United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report
December 20, 2004 – Teleconference

The Council of Elders met briefly in teleconference to resolve a matter that was left open during the recent meetings in Cincinnati. Aaron Dean and Joel Meeker were traveling and were not present for the meeting.

In order to preserve the privacy of the voting procedures of the General Conference of Elders, Leon Walker proposed the following resolution, which the quorum of the Council adopted unanimously:

Whereas the Council of Elders wishes to protect the privacy aspect of the balloting for the General Conference of Elders process, it is hereby resolved that all ballots will be designed to separate the verification section (name and signature) from the remainder of the ballot so that only the ballot section will be filed with the official record.

It is further resolved that all ballots of the General Conference of Elders currently on file will have the verification section removed at the earliest possible date.

As stated in the report for the Council meeting on December 10, 2004, two proposals have been submitted to amend Bylaw 12.2.2.8 — one by members of the GCE and the other by the Council. In the GCE version, a proposed amendment that is not acted on by the Council within its 30-day time limit would proceed directly to the ballot at the annual meeting.

The amendment proposed by the Council requires that an amendment on which the Council does not take action would require 25 percent support from the GCE before it is placed on the ballot. Robert Dick and Mr. Walker have spoken with two of the authors of the amendment proposed by the GCE members. They have asked for a copy of the proposed Council amendment so they can evaluate whether they wish to continue with or withdraw their proposed amendment. The Amendment Committee had sent to the Council all of the proposed Constitution and Bylaws amendments for the 2005 Annual Meeting of the General Conference of Elders. The deadline for Council review is January 18, 2005. A teleconference is scheduled for December 31 for the Council to discuss the action it will take on the proposed amendments.

Don Henson

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© 2004 United Church of God, an International Association