# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_undated_S8
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The President-elect of the Synod submitted the following question to the Commission following his
election:
Question: May a President-elect of the Synod make appointments, which a President is required to
make under the Bylaws, prior to being inducted into office?
Opinion: Bylaw 3.67, c, provides:
No appointments to synodical boards or commissions shall be made and no new programs
shall be initiated by the outgoing President…during the interim.
This bylaw indicates that the outgoing President may not make any appointments after the election by
which his successor was chosen. It further provides for emergency situations which are not pertinent to this
question.
Bylaw 3.67, d, provides:
In the interim, the newly elected President shall meet with the re-elected and newly elected
Vice-Presidents…to gather names and obtain information helpful for making wise
appointments.
By this bylaw, the newly elected President is required, between the time of his election and the time of his
induction into office, to meet with the re-elected and newly elected Vice-Presidents to, among other things,
gather names and information helpful to making appointments.
Bylaw 3.65 provides:
a. All those elected at the convention or appointed by the President…shall be inducted
into office on a date on or subsequent to Sept. 1 following the convention.
b. The initial meeting of boards and commissions shall ordinarily be held in association
with the induction….
Under this bylaw the newly elected President becomes President upon his induction into office which is to
take place on or after Sept. 1 following his election. He has no powers and duties as President until such
induction and thus cannot make any presidential appointments prior thereto. However, before such
induction he:
(1) must fulfill the requirement of Bylaw 3.67, d, of meeting with the re-elected and newly
elected Vice-Presidents to gather names and information regarding possible
presidential appointments;
(2) shall choose his intended appointees to boards and then notify the intended appointees
of his intention to appoint them to office upon his induction into office as President
(this is necessary since Bylaw 3.65, b, contemplates the initial meeting of the boards
and commissions taking place at the time of induction on or subsequent to Sept. 1
following the convention); and
(3) shall formally appoint into office the appointees after he has been appointed into office
as President.

Raymond L. Hartwig, Secretary

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