Dear Friends,
In the life of any organization, priorities and function change. Overtime the structure begins to show its age and needs to catch up with how we do things now and leave room to anticipate who we are becoming. We have outgrown our current structure. We are undertaking to create amended and restated bylaws for you to review and vote on at the next Annual Meeting. Our goal is to conclude our work by February 2023 to provide ample time for notice and discussion.
The Executive Board has formed a Restructure Team composed of members from the Executive Board and representatives of each of the Standing Committees. The Standing Committees will undertake to work on the sections of the bylaws that pertain to their work, and they can weigh in overall.
We hope to have a document that accurately reflects what the Conference is doing, including some practices that arose during the pandemics. There are a few items currently in the bylaws that belong in policies. We plan to remove them and ensure that they are properly housed in policies. Furthermore, we desire to include consensus as part of the way that we collaborate, not solely through European-centric methodologies for decision-making. We also want representation to reflect the reality of our smaller church membership sizes and geographic realities.
We look forward to presenting amended and restated bylaws that will enable and support the mission of the Conference.
Rev Susan Valiquette, Moderator
Southwest Conference UCC