Monday, June 11, 2007

Conference Day 1

Well, it's the end of day one of Annual Conference, although officially yesterday evening was the beginning. I suppose I should say today was the first full day of sitting, listening, popping up and down in the seats, singing, etc. As I stated earlier, this is an election year and we are electing delegates to General Conference. I can report the clergy has elected all their delegates, but now we, the laity, have got to get it together and elect 2 more delegates. I must confess I got angry today in the middle of the voting. I am angry because I feel that the younger generation (folks my age) are being discriminated against. It seems to me that the conference is uncomfortable voting for anyone under the age of 50. I realize that a large percentage of the delegates to AC are older (read retired) and are more likely to vote for their contemporaries, however, if we do not start giving the younger generation a voice, there will be no younger generation and our church will be dead! They (the majority) decided to only consider candidates who had already received 40 votes or more, well, I am not doing it!! I refuse! I have made my mind up and if I have to go down with a sinking ship, so be it. I will continue to vote for the person(s) of my choosing, whether they're winning or not! Call me stubborn, hard headed, whatever!
Maybe tomorrow will be better. Then I'm headed to Florida....yay!

Edit: I misspoke earlier when I said the conference decided to only consider folks with 40 votes or more. What I meant to say was that they were only reporting people with more than 40 votes. However, in essence, it's the same thing because not reporting all votes removes those other candidates from view, thus rendering them ineffective.

11 comments:

Art said...

So.... tell us how you really feel;)

But it's true. It seems as if the outcome was predetermined...

John said...

Great post. I just linked to it at the MethoBlog.

methodist monk said...

Not to be one who is the bearer of bad news, but you and me and others are not going to get anyone to gc or jc. At least from my conference (Louisiana), we elected the choosen few that have been for the past couple of gc.

Anonymous said...

...we elected the choosen few that have been for the past couple of gc.

That might be why we have trouble moving past some things and trying new things.


Jim

Anonymous said...

That's telling it like it is! Vote prayerfully, and with your heart, mind, and conscience, and then head for the heat and humidity of Florida. But be warned, we have started our summer rain pattern (at least down here in Central Florida) - pretty intense thunderstorms every afternoon.

Have a safe and FUN trip!

gavin richardson said...

thanks for your votes for me stacie. i'd like to say i'm getting more support, but it's hard to tell since someone decided to not report those not getting 40 or less votes. essentially wiping out even the visibility of those "those under 40 that care about this."

Carl said...

An interesting point is that 30 to 50 is the "young generation". Also that 50+ has voting majority for the conference. I wonder what this says about the demographics of the conference as a whole?

Methodist Geek said...

I suspect things are worse in the AC then in the church as a whole, in regards to grey-hairs predominating because most of the college graduate to 50 crowd have jobs that keep them from being AC delegates.

Anonymous said...

Stacie:

I'm sorry! I am in the minority here - literally and figuritively. (I couldn't resist the pun)
With all due respect, I find your feeling discriminated against to be quite laughable; and only illustrates that you have little understanding of discrimination. Elections and/or electors not voting the way in which you want is not discrimination. Perception is not necessarily reality. If I were to wander into the same conference and saw a paucity of blacks voting or elected, does that mean that your conference is discriminating against blacks?
Just because you strongly prefer to vote for your contemporaries does not necessarily mean others are doing likewise. If you wish to effect change, temper tantrums are seldom effective or successfull.

Respectfully,
Joseph

Anonymous said...

Here at South Indiana we voted for mostly the same-old-same-old.

But we did have an 18-year-old kid who got up and spoke about AIDS in Africa early in the conference. He was later written in as a candidate and elected to Jurisdictional Conference.

Anonymous said...

Hi ya'll,
It is possible to change how your conference votes, but it takes some pretty hard politicing, and many don't have the stomach for it. In the New Mexico conference we have a voting block of the younger clergy working together that is starting in establish itself in the power structure. Are you willing to become like the old guard in order to effect change?