Delegates will be asked to approve revised Southwest Conference bylaws at the 2017 annual meeting to be held in Albuquerque, May 5-6.

In the spring of 2016 the Mission Planning Board (MPB) representatives began reimagining their role in the conference in light of the needs of their churches. Through a process of Appreciative Inquiry, the MPB recreated themselves as the Mission and Church Vitality Committee (MCVC). Some of their previous responsibilities were delegated to the Executive Board; some new responsibilities and purposes were added. This kind of re-visioning work within the conference is exactly what the MPB/MCVC was created to accomplish. The responsibility for monitoring the mission and needs of the conference remains with them in the proposed bylaws.