Special Executive Committee Meeting
Minutes of May 31, 2022 Meeting
Present: John Aclin, Pastor Sue Beall, Jim Ryan, Karen Weires, Jane Winge, Carolyn Witham, Brian Schwarz
Absent: no one
Call to Order and Opening Prayer: John called the special executive committee of the National Lutheran Secretariat (NLS) to order and Pastor Sue opened the meeting with prayer.
Old Business
How will we interpret the by-laws? John shared that he spoke to past presidents Randy Mullin and Larry and Lois Witham. Both agreed that the quorum is based on the total potential delegates according to our by-laws. He also spoke to another past secretary who thought the quorum was determined based on the number of delegates named by each secretariat. He has therefore chosen to break the tie by using the more restrictive number. For purposes of the 2022 annual meeting, attendance of 88 authorized delegates at the meeting will constitute a quorum.
How do we go forward from here? We will attempt to reach a quorum by contacting secretariats who have not yet authorized the number of delegates they are authorized to have per the by-laws. Executive committee members will contact the same secretariats we contacted in March. (Region 1-Karen, Region 2-John, Region 3-Pastor Sue, Region 4-Brian, Region 5-Jane, Region 6-Carolyn, Region 7-Jim) Jane asked that the contacts be made by phone call, e-mail and text. To facilitate these calls, Carolyn will re-send the current status of delegate authorization and registration to the executive committee.
In addition, to promote additional registrations, Jane moved to change the date upon which the late registration fee will be incurred. Pastor Sue seconded the motion. Jim made a friendly amendment, which both Jane and Pastor Sue accepted, to waive the late registration fee this year. The final motion, to waive the late registration fee and extend the registration deadline from June 1st to July 1st passed unanimously. In the event that it becomes clear that a physical quorum will not be reached, John will let the secretariats know that we will allow participation of virtual delegates. Jane will pull the language used at the beginning of last year’s annual meeting that approved the virtual nature of the meeting. Virtual delegates will not incur a registration fee and will not need to register through the online form. Instead, the lay director for a secretariat will authorize their virtual delegate(s) to secretary@viadecristo.org by sharing the delegate’s name, role (laity or clergy), secretariat name, and unique email address.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made, seconded, and unanimously passed.
Closing Prayer – Pastor Sue closed the meeting with prayer.
Next Regular Meeting – June 28, 2022 at 8:00pm EDT for NLS Executive Committee members
Summary of Action Items
- Carolyn to send out the delegate status listing with guidance on which secretariats to call and key points for that conversation.
- All executive committee members will reach out to the secretariats in their assigned region that require contact per the latest delegate status listing provided by Carolyn. Contact via phone call, e-mail and text.
- Jane to pull the virtual language slide from last year’s annual meeting presentation.
- John to draft a letter to go to secretariats requesting authorization of virtual delegates.
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn Witham
