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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 181

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

I. OPINIONS OF COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
2. A vice-president of the Synod shall be designated
by the President of the Synod.
3. A district president other than the geographical
district president shall be appointed by the
Council of Presidents.
4. Four members may be appointed as voting members by the board of regents.
5. Appointed members may not vote on the appointment of other members of the board.
6. In order to achieve continuity, a plan of staggered terms for the appointed board members
will be adopted by each board of regents.
The 2007 Proceedings note that the fifth above provision
was added by amendment, with the comment: “After the Commission on Constitutional Matters reported that the amendment would affect other appointed members of the board such
as the officers of the Synod, discussion continued until debate
was terminated, the amendment was adopted, and the resolution was adopted as amended [Yes: 742; No: 214].” There is
no record of any opinion of the commission to this effect; it is
merely advice offered to the convention. Nonetheless, it seems
reasonable to conclude from this note in the minutes that the
convention accepted generally the literal sense of the language
it was adopting, that “other appointed members” (i.e., beyond
those appointed under the fourth provision) would not be able
to vote on the appointment of other members (i.e., under the
fourth provision). This is, of course, the literal sense of the Bylaw: that “appointed members may not vote on the appointment
of other members of the board.”
Question 2: It has been suggested that editing changes made
to the bylaws between 2007 and today have caused
the current Bylaw 3.10.5.2. Do the 2007 Synodical
Bylaws bear substantially the same meaning as
that suggested by the CCM at the 2007 Convention?
The change in outline of the bylaw in question appears to
have occurred as part of the carrying out of 2010 Res. 8-12A,
in which the Secretary of the Synod, under review by the Commission on Constitutional Matters and with the approval of the
Board of Directors, finished the incorporation in the Bylaws of
the Convention’s restructuring of the Synod (in this case, 2010
Res. 8-08A, 2010 Proceedings, pp. 161–64; see also the referenced 2010 Today’s Business, p. 280). No record of this change
in outlining, let alone of any substantive intent behind it, could
be located. (Presumably it was an attempt to reconcile the organization of this Bylaw with others designating the membership
of boards, in which each element in the numbered list refers to
a category of board members—in such a scheme, the former
fifth and sixth elements had to be incorporated otherwise.) Thus
it seems there is no reason to discern any sense but that none
of the appointed members (i.e., that appointed by the Council
of Presidents or those potentially appointed by the board) may
vote on additional appointed regents. The sense is the same as
in 2007.
Question 3: Is the word designated in Bylaw 3.10.5.2 [2] simply
a synonym of the word appointed or does it convey a different concept than the word appointed?
If the latter, would it then be exempt from the
application of Bylaw 3.10.5.2 [4]?

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The words designated and appointed are not the same, nor
are they the same as the word elected.
Election, in the present usage preferred for clarity’s sake by
the Commission on Constitutional Matters and Handbook, refers to election by a district or Synod Convention only. Appointment refers generally to placement of persons in terms of office
by other entities (the President, the Praesidium, the Council of
Presidents, boards of the Synod, etc.). (Cf. Bylaws 1.5.1.2 and
3.2.5–3.2.5.1.)
It is important to note that the Bylaws recognize board
members that are neither elected (to that position) nor appointed (e.g., ex officio members and their representatives on
the boards of directors of the Synod, of Concordia University
System, and of Concordia Publishing House—with regard to
which, see CCM Op. 12-2662). So it is incorrect to assume that
because a member is not elected, he must be appointed.
Designation, a less formal term, does not connote a formal
appointment process or a fixed term of service.2 The President
designates a vice-president—perhaps, constitutionally speaking [Const. Art. XII C 1], “upon his request” … to “represent
him in [one of] his functions,” namely, with regard to Synod’s
educational institutions, to “exercise supervision over the doctrine taught and practiced in those institutions” and to “exercise
oversight over their administration” (Bylaws 3.3.1.1.1 [c] and
3.3.1.2 [a]).
Referring to 2007 Bylaw 3.8.2.5.2, above, the designation
of a vice-president by the President of Synod, the third provision, pre-existed the fourth through sixth provisions, added that
year, all of which deal with appointment. Indeed, with reference
to this vice-president, the word appointed was changed to designated in that Bylaw as part of the sweeping 1981 revision of
the Handbook (1981 Res. 2-18B). (Note that at this time there
were no other appointed members of the board, and therefore
no prohibition of appointed members voting on appointment
of others.) The fact that the word was then changed from appointed (a common and “standardized” term in the Bylaws) to
designated (a less common word) itself suggests strongly that
there is a distinction to be made within the difference. Moreover, with regard to this vice-president, the word designated was
not changed to appointed when the term used for the district
president member was changed from elected to appointed (2004
Handbook), nor when other appointed members were added to
the boards of regents in 2007 (along with the noted prohibition)—nor has it been changed since.
The clear impression is that there is a purposeful distinction between designation and appointment, a distinction with a
difference, regarding the fourth provision above—and a difference that, given the President of Synod’s intimate responsibility
for supervision and oversight of Synod’s educational institutions, makes sense.
Question 4: Does Synodical Bylaw 3.10.5.2 [4] prohibit the
appointee of the Council of Presidents and/or the
designee of the Synodical President from voting
on the appointments of new Regents to a seminary Board of Regents?
By the reasoning given above, Bylaw 3.10.5.2 [4] prohibits
the appointee of the Council of Presidents from voting on the
appointments of new seminary regents, but not the designee of
the President of the Synod. This would also (and more impor2019 Convention Workbook