LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 185

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9. STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION
3.12.3.6 The Committee for Convention Nominations shall
select candidates for all elective offices, boards, and
commissions except President, First Vice-President, and
vice-president positions requiring regional nominations
(Bylaws 3.12.2.7–8; 3.3.4.1; 3.8.2.2; 3.8.3.2).
(a) At least two candidates and at least one alternate
shall be selected for each position.
(b) The committee shall determine its complete list of
candidates and alternates, obtain the consent of the
persons it proposes to select as candidates, and transmit
its final report at least five months prior to the
convention to the Secretary of the Synod, who shall post
the list on the Synod’s Website and provide for its
publication in a pre-convention issue of an official
periodical of the Synod and in the Convention Workbook.
(c) The committee’s report shall list the qualifications
of various positions used in the solicitation of nominees
and contain pertinent information concerning each
candidate, such as occupation or profession, district
affiliation, residence, specific experience, number of
years as a member of an LCMS congregation, present
position, offices previously held in a congregation,
district or the Synod, and qualifications for the office in
question, and, if the candidate so desires, also a brief
personal statement.
(d) The committee shall prepare a reserve list of
nominees for use by the chairman at the convention,
should the need arise.
(e) The committee shall, whenever possible, prepare
and hold in readiness a slate of candidates for any new
board or commission likely to be established at a
convention of the Synod, and of these the committee
should, whenever possible, be informed in advance.
(f) Any changes to the complete list of candidates and
alternates necessitated by unavailability, declination, or
ineligibility of candidates occurring after the last
meeting of the Committee on Convention Nominations
may be effected by the Standing Committee on
Nominations. As much as possible, this shall be
accomplished by advancing available alternates and by
making use of the reserve list of nominees approved by
the plenary committee.
3.12.3.7 The chairman of the Committee for Convention
Nominations shall submit the committee’s report in person
to the convention at one of its earliest sessions and shall
facilitate the amendment of the slate from the floor.
…
(e) Whenever possible, chairman of the Committee for
Convention Nominations shall have on hand at the
convention a reserve list of nominees, approved by the
committee, for use if required.
(f) Whenever possible, the Committee for Convention
Nominations should be informed in advance if any new
board or commission is likely to be established at a
convention of the Synod, so that it may have a slate of
candidates in readiness.

Resolutions

D. EXCUSE PROCEDURE FOR ADVISORY
DISTRICT CONVENTION ATTENDANCE
Rationale
Bylaws 3.1.3 and 4.2.3 for district conventions, like Bylaw
4.8.2 for official district conferences, require attendance of
advisory members. Unlike Bylaw 4.8.2, they do not
acknowledge that there may be legitimate excuses for nonattendance or suggest that there should be a process for
handling such excuses. Changes are proposed along these
lines, for the practical reason that attendance of advisory
members at conventions is not always possible and that the
reasons for their absence should be made known to the
district president, whether the result will be to
evangelically encourage attendance as an obligation and
benefit of Synod membership, or to seek amelioration of
whatever circumstances are hindering advisory member
attendance.
Therefore be it
Resolved, That Bylaws 3.1.3 and 4.2.3 be amended as
follows:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
Nonvoting Advisory Delegates
3.1.3
Advisory members of the Synod shall, unless they
present a valid excuse, attend district conventions, but they
shall not be elected by any congregation or by any group of
congregations as lay delegates to a national convention of
the Synod.
4.2.3
All nonvoting ordained and commissioned
ministers who are members of the Synod within the district
shall, unless they present a valid excuse, serve as advisory
delegates.
(a) They are entitled to voice and vote on a floor
committee, if appointed, and to voice in the convention.
(b) All advisory members are expected to attend all
sessions of the convention.
(c) Those advisory members whose office in the Synod,
district, or other agency imposes professional or service
requirements on which full and regular convention
attendance makes undue demands, shall nevertheless, in
consultation with their supervisory boards, arrange for
their own partial or occasional attendance and
participation in accordance with policies established by
their supervisory boards.

E. TO RAISE THE NUMBER
OF OFFICIAL CONFERENCES
Rationale
Synod Bylaw 4.8.2 (b) limits the number of major
sections of district worker conferences to four, and there
are districts in the Synod that cover vast areas that make
this limit of four impractical. Workers in these districts find
it difficult to travel these distances for an annual conference
as called for by relevant bylaws. Increasing the number of

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 185