# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_November 11 13 2011_S1
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MINUTES
COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
November 11–13, 2011
St. Louis Crowne Plaza Hotel
62. Call to Order, Opening Devotion, and Review of Agenda
Chairman Wilbert Sohns called the meeting to order with all members of the commission present. He
called on Neely Owens (who served as the chaplain for the entire meeting) for the first of his devotions.
64. “Consultation” with the President of the Synod and His Staff
After providing a brief oral history and discussion of matters to be addressed, Chairman Sohns welcomed
President Matthew Harrison, Barbara Below and Jon Vieker from his staff, and Chief Administrative
Officer Ron Schultz to the meeting. After a presentation by members of the commission, matters
associated with agenda item 11-2600 were discussed at length. Following the consultation, the
commission continued its own discussion of related issues before moving on to other business.
65. Review of Oklahoma District Bylaw Revisions (08-2536A)
Following the commission’s September 3–4 review of the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of the
Oklahoma District, the district committee incorporated the suggestions and recommendations for
additional changes provided by the commission and returned the documents for final review. The
secretary of the district also reported that several new revisions were being submitted. Upon its further
review, the commission offered the following recommendations to the district prior to submission of the
documents to the 2012 district convention for approval.
• Article III, paragraph 1 b: The provision that the second vice-president’s duty is to “oversee” the
training and education of circuit counselors would better state that he will “assist with” such
training, since the officer primarily responsible for such training and education is the district
president (Synod Bylaw 5.2.3 [k]).
• Article III, paragraph 4 a: The words “restricted or” must be deleted from the third-last sentence
of the paragraph, as restricted status does not remove called workers from the roster. The correct
bylaw reference at the end of the second-last sentence should be Synod Bylaw 2.13.2.2.
• Article III, paragraph 7: Synod bylaws allow nominations for district offices from throughout the
Synod. Therefore the words “be nominated” in the first sentence must be deleted. Upon election,
however, a nominee must “be and remain a member in good standing of a congregation of the
district.
• Article III, paragraph 8: The district is advised to refer to and/or quote the actual wording of
Synod Bylaw 1.5.1.2 as the simplest way to communicate the content of the Synod bylaw and
avoid confusion.
• Article IV, paragraph 2: The final sentence should speak of the “selection” of circuit counselors
(Synod Bylaw 5.2.2 [c]) and the ratification of their selection by their district conventions, so as
to read more accurately: “The individuals selected will then have their names submitted to the
district convention for ratification, which shall constitute election.”
• Article IV, paragraph 3: The final sentence regarding the election of members of the Board of
Directors would do well to reflect the process described in the preceding paragraph’s final
sentence, to read: “The individuals selected will then have their names submitted to the district
convention for ratification, which shall constitute election.”