EPGM is a network of mission organizations, not individuals. An organization eligible for membership is one that sends missionaries, receives missionaries, educates for mission, advances mission strategies, or raises funds for international mission. Each organization subscribes to the EPGM Covenants. Each organization pays annual dues according to a sliding scale based on its operating budget, and membership entitles it to send two representatives to the EPGM annual meetings.
EPGM operates as a collaborative network. Major EPGM initiatives are developed through discussion at the EPGM annual meetings, but other initiatives arise through collaborations among members responding to emerging needs. EPGM leadership is non-hierarchical, and decision-making is by consensus rather than voting.
EPGM is guided by its Steering Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the network's operations and unity, ensuring the maintenance of standards, encouraging the member organizations and implementing new ventures decided by the membership.
- The Steering Committee consists of nine members who serve three-year terms. Each year three new members are selected. Any person present at the annual meeting as an official representative of a member organization may place his or her name for drawing by lot.
- The first two names drawn will serve as members of the Steering Committee until the third annual meeting following the annual meeting at which those names are drawn. The next two names will be alternates to serve only if one or both of the two persons selected by lot are unable to complete the term.
- The new Steering Committee will meet before leaving the site of the annual meeting to review the skills and talents represented among them. They will then appoint one additional person from among the official representatives of EPGM organizations, whose skills and talents complement their own and are deemed important to the health and hope of EPGM. That person will serve a three-year term on the Steering Committee.
- Only one person from any member organization may serve on the Steering Committee at any one time. If two names from one organization are drawn by lot, the person whose name is drawn first will serve.
- In the event there is a need for a member of the Steering Committee to be replaced (due to resignation or withdrawal of constituent support), and there are no alternates available (those who have been drawn by lot to be available as alternates for the current year), that position will remain vacant until the next annual meeting of EPGM, at which time a name will be drawn to fill the unexpired term. However, should the person leaving the Steering Committee be one who was seated by action of the Steering Committee, that person may be replaced by action of the Steering Committee under the rule allowing the committee to add one person each year to supplement the talents and expertise of those committee members selected by lot.
The Convenor and Rising Convenor of the Steering Committee are chosen by the Steering Committee from among their own members, and the Rising Convenor succeeds the Convenor in the following term. The Steering Committee may ask a former Convenor to serve as a consultant.
The Partnership is assisted by a paid Administrator, whose role is to implement the directives of the Steering Committee and Convenor, to whom the Administrator is accountable. EPGM continues the non-profit status of ECGM as an organization under Section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code.
As a network, EPGM exercises accountability through mutual responsibility and interdependence in world mission in a number of central relationships:
A. In its relationship with General Convention through Executive Council, EPGM, as,
represented by the EPGM Steering Committee:
- is a voice for the Episcopal Church's world mission;
- offers leadership and initiative in the world mission of the Episcopal Church;
- includes in its annual meetings two liaison representatives from Executive Council, appointed jointly by the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies, in consultation with Executive Council, for the purpose of reciprocal conversations between Executive Council and EPGM;
-is accountable to Executive Council through regular reporting and council liaisons; and
- accounts for the use of its funds.B. In the relationship between EPGM and its member organizations:
- members endorse EPGM's theological affirmations;
- members endorse the four Covenants;
- members meet standards of fiduciary responsibility, including annual financial reports to EPGM;
- EPGM maintains non-hierarchical and diverse shared leadership;
- EPGM preserves the autonomy of its member organizations; and
- EPGM accounts for the use of its funds.C. In the relationship between EPGM and the Episcopal Church Center:
- EPGM and its member organizations comply with Partnership in Mission principles of the Anglican Communion (see "Ten Principles of Partnership" first set forth by the Mission Issues and Strategy Advisory Group II in 1993 and since affirmed by numerous Anglican bodies);
- EPGM works with the program offices of the Episcopal Church Center through which the missionary-sending and -receiving initiatives of the Presiding Bishop and Executive Council are implemented on behalf of General Convention and does not seek to replace or duplicate those offices;
- The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, or a specific program office designated by it, is a dues-paying member of EPGM.
- As a network, EPGM exists through its members and will not be permanently centered in any particular location. The network will not be based at the Episcopal Church Center, for its activities are guided by the geographically dispersed Steering Committee.