# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1336
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS 869

“WuerEas, The synodical conventions will of necessity continue
Eto be held in midwestern cities; and

w- “Wuereas, Synodical regulations make it incumbent on all

Districts to send delegates; and

: “Wuereas, The District must finance the sending of such

‘ delegates; and

“Wuereas, This expense works a hardship on outlying Dis-

“tricts; and
f  “Wuereas, The present method does not distribute such ex-
# pense equitably; therefore be it

| “Resolved, That the synodical convention convened at Saginaw
f consider seriously the prorating of the expenses of all delegates
& to Synod.”

: This overture was by the 1944 Convention referred to an
; appointive interim committee for study and recommendation. Said
B overture was then in the rush of events forgotten, and no interim
; committee was appointed, and hence no report was made to Synod.
| After the 1947 Convention the oversight was discovered, and it

was duly referred to your Committee, which today begs leave to
report its findings.

Your Committee has devoted considerable thought to the
proposition and is agreed that basically the proposal has its merits.
From a practical viewpoint, however, your Committee feels itself
constrained to report unfavorably.

Should proration be adopted, it would mean the creation of
a committee or board on equalization, which would have to have
at its disposal a considerable number of clerical workers at the
convention to process approximately 900 separate transactions
(number of voting and advisory members). Since delegates with
good excuses arrive in the latter days and even on the. last day
of the convention, it is obvious that the total expenses could not
be established at the convention in time to receive payments to
the travel fund from hundreds of delegates and to pay out to
other hundreds amounts to which they would be entitled. This
board or committee would have to continue its functions on pro-
ration after the convention. Try to visualize the amount of
correspondence necessary after the convention to collect from
hundreds and remit to hundreds of individuals.

Nor is the cost of the convention to Districts and individuals
as unequal as is commonly assumed. Synod now pays the expenses
of every District President. It also collects %-cent per communi-

‘ cant from all Districts for overhead expenses connected with the

convention. It subsidizes 13 distant Districts in the course of the
year, all of which would-be primarily interested in proration.