Annual Conference

Election Procedures

  1. From July until December 1st each year, Nominating Committee gathers nominations from across the denomination, seeking female and male, younger and older nominees from various professional, rural and urban, geographic location perspectives and skill sets.
  2. The Nominating Committee meets in early January to prepare a ballot of four names for each position. That ballot is distributed only to the current Standing Committee members (those who served at the previous Annual Conference), who keep that ballot confidential. Standing Committee’s vote reduces the ballot to two nominees per position. This is the tentative final ballot that will be presented at Annual Conference. It is announced to the denomination at large in February (AC 2001).
  3. In fairness to all nominees, any nomination from the floor at Conference must be made by name only at the time the ballot is introduced to the delegate body. Biographical information and written consent by the nominee must be submitted to the Conference secretary at that time for publication and distribution (AC 1979).
  4. Each year the Nominating Committee explains the goals, needs, and procedures of our election process to the Standing Committee and to the delegate body. Delegates are reminded to work towards a balance of age/gender/ethnic representation (AC 2001)—see the Call to Accountability report at www.brethren.org/accountability. Standing Committee’s 1983 “Call to Accountability of Representation on Annual Conference Ballots” also authorized Nominating Committee to use at-large categories in the structure of ballots to correct any imbalances of representation.
  5. Congregations, districts, and agencies are called to do quality leadership development, giving leadership experience to a wide variety of persons to prepare them for possible denominational leadership, in particular to identify and call forth ethnic/minority leadership. All nominees for denominational leadership are encouraged to have participated in at least one intercultural experience in the past five years. (AC 2001) (AC 2007)