Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! But not on April 4, 1987, of all days. It was our first meeting to organize the Virginia Baptist Secretaries Association and it did snow. In fact, several groups from the Roanoke area could not even get to Richmond's Holiday Inn-Crossroads.
In spite of this, over 80 attended the luncheon and voted to organize, with the first officers being Marty Etheridge, Margie Denton and Lorene Sammons. It is now 20 years later and the group has remained strong and even changed its name slightly to better convey the role of ministry of church secretaries.
The roots for this had gradually developed and grown stronger for 15 years. It was in 1972 that the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's first pastor-deacon retreat began and every year had an absolute capacity attendance. A key ingredient was always a two-day conference for church secretaries and the attendance stayed in the 50-60 person range.
What was then the VBMB's department of church administration (later pastoral ministries) provided the planning and financial resources for the group. In 1972 the four-day basic and advanced certification seminars became an annual part of this ministry. Later, one-day skillshops were also provided.
When the organization began in 1987, one of our Virginia ladies, Peggy Trotter, was president of the National Association of Baptist Secretaries. She encouraged our group to become deeply involved in the larger organization as well. We attended national conferences in Nashville, Ridgecrest and Shocco Springs, and for a number of years a Virginia group (Latricia Jones, Dorothy Allport, Peggy Trotter, Deannie Butler and myself) planned, wrote and edited the quarterly newsletter for the national organization.
Relating to this group of Virginia Baptist secretaries for over 20 years was a rewarding and highly refreshing element of being a part of our Virginia Baptist Mission Board staff.
Cecil Marsh is a retired staff member of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.