National Lutheran Secretariat Bylaws Special Meeting
Minutes of December 3, 2022 Meeting
Present: John Aclin, Pastor Sue Beall, Jim Ryan, Karen Weires, Jane Winge, Carolyn Witham, Brian Schwarz, authorized delegates
Absent: (list secretariats with no delegates present…
Call to Order and Opening Prayer: John called the National Lutheran Secretariat (NLS) bylaws special meeting to order and Pastor G. Karl opened the meeting with prayer.
Establishment of Quorum
Carolyn called the roll of authorized delegates to confirm who was present at the Zoom meeting. Carolyn affirmed that a quorum is present with 88 authorized delegates in attendance.
Background
John outlined the timeline of events leading to this meeting:
- July 2020 – several bylaw amendments were presented at the annual meeting; two passed and the remainder were tabled
- Fall 2020 – bylaw 4.2 amendment was newly recommended by a special committee commissioned to evaluate this bylaw
- May 2022 – a town hall was held to review all of the proposed bylaw amendments
- August 2022 – bylaw 3.5 amendment was newly recommended by a special committee commissioned to evaluate this bylaw; the committee also recommended a revision to proposed bylaw 4.5 based on input of the May town hall participants
- October 2022 – a town hall was held to review the proposed amendments
- November 2022 – a town hall was held to review the proposed amendments
- Proposed bylaw 4.2 was modified based on the input of town hall participants
John explained how we would proceed. Specifically, to ‘clear the slate’ of the amendments tabled at the 2020 annual meeting, he would move to take from the table the bylaw amendments tabled and replace them with the amendments circulated in November 2022. He asked if there were any questions about this process. None were raised.
Old Business
John then made the motion: if there are no objections, we will remove the 2020 amendments from the table and replace them with those circulated in November 2022. No objections were raised. The motion was passed by acclamation.
New Business
Pastor Doug made a motion to approve the full slate of November 2022 proposed amendments. A second was made. After discussion concluded, Karen launched a Zoom poll for voting. The motion passed with 80 delegates voting yes and 8 voting no.
Closing Announcements
John thanked all that have participated in the process to get the bylaws changed. The changes should allow us to conduct business more easily going forward.
Lake Gaston and River’s Edge Via de Cristo secretariats recently shared that they have voted to officially fold. The executive committee is aware of two other secretariats considering the same. John asked for prayers for all secretariats. He asked those present to please let us know if your secretariat is struggling. Please don’t struggle in isolation. There are brothers and sisters in Christ that are willing and able to help.
Jane asked everyone to save the date for the annual gathering: Thursday, July 27-Sunday, July 30, 2023 at the University of Indianapolis. The building community theme is based on Hebrews 10:24-25. Come and celebrate our 50 year anniversary with us! Early registration will be available in January.
The lay director round table will be held tomorrow at 4pm EST. All lay directors, executive committee members, and region coordinators are encouraged to attend.
John closed the meeting by stating: if there are no objections, this meeting is adjourned. No objections were raised. The motion passed by acclamation.
Closing Prayer – Pastor G. Karl closed the meeting with prayer.
Next Meeting – Begins July 27, 2023 during the annual gathering in Indianapolis
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn Witham
