# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_December 7 9 1979_S6
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6.54 b, 3 - was changed to read: "3. Notice of intent to grant tenure shall be announced in an
[instead of "the"] official periodical of the Synod.
The Commission ratified these changes.
282. Board of Directors' Action Re Irvine (Ag. 1124A): Since the Board of Directors seems to have
followed through on this convention resolution, it was decided to remove this item from the agenda.
283. English District Bylaws (Ag. 653 A,B): The Secretary had asked the president of the English District
whether the District had ever accepted the suggested changes in its Bylaws proposed by the CCM.
President Bornemann was unable to find any action or any correspondence in the files. He also pleaded
that the CCM not make an issue of these matters at the present time until the District has become more
settled. The Commission decided to reply that it is indeed our obligation to study and to review all
District Bylaws and we would hope that the time to take action on the English District Bylaws would be
appropriate within the very near future. In the meantime, we appreciate his concern and also his offer of
cooperation.
284. Southern Illinois District Bylaws (Ag. 625, A): The Southern Illinois District had pleaded for a
review of the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws prepared in consultation with paid consultants, the
Abdon firm, in order to have something to report to their February District convention. The Commission
was quite reluctant to go through these many pages since it seemed to be a considerable amount of repetition. Since the Bylaws of the Synod are also the Bylaws of the District, it was felt that District Bylaws
could be relatively short. Nevertheless, the Commission turned its attention to the document submitted on
the basis of a review of them by Carl Eberhard. It found considerable fault with the Articles of
Incorporation, especially in view of the fact that the paid consultant apparently had not contacted the
Secretary of State of Illinois to determine what needed and what did not need to be placed into the
Articles of Incorporation. There were also many suggestions in the Bylaws which the Commission had to
offer. In short, it seemed that the District would be over-organized for a District of that small size, that not
too many recommendations which the CCM had offered in regard to the North Dakota District Bylaws
had been adopted by the Abdon people, that the instruments were altogether too Verbose, that some
important omissions occurred especially in the Articles of Incorporation. A detailed analysis is attached to
the minutes.
285. The meeting had to adjourn before the review of the Southern Illinois Bylaws could be completed.
Herbert Mueller, Secretary