# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2007_S244 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 244 PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION PRESENF/PROPOSED Resolved, That Bylaw 3.1.2 be amended to read: 3.1.2 Voting Delegates Voting delegates shall consist of one pastor and one layman from each electoral circuit. (a) An electoral circuit shall eensistetther-efene-or-twe-adjacent Meitation-eiteuite-ec-shal be determined by each district and tatified at a convention of that district. reethe basi of the for 1 n, ni rof del rev - muni mi I f recedin: ni Vv n. Fr; n rs I fo i wi itl i ir S ict m: ivide into fewer electoral circui! than that to which it is entitled. : North Circuit Forum Southern Illinois District 7-17 To Amend Bylaws to Restrict Number of Delegate Exceptions WHEREAS, Synod conventions are composed of delegates cho- sen from within the various circuits of the Synod; and WHEREAS, The Bylaws of the Synod carefully define what shall constitute an electoral circuit; and WHEREAS, Provision is made in exceptional circumstances for circuits that do not meet the requirements to be granted delegates; and WHEREAS, It is recognized that the President of the Synod must have some discretion in this area; and WHEREAS, Such granting of “exceptional” delegates has become much more common in recent conventions; and WHEREAS, At least 65 “exceptional” delegates have been al- lowed for the 2007 convention; and WHEREAS, The granting of “exceptional” delegates discourages circuits from seeking to realign themselves and thus live within the Bylaws; therefore be it Resolved, That the Bylaws of the Synod be amended so as to restrict the number of “exceptional” delegates recognized to less than 3 percent of the total number of delegates. Holy Cross Emma, MO 7-18 To Limit Number of Delegate Exceptions WHEREAS, In the 2004 LCMS convention 14 percent of the vot- ing delegates were from circuit exceptions; and WHEREAS, For the 2007 convention of Synod 10.4 percent of the voting delegates will be from circuit exceptions; and WHEREAS, In 2004 and 2007 the majority of these exceptional in circuits could have easily combined with an adjacent circuit in ac- cord by Bylaw 3.1.2 (a); therefore be it Resolved, That at future conventions of the LCMS no more than 3 percent of voting delegates shall be from exceptional circuits. Reformation, Affton, MO; Bethany, Fairview Heights, IL 7-19 To Revise Bylaw re Exceptions for Voting Representation at National Conventions Wuereas, Bylaw 3.1.2 (a) of the Synod Handbook requires each district to determine electoral delegates to a Synod convention to be based on the following requirements: “each pair of delegates shall represent from 7 to 20 member congregations, involving an aggre- gate communicant membership ranging from 1,500 to 10,000”; and WHEREAS, Bylaw 3.1.2 (b) allows for exceptions to these requirements to be made only by the President of the Synod upon request of a district board of directors; and WHEREAS, Placing this decision that affects the voting repre- sentation of a Synod convention into the hands of one person could create the appearance of partiality; and WHEREAS, The Synod needs the assurance that delegates to its convention have been seated fairly and without partiality; therefore be it Resolved, That Bylaw 3.1.2 (b) of the Synod Constitution be amended to read: (b) Exceptions to these requirements may be made only by the President Praesidium of the Synod upon request of a district board of directors. Southern Illinois District 7-20 To Eliminate Delegate Representation Exceptions WHEREAS, The requirements set forth in our Synod’s Constitu- tion and Bylaws for the determination of circuit representation at Synod conventions of one pastoral delegate and one lay delegate for every circuit with at least seven congregations and at least an aggregate of 1,500 communicant members (Bylaw 3.1.2) is rea- sonable and fair; and WHEREAS, It is provided for circuits with less than this mini- mum requirement to have representation at the conventions of our Synod by jointly being represented with other circuits in their dis- tricts; and WHEREAS, The granting of circuit exceptions has been an un- necessarily divisive factor in our Synod; therefore be it Resolved, That Synod Bylaw 3.1.2 (b) be amended to read: “No exceptions shall be granted to circuits not meeting the criteria in section 3.1.2 (a) above.” North Kansas City Circuit 11 Missouri District 7-21 To Amend 3.1.6.2 (c) re Rejection of Convention Overtures WHEREAS, The 2001 LCMS convention passed Res. 7-04A, “To Promote Truth and Integrity in Convention Overtures,” which gave the Synod President the sole discretion to reject any overture that he deemed “contains information which is materially in error, or con- tains any apparent misrepresentation of truth or of character”; and WHEREAS, Bylaw 3.1.6.2 (c), states: “The President of the Synod shall determine if any overture contains information which is ma- terially in error or contains any apparent misrepresentation of truth or of character. He shall not approve inclusion of any such over- ture in the Convention Workbook and shall refer any such overture to the district president who has ecclesiastical supervision over the entity submitting the overture for action. If any published overture or resolution is found to be materially in error or contains a mis- representation of truth or of character; it shall be withdrawn from convention consideration and referred by the President of Synod to the appropriate district president for action”; and WHerEAS, The President of the Synod could use this power in order to refuse to print overtures which in his opinion were simply