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. Anyone making a nomination from the floor of Annual Conference is required, before presenting the name of a nominee, to offer a rationale for why the existing ballot for a particular position is inadequate. The Annual Conference delegates will be asked to vote on whether to accept a new nomination based on the presented rationale. If a majority of delegates vote to approve, the person may then present the name of an additional nominee. If the motion fails, the intended nomination shall not be presented nor named (AC Minutes 2023). If/when a nomination is allowed, biographical information and written consent by the nominee must be submitted to the Annual Conference secretary immediately for publication and distribution (AC Minutes 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)