene

At a level of a federal government there have been a number of important reports. Mr. Patrick McLure chaired a commission into welfare reform. The main thrust of this report was to seek a restructure of welfare so that people could be encouraged to cease to be welfare dependent and instead be helped by government and non government resources to develop their own personal strengths. In broad principle we agree with the findings of this report and support them.

The Prime Minister established a business and community partnership to encourage major corporations to become involved with major community providers of services to the underprivileged, the indigenous and the poor. We welcome this move and have been active in developing relationships with major Australian corporations who have developed a sense of social responsibility. The Prime Minister appointed me to the small Board to oversee the implementation of government policy.

A third report which received a lot of national attention concerned our sister mission in Melbourne, Wesley Mission Melbourne. It was revealed that the Superintendent was on an excessive salary and benefits package. He paid the price for the inability of the Mission to handle this crisis together with the foolish decision to spend more than $500,000 on developing a heroin injecting room. Wesley Mission Sydney has opposed the development of any drug injecting rooms.

For strong reasons we believe this is not the way a Christian welfare organisation should go. We have prepared statements on this and are happy to send them if you desire a copy. Furthermore, I am pleased to say that as Superintendent for the past 22 years I have never been on an excessive salary. My salary is based upon that of other Uniting Church ministers throughout NSW. My current salary of $40,800 is approximately $10,000 less than that of a high school teacher. I was pleased that the Sydney Morning Herald said there was no corporation in Australia whose Chief Executive with the responsibility of $100 million a year budget received a salary of $40,000. We are a lean organisation and we believe in keeping our costs low. We are pleased that in comparison with the top 50 charities in Australia, we have the lowest level, currently 4.9 per cent of administrative costs of any major charity.

Accountability

We provide in this report a statement to our donors, members, corporate supporters and the public stakeholders, government regulatory bodies, funding agencies to both be accountable for what we have done with the support we have been given, and to be absolutely transparent to all who are interested in our ministry of helping the underprivileged and needy.

Appreciation

We express deep appreciation to the honorary officers of the Mission, the members of all of our congregations, Boards, Councils and support groups; to our General Managers, staff, ministers and volunteers, and all who have made Wesley Mission Sydney, the primary example of successful urban ministry any where in the world. We give thanks to God for His constant blessing and for these achievements.

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