wfn.org | Committee votes down rule changes on biographical material on

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6002 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

nominees
26-June-2000
GA00056

	Committee votes down rule changes on biographical material on nominees
	
	by John Filiatreau

LONG BEACH, June 26 -- The Committee on General Assembly Procedures on
Monday voted down two overtures intended to force the General Assembly
Nominating Committee (GANC) to provide biographical information about its
nominees to Assembly commissioners in a timely fashion, so that the
commissioners can make informed choices on nominations or nominate others
from the floor.

	Speakers before the committee noted that the GANC has already revised its
procedures so that nominations are published in the Reports to the General
Assembly, and future commissioners will "receive the full slate of nominees
well before the General Assembly convenes." The revision has been partially
implemented this year, and will be fully implemented for the 213th General
Assembly in Louisville next year.
	
	Overtures 19 and 63 said that, if the GANC failed to nominate a candidate
by the time its report was due, it would forfeit its opportunity to endorse
someone for the position. That provision, some members worried, "would open
the door to potentially a large number of nominations from the floor ...
with virtually no biographical data."

	The committee approved part of overture 30, a proposed change in the
Standing Rules that would require that commissioners receive all "the
appropriate background information necessary to interpret or understand the
recommendations or responses to referrals to the members of the General
Assembly committees to which the business is referred."
						
	Initially, the overture said that these background materials, "including
but not limited to curriculum, study papers/guides, position papers and
program resources, shall be mailed to commissioners along with the reports
which reference them."

	After some members pointed out that mailing such materials to all 550-plus
commissioners would be very expensive ("We're talking about a lot of
money!"), the wording was changed to say merely that the materials "shall be
made available" to the commissioners. Staff members said some such materials
have been made available on the church's Web site this year. One member said
the changed language would save trees and spare the backs of commissioners
who already have to lug around huge folders of Assembly papers.

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