LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 131

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SYNOD REPORTS 13]

therefore continued to review and approve proposed revisions to
constitutions and bylaws of the districts and other agencies of the
Synod. It has also, through its secretary, requested from the various
agencies of the Synod copies of their policy manuals and is
presently engaged in an evaluation of them. It is estimated that the
time required to accomplish this task will take the commission be-
yond the 2007 Synod convention.

The Commission on Constitutional Matters is represented on the
Commission on Structure by Wilbert Sohns. Chairman Marcis rep-
resents the commission on the 7-22 Committee, which committee,
comprised of the chairman of the Committee for Convention Nom-
inations, the chairman of the Commission on Constitutional Mat-
ters, and the chairman of the Commission on Structure, has been
asked to “consider ways in which the process of nominating and
electing leaders might be improved” and “report [its] findings,
suggested procedural changes, and possible bylaw changes to the
2007 convention” (2004 convention Res. 7-22).

In addition to its chairman, Albert Marcis, the current member-
ship of the commission includes Raymond Hartwig, Secretary of
the Synod; clergy members Wilbert Sohns and Donald Little; and
attorneys Gordon Tresch and Daniel Lorenz.

Each meeting of the Commission on Constitutional Matters be-
gins with prayer in Jesus’ name by one of its members. The com-
mission regularly asks the Lord to bless its efforts faithfully to
carry out the work which the Synod has assigned it to do.

Albert Marcis, Chairman

R7-07
Commission on Structure

The voting members are Rev. Alan Barber, Dr. George Gude,
Synod Secretary Dr. Raymond Hartwig, Rev. Richard Nuffer, Dr.
Walter Rosin, Board of Directors Chief Administrative Officer Mr.
Ron Schultz, and Rev. Marvin Temme. The advisory member is
Dr. Wilbert Sohns from the CCM.

Because the appointment of the full commission was delayed
until September 2005, more than a year after the close of the 2004
convention, the commission did not hold its first meeting until
Sept. 16, 2005. At the initial meeting, the following were elected:
Dr. George Gude, chairman; Rev. Alan Barber, vice-chairman; and
Dr. Walter Rosin, secretary. During the course of the remainder of
the triennium, the commission met seven more times up to the writ-
ing of this report.

The purpose of the commission is specified in Synod Bylaw
3.9.5 “The Commission on Structure exists to serve the members of
the Synod in convention by providing direction for ongoing main-
tenance and management of the Handbook, that is, the Constitu-
tion, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporation of the Synod, and
Bylaw 3.9.5.2, “The Commission on Structure shall assist the con-
vention in maintaining the Handbook of the Synod by identifying
and recommending modifications to areas of concern in the Hand-
book and for promotion of its ease of use, thereby to enable the
Synod most effectively to accomplish its mission.”

In addition, the commission has also had items referred to it by
the Synod convention. Several items were referred in 2001. How-
ever, none of the referral actions from the 2004 convention re-
ceived action.

Three items were considered by the commission at the request
of various district conventions. The first was a request to consider
expanding the number of members on the CCM. In the resolution
adopted by the district convention, no reason was given indicating
why the increase in members of the CCM would be beneficial. In
giving this request consideration, the Commission on Structure
concluded that the present number of members was sufficient.

The second request was to change the Bylaws of the Synod to
permit all member congregations of a dual parish to have lay rep-
resentation at district conventions. The third request was that at dis-
trict conventions, a vacant parish might be represented by the
ordained or commissioned minister serving them, in addition to
their lay delegate. In giving consideration to these requests, the
Commission on Structure concluded that these were matters which
should be referred to the President’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on
Structure and Governance.

Near the end of the triennium, President Kieschnick identified
several questions for the commission’s consideration. Included
were: Should the First Vice-President and Treasurer be voting
members of Synod’s Board of Directors or advisory members as
they are now? Should all terms of service for boards be the same
rather than members having six-year terms and officers having
three-year terms? Should there be a balance between lay members
and rostered members of boards such as the Board of Directors?
The commission concluded that these were issues for study and
should be considered by the next Commission on Structure.

The major item the commission considered during this trien-
nium was the result of two questions referred to it by the CCM.
These were opinions 05-2429 and 05-2426. Opinion 05-2429 per-
tained to amendments to Bylaws of the LCMS Foundation, and
during its discussion, the CCM noted that no convention action had
been taken on various proposals to recent Synod conventions re-
questing adoption of Bylaws to govern removal of members of
boards. The CCM referred this matter to the Commission on Struc-
ture for its consideration. Opinion 05-2426 was a response to a re-
quest for the meaning of the term “agency” in Bylaw 1.5.9. In the
2004 Handbook, the term “agency” was substituted for the phrase
“board, commission, and synodwide corporate entity” in the 2001
Handbook. In rendering its opinion, the CCM requested the Com-
mission on Structure to “give attention to the use of the word
‘agency’ in the current Bylaw 1.5.9 and recommend an appropriate
action to the 2007 convention of the Synod to clarify the bylaw’s
verbiage.”

In addressing these two issues, the Commission on Structure
determined that there is an inconsistent use of several terms in the
Handbook, and that Bylaw section 1.5 needed to be considered in
its entirety. Accordingly, the commission has done this and is
proposing an overture to the 2007 Synod convention which strives
for a more consistent use of the terms officer, executive director,
and chief executive in the Bylaws, provides definitions for these
terms to be incorporated into the Bylaws, provides for a process of
removal of board or commission members, and refines the wording
of Bylaw section 1.5. Another term the commission identified as
needing more precision in the Bylaws was the word “staff.” The
current commission recommends that this study be undertaken by
the next Commission on Structure.

Since the commission’s last meeting, the Synod Board of Di-
rectors has requested the Commission on Structure to review and
recommend to the 2007 convention of the Synod revision of Bylaw
3.2.5 to clarify whether the Board of Directors must elect from the
list of candidates submitted by the nominating committee or
whether it can make floor nominations from the list of nominees.
As this report is being written, this item is under consideration by
the commission.

In chronicling the work of the commission, it is clear that most
of the matters that came before the commission were by referral.
The commission notes that there is no specific provision in the By-
laws 3.9.5 or 3.9.5.2 dealing with items being referred to the com-
mission. It was the commission’s opinion that it would be helpful
to add a section to Bylaw 3.9.5.2 to clarify this responsibility of the
commission. An example might be a new Bylaw 3.9.5.2.1 which
could read something like, “The Commission on Structure shall
consider items referred to it by the Synod in convention, the Presi-

2007 Convention Workbook