Dewey and Melissa Williard serve as Annual Conference onsite coordinators for the fifth time

By Frank Ramirez

Onsite coordinator is not a thankless job, but it can be invisible. Each year’s coordinators are listed in the Annual Conference booklet, and their work is celebrated by the Annual Conference director, and receives applause. But it is an essential and largely invisible task!

Both Dewey and Melissa Williard, the onsite coordinators for this year’s Conference in Greensboro, agree that that the hardest part of the task is putting their teams together. The onsite coordinators are responsible for recruiting and directing the many local volunteers who make Conference possible.

And during the Conference they have to be ready to handle the unforeseen. It is an exacting and rewarding task, one they have performed five times. On one occasion the Conference they organized for never took place because of the pandemic. On another occasion, when San Diego canceled out on the Brethren with no warning, and the Conference was moved lock, stock, and barrel, to Greensboro, their work was squeezed into scant weeks instead of months and years.

*Dewey and Melissa Williard. Photo by Glenn Riegel*

One thing has proved true throughout, as Dewey emphasized. Chris Douglas, the first Annual Conference director with whom they worked, assured them during their training, “You are going to see where God works in ways that people who just come to Conference may not.” Time and again, they have seen God’s hand in the way things worked out.

As a team, the two bring different strengths to the process. “Dewey just knows a lot of people in the district. He knows who to call. He takes on that primary responsibility,” said Melissa of her husband, who is an accountant. “Once we’re here I can go around and see what people need.”

“She has that educational background,” Dewey responded. Melissa taught elementary education and was also a school principal. “She’s always worked as a hospital volunteer, and also in customer service, so she has a lot of strengths.”

Both have found that many people are ready to serve, as they pulled together their volunteer teams. “That was the beauty of the job, hearing people and what they enjoyed doing, and finding that good match.”

Dewey recalled that the first time they served he called 23 people to help with early childhood activities before he got a yes. But once they had a core team it was possible to get some to repeat.

Melissa believes that the most stressful days are not during Conference, but in the preparation before it begins. Chris Douglas was always there to help, however, and since then, the current director Rhonda Pittman Gingrich “has picked up and done the same. We’ve always had help.”

Some of the best volunteers weren’t able to help the first time they were called. Dewey recalled, during the early days of the pandemic, a young woman who had just learned that her college graduation had been canceled, and it was unclear if she’d be able to serve in Brethren Volunteer Service, who yet worried that if she didn’t say yes to helping with Conference that year she’d never have another opportunity. Dewey assured her that saying no on that occasion did not disqualify her. “Whenever you are able to serve the church, the church will be ready for you.”

The Williards live in Winston-Salem, N.C., and belong to Fraternity Church of the Brethren. They have been married 31 years and have 2 adult children.

“We have been blessed,” Dewey said about the onsite coordinator work. “It has been hard work, but we’ve been so blessed. And that’s the thing we take away every time.”

— Frank Ramirez is a retired pastor and a volunteer on the Annual Conference Press Team.

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