A UMNS Commentary
By Rich Peck
March 15, 2007

As United Methodists gather for their annual conference sessions this year, their 2008 global assembly will be uppermost in their minds.

In addition to acting on legislation to send to the 2008 General Conference, the annual (regional) conferences will elect delegates to represent their areas. The General Conference, which convenes every four years, will bring about 1,000 delegates to Fort Worth to set direction for the denomination.

The General Conference delegates are elected from among the members of the annual conferences. In order to be a delegate, you must have been a member of the denomination for two years and active in a United Methodist congregation within the boundaries of the annual conference for four years.

Serving as a delegate can be exciting, but it’s also demanding. If you’ve been chosen by your congregation to attend annual conference as a member, here are some points to consider.

Step one: Consider whether you really want to be a General Conference delegate

It may sound like a lot of fun to be a delegate to the only law-making assembly of the worldwide United Methodist Church. However, ask yourself if you want to use 10 vacation days working on legislation from early in the morning to late at night. Don’t expect a lot of free time to spend in the pool and to visit Fort Worth tourist areas.

If you want to become a delegate because you are concerned about a social justice issue, prepare to be disappointed. Delegates who are elected first have the first choice of legislative committees. If you are not one of the first delegates elected, you may discover that the only legislative committees still open are ones that have nothing to do with your primary concern.

You will have an opportunity to vote on all items during plenary sessions during the second week, but odds are great that you will not have the opportunity to speak to any of these issues. At any time, a sizable number of delegates will be trying to capture the eye of the presiding bishop in order to speak to the assembly.

You must also consider financial obligations. General Conference will provide travel funds and per-diem expenses, but you will search for a long time before you find delegates who found reimbursement amounts paid for actual expenses.

Finally, pray about this decision. Is this what God wants you to do?

If you still want to be a delegate, here are the next steps:

Step two: Gain visibility beyond your local church

After being named a lay member to the annual conference, attend conference events and let your district superintendent know you’d like to serve on conference boards or committees. Speak out in committee and conference sessions. Volunteer to take minutes, join conference work teams, and volunteer to write articles for the conference newspaper.

Step three: Read rules governing delegate election

Ask your pastor for a copy of the annual conference journal. Within that book you may be able to find the conference rules of order. Within those rules, you may be able to find conference rules for the election of delegates to General and jurisdictional conferences. If these procedures are not in the journal, call the conference secretary and ask how you can get information about election procedures.

Annual conference procedures differ. In some conferences, members are simply given blank ballots and they are asked to write the names of people for whom they wish to vote. The number of names will depend upon the number of delegates to be elected.

Other annual conferences have a nomination process that includes opportunities to submit personal information that is distributed to all voting members. There is frequently a 150- to 200-word limit for such submissions. Some conferences also include photos of nominees. Look at the listing from four years ago to garner ideas. Ask yourself which candidate would be most attractive to you, and prepare your biographical material accordingly.

Step four: Publicize your interest in becoming a delegate

If conference rules allow, prepare a brochure with a photo, a biographical sketch, and how you stand on specific issues facing the denomination. Don’t be shy about telling about the offices you have held and various accomplishments and honors. You may want to include supportive statements from your pastor and conference leaders. Mail these brochures to the lay members of your annual conference in advance of the conference session. The annual conference office will be able to provide a list for you.

If your conference provides biographies of all nominees, it will probably discourage the preparation of individual brochures. If your conference falls into this category, you may want to provide buttons or shirts, but do not provide brochures.

In some annual conferences, each district is given the opportunity to nominate a set number of members to be candidates for General Conference. If this is the case in your conference, find out who is serving on the committee making recommendations and tell them of your interests and abilities.

Step five: Seek the counsel of others

Introduce yourself to the conference and district lay leaders. Invite them to lunch. Tell them of your interest in being a lay delegate to General Conference and seek their advice.

Seek the counsel and support from friends you have made while serving on conference committees. Ask them to make phone calls on your behalf.

Evaluate the benefits and liabilities of support from a caucus or political-action group within your conference. Talk with the caucus chairperson. If he or she has you near the bottom of the list of candidates the caucus will support, you are better off not being listed by the caucus. If, on the other hand, the caucus intends to make you its No. 1 candidate, you probably have much to gain by its support.

The first ballot will take place early in the 2007 annual conference session, so don’t wait until conference begins to meet annual conference members from other congregations.

Step six: Campaign at the 2007 annual conference

Before the conference, read Paragraphs 601-655 of the 2004 Book of Discipline so you are familiar with the operating rules. Arrive early and introduce yourself to members while they are registering. If they are attending their first annual conference session, provide them with information about the sessions and tell them about voting procedures. If conference rules allow, ask friends to hand out brochures and talk about you.

The number of General Conference delegates from an annual conference depends on the number of clergy and members of local churches. The secretary of General Conference computes and announces the number of delegates each conference can elect. If, for example, an annual conference is allotted 10 delegates, five will be lay and five clergy. The second 10 members elected serve as delegates to the jurisdictional conference; they also serve as alternate members of General Conference in the order of their election.

Every annual conference is guaranteed at least one lay and one clergy delegate. Lay members may only vote for lay delegates and clergy for clergy delegates.

Most annual conferences require delegates to receive more than 50 percent of the valid votes cast before declaring an election. After each ballot, the presiding bishop or the secretary will announce the number of valid ballots, the number of votes needed for election and the results of the ballot.

In the final ballots for General Conference delegates, annual conference members may only be voting for one delegate. If more than one person receives more than 50 percent of the votes cast, the one with the largest number of votes will be the final General Conference delegate elected; the other will be the first delegate to jurisdictional conference and the first alternate delegate to General Conference. If there is a tie, there will be a run-off election between the two candidates.

After General Conference delegates have been elected, balloting will continue to elect an equal number of jurisdictional conference delegates and alternates.

At any time during the balloting process, conference rules or a conference vote can reduce the percentage needed for election. In some cases, a conference may elect people receiving the highest number of votes to the final positions.

Balloting may take more than one day. Be visible during the entire process and continue to widen your friendship circle. Now is not the time to hunker down with old friends.

Step seven: Your work begins

Immediately after elections, newly elected delegates will gather to select a delegation chairperson and choose legislative committees. Odds are great that delegates will select legislative committees in the order in which they are elected. If you have the opportunity, you will want to let others know that you want to serve on a particular committee and your reasons for such a choice. The group will set time and formats for future meetings.

If you are a General Conference delegate, you are also a jurisdictional conference delegate, and that delegation will schedule a meeting at annual conference. At that gathering, members may elect representatives to the jurisdictional committee on the episcopacy and set times for future meetings.

After all this work to get elected to General Conference, you may also be elected to serve as a board member of a general agency and you’ll be given still more work to do. You will have to remind yourself that it is an honor and a privilege to be elected.

*Peck is editor of UM Men and has attended 10 General Conferences. He was editor of the Daily Christian Advocate for the 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000 General Conferences and was editor for United Methodist News Service at the 2004 assembly.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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