LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — July 8, 1999, Page 7

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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The committee would check the nominations for validity and subsequently report on the
nominations received via Today’s Business and would include all validly nominated
candidates on the appropriate ballots later in the convention.
The chairman of the convention committee noted, however, that his committee recognizes that it is
proposing a change to a long-established process of nomination and election. Therefore, “for the sake of
good order and a peaceful conscience, both for ourselves and for the delegates to the convention, we are
seeking a formal ruling on the appropriateness of the process outlined above,” noting especially two
questions:
Our first question is whether the chairman could designate another member of the
committee to receive the written nominations for him, or would he have to receive them
in person. It seems to us that the intent of the bylaw is to ensure that the required
material is submitted to the responsible party rather than to define the exact process by
which such a submission occurs. If so, the chairman of the committee should be able to
designate another person to receive the forms for him and deliver them to him.
Our second question deals with the interpretation of the term “immediately” in the
context of the bylaw. The context suggests that the purpose of the word is to ensure that
the written consent of the nominee was indeed obtained prior to the nomination. It seems
to us that the nomination is not made in the proposed process until the form is submitted,
and that since the signed consent of the nominee is on the form at the time that it is
submitted, that the information is properly said to be received immediately when the
nomination is made.
The Commission responds as follows:
Your memorandum inquires whether a proposed revision of the process for receiving floor nominations for
offices other than those of president and the vice-presidents would comply with Bylaw 3.985, a, which
reads:
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. The convention may amend
the slate by nominations from the floor. Such floor nominations may only be made from the
list of names which have previously been offered to the Committee for Convention
Nominations prior to the final deadline established and published by the committee, unless
the convention shall otherwise order by a simple majority vote. If the convention approves
the receipt of such additional nominations, any delegate making such a nomination shall
have secured prior written consent of the candidate being nominated and shall immediately
submit it to the chairman of the Committee for Convention Nominations along with written
pertinent information concerning the nominee as detailed in Bylaw 3.983 e.
At the outset, the Commission observes that the procedure appears to omit any method for nomination from
the floor of persons whose names have “previously been offered to the Committee for Convention
Nominations” and whose pertinent information and consent to nomination have already been received.
Presumably it is intended that these nominations be taken directly from the floor as in the past, since there is
no necessity to submit the form described in step 3 above. Alternatively, your committee may decide for the
sake of consistency and convenience that such nominations should also be in writing, but need not contain
the pertinent information and consent of the nominee, both of which would already have been received by
the nominations committee.