RESOLUTION 11-15 Overture 11-03 (CW, pp. 383–384)
WHEREAS, Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 states:
“The Commission on Constitutional Matters shall examine the articles of incorporation, bylaws, and policy manuals of every agency of the Synod to ascertain whether they are in harmony with the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the Synod.
(a) Agencies intending to make amendments to articles of incorporation or bylaws 1 shall make such intentions known and receive approval from the commission in advance. (b) The commission shall maintain a file of the articles of incorporation, bylaws, and policy manuals of all agencies of the Synod”; and
WHEREAS, Bylaw 1.2.1 (a) (1) states: “Agencies include each board, commission, council, seminary, university, college, district, Concordia Plan Services, and each synodwide corporate entity”;
and
WHEREAS, Districts amend their articles of incorporation and bylaws in conventions, at which the Synod’s Commission on Constitutional Matters ( CCM) is not present, and therefore the CCM cannot give “approval … in advance” for any changes in wording of articles of incorporation or bylaws that might be made through amendments from the floor at such conventions; and
WHEREAS, The parliamentarian at the 2007 convention of the Synod ruled that, according to the Synod’s bylaws, amendments from the floor could not be debated unless they had first been examined by the CCM, in effect allowing the CCM to kill any amendments simply by failing to examine them; and
WHEREAS, By such a reading, Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 would rule out all amendments from the floor of any district convention, thus robbing the districts of the insights of the delegates who are not on floor committees, even prohibiting districts from voting on their own bylaws if their floor committees failed to provide the CCM with advance copies of their proposed changes or if the CCM for any reason fails to approve them before the convention; therefore be it
Resolved, That Synod Bylaw 3.9.2.2.3 be amended to read as follows:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
See resolution for proposed wording