LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 140

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140 TASK FORCE

2-27

To Study Position of Administrative
Officer of the Board of Directors

WHEREAS, Past confusion over the proper designation of the
office and function of the ‘executive director of the Synod”
and/or ‘executive director of the Board of Directors” was
resolved by an alteration of Bylaws; and

WHEREAS, The need that this function be properly fulfilled is
obvious in connection with the work of the Board of Directors
of the Synod; and

WHEREAS, The position was created to serve the Board of
Directors under the title of Administrative Officer of the Board
of Directors of the Synod; and

WHEREAS, This position places heavy responsibility upon
and allows for disproportionate influence by an individual who
functions also as an advisory member of the Council of
Administrators and, again, as chairman of the Divison of
Administration; and

WHEREAS, The Bylaws of the Synod (2.15 and 3.35) restrict
the number of offices, elective and appointive, and also preserve
the principle that no one in the Synod or the Districts ‘“‘shall
hold more than one elective office; or more than two offices,
although one or both be appointive; or ever hold two offices of
which one is directly responsible for the work done by the
other”; therefore be it

Resolved, That the function of the position of this Admin-
istrative Officer of the Board of Directors be studied by the
convention as a safeguard against centralization of power and
influence.

King of Kings Lutheran Church
Mason, Ohio
R. A. Anders, Chairman

2-28

To Consider Alternatives to
Task Force II Proposals

1. Conventions

An important consideration facing the Synod is the
frequency of synodical and District conventions. The far-
reaching functions certainly encourage meeting as frequently
as possible. Biennial conventions are distinctly advantageous
to program continuity, review, and accountability, except for
the ever-growing cost factor. A further major concern is the
short time which this arrangement allows for program implementa-
tion. Each programmatic board requires at least three months
to initiate convention resolutions, which leaves only 14 months
for boards to accomplish convention objectives before the
departments must begin again to evaluate their work and
consider changes and new programs to be suggested to the next
convention. Therefore the time which boards and staff would
have to devote to implementation is as follows:

biennial—14 months
triennial—28 months
quadrennial—40 months

Cost reduction, a major consideration, could be realized by
reducing the number of voting and advisory delegates. A more
equitable ratio of delegates to the congregations and commun-
icants which they represent would assure proper representa-
tion and also somewhat reduce the delegate total. A significant
reduction in advisory delegates would reduce costs greatly
without hampering convention effectiveness.

The Board of Directors suggests an alternate to the present
biennial convention arrangement, as well as to the triennial
convention recommendation suggested by Task Force II. The
Synod can preserve the effectiveness of biennial conventions
and at the same time reduce the costs by adopting a biennial
long-short convention arrangement. A long or program con-
vention of seven days, conducted every 4 years, would be
followed in two years by a short or review convention of three
days. The program convention would carry out all the functions
of a regular general convention, including establishing new

programs and policies, considering matters of theology and
church relations, and conducting general elections. The review
convention agenda would be restricted to election of the
staggered slate of officers, review and redirection of programs,
and prioritizing implementation and fiscal matters. An
expanded ‘‘Todays Business” would eliminate the costly Con-
vention Workbook. Such a convention would maintain account-
ability to the church at large, a highly desirable function, and
preserve and increase communication with the “grassroots.”
Small cities might host such a convention, bringing the church
closer to a broad cross section of its members. A desired
advantage of such /ong-short arrangement, however, would be
the lengthened time span during which departments would
implement their programs. The board also recommends that
all District conventions continue to meet in the year following
the synodical convention, but be restricted to three days, and
suggests a similar agenda format as the synodical convention.

The board further recommends that delegates be elected for
the long-short convention cycle covering four years and two
conventions. Fully informed delegates would be able to speedily
and efficiently review their own previous decisions, policies,
and programs and make truly intelligent and responsible
changes, as well as more effectively communicate with the
congregations they represent.

Accordingly, we offer the following overtures concerning
the frequency of future synodical conventions and related
topics.

RESOLUTION A

WHEREAS, It is a distinct advantage with regard to signifi-
cant matters for a synodical convention to reach decisions
through the convention process more frequently than every
three or four years; and

WHEREAS, It would be desirable to continue to assure
overlapping terms for members of each elective board of the
Synod; and

WHEREAS, It would be preferable for the Synod to be served
by its elective officers for a period of at least four years rather
than three; and

WHEREAS, Alternative procedures are available for increas-
ing the meaningfulness of synodical conventions while at the
same time materially reducing the consumption of human
material and financial resources; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Board of Directors urges the retention of
the bienniel frequency of synodical conventions.

RESOLUTION B

WHEREAS, Through the adoption of a legislative process
under which convention delegates could be advised fairly as to
which pending items were important to be considered at the
instant session and which might be deferred without adverse
effect; and

WHEREAS, The employment of such a process would make it
possible and practical to reduce the length of each alternate
session while at the same time dealing responsibly with
elections as well as significant reports, presentations, and
resolutions; and

WHEREAS, Each day trimmed from the length of any
convention through such a process and scheduled in advance
would save many hours of collective delegate time, significant
amounts of material resources, and thousands of dollars of the
Lord’s money, therefore be it

Resolved, That the Board of Directors recommends that
succeeding synodical conventions be planned on the basis of a
long session/short session alternation.

RESOLUTION C

WHEREAS, Some of the items presented to a synodical
convention are of substantially greater significance than
others; and

WHEREAS, The development of a legislative process such as
a democratically chosen sizeable group of delegates serving as
an agenda committee could make recommendations to a
synodical convention as to which items to deal with and which to