Park Cities Presbyterian Church (PCA)

Two new positions filled at PCPC

By Stephanie Byrd

Published July 25, 2009 in This Week

John Primrose joined our staff as Director of Human Resources and Ministry Services on March 30. Along with directing and developing our Human Resources department, he will supervise Ministry Services, which includes Information Technology, Database, Audiovisual, Event Management Systems, and Facilities.

Bill Weislak joined us as Facilities Manager on June 29, reporting to John as part of the Ministry Services team. Bill has full responsibility for the use and maintenance of our facilities and will also oversee the sextons.

John Primrose

John grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, in a Christian home. He accepted Christ in the third grade and rededicated his life to Him in the tenth grade, when his parents got divorced. Instead of getting angry at God, he said, he accepted the sadness and looked to God for help. “Lord, if You’re my rock,” he remembers thinking, “You’re never going to leave or change.”

He studied finance at the University of Oklahoma, and after trying his hand at banking, outdoor youth ministry, and real estate, he decided he was not called to those fields. He determined that he needed to work with people in a leadership role. “I’m into organizing, leading, and creating positive change through people,” he said. “The goal in any situation is to set it up for success.” He learned “a results-oriented work ethic” from his father, an entrepreneur in the health care industry. He then completed his master’s degree in human communication at Denver University.

John met his wife, Lisa, in a singles class at Cherry Hills Community Church in Denver. They have a daughter, Katie, age 13, and a son, Parker, 10, and live in Allen. “One of my favorite things is to be outside with my family,” said John.

John most recently worked as Human Resources Director at Time Warner Telecom in Denver. He has directed human resources in a variety of industries over the years. His sister and brother-in-law, PCPC members Gill and Nancy Brown, told him about this job opening.

Once he was hired, John had three initial goals to accomplish. First was to continue the HR development process that has been going on for the last 18 months. A 2007 employee survey revealed that the staff needed more objective, consistent performance appraisals. Job families and job titles have been updated; and in partnership with PCPC staff, HR has identified a web-based vendor for performance and development appraisals.

The second goal was to fill the Facilities Manager position by July 1. Bill began work June 29.

Third was to support the office move and remodel. Facilities and EMS proactively participated in this effort, led by Jeff Barber and Sally Rogers.

John’s goal going forward is “to continue to work with the staff leadership and the different Ministry Services committees to assess, identify, and implement changes and continuous improvement to align our Ministry Services activities with our PCPC vision, goals, five statements of identity, and competencies.”

So far, working with committees has been a positive experience for John. “What a blessing to have a committee of members to get feedback and approval on best practice, continuous improvements,” he said. “Two heads are better than one.”

It has been pleasant for him to keep remembering that we are a nonprofit ministry. “We are about shepherding and transforming lives. Transforming lives—wow!” he said. “Every other organization I’ve worked for has been profit-driven.”

“How do you measure the changing of hearts?” John asks. “We can identify vision and goals, and we can align activity.” Each staff member can ask, “How should I be spending my time?”

John hopes that the staff and lay leadership will continue to become more proactive and less reactive and to share a unified vision. He expects us to be collaborative, prayerful, and results-oriented.

“It’s a team effort,” he said. “It’s not staff. It’s staff and lay leadership. HR has an opportunity to set the staff up for success. Then we can change the world through Jesus Christ.”

Bill Weislak

Bill grew up in Rowlett, in a Christian home, and asked his parents when he was 7 or 8 years old what it meant to be born again. His father was a homebuilder and remodeler, and Bill grew up helping him with his work.

Bill earned a master’s degree in accounting at the University of North Texas and began working for Arthur Andersen in 1991. His next job was as assistant comptroller at Doctors Hospital. During this time he realized, “I liked walking around with the maintenance guys better than sitting in an office reconciling bank statements.”

In 1996 he went out on his own as a remodeling contractor, and he eventually became a contract facilities manager. When his main client got bought out in 1999, he became the facilities manager at Prince of Peace Catholic Community in Plano.

His next job was as director of facilities at St. John’s Episcopal Church and School in Dallas. He was brought there to help with the demolition of an old part of the school and the reconstruction of a new wing. It was “logistically pretty tough,” he said, but denied that it was more elaborate than anything he might need to deal with here. “It’s just really all a matter of trying to communicate,” he said. “I’m a pretty even-tempered guy.”

Next Bill worked for four years as director of facilities at Providence Christian School. Then, deciding he wanted to challenge himself professionally, he took a job as operations manager at Trademark Property Company, managing the Watters Creek retail complex in Allen. With constant construction going on, it was very busy. “It was a hard 14 months,” he said. “I really missed being in a Christian environment. When I heard about the opening here, I rushed to apply.”

Bill met his wife, Stephanie (the daughter of PCPC members Nancy and Bob Sutton), when he was working at Providence, where she is a third grade teacher.

“I kind of showed interest in her, and she didn’t have any interest in me for four years,” Bill said. He said he had the whole faculty and staff of the school, including the headmaster, helping him compose letters to her and trying to convince her to give him a chance, but she stood firm. “She’s very picky,” said Bill.

“When she finally said no,” Bill said, “I took her no as no. I gave her space.” He stopped making sure he was always the one to answer Stephanie’s work orders, as he had done early on, but he was still polite to her when their paths crossed. He thinks that his respectful treatment of her even after she had turned him down may have impressed her more than anything.

Finally, in May 2008, after Bill announced that he was leaving Providence to work for Trademark, Stephanie called him into her office and said that she would like to get to know him after all. He proposed to her in November, and they got married on March 14 here at PCPC.

“I’m kind of boring and low-key,” Bill said, “and she’s very bubbly and energetic.” At the time of our interview Bill knew exactly how many days they had been married (119). “It’s been a beautiful marriage,” he said.

Stephanie and Bill have begun to attend PCPC and are hoping to start participating in the Newly Married Sunday school community. They were prevented from worshiping the first Sunday they came to PCPC because of a problem with the church’s air conditioning system.

John said that Bill’s nine years of facility management experience in similar organizations make him a great fit for his job: “He had strong references both within PCPC and outside PCPC for both his professional skills and his personal integrity and faith.”

Bill has an open door policy. “If anyone has a problem with the facilities,” he said, “I’m willing to talk to them.”

“I’m enjoying getting to know the staff, getting to know the building,” Bill said. “I’m blessed to be here.”

Jeff Barber commented, “I am so pleased that the Lord has brought us both of these men. I’m very excited to see an excellent team being built with godly, highly skilled people who will serve our body and His Kingdom well.”