of the
West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod
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Contents
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By order of the Synod Council of the West
Virginia-Western Maryland Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, a regular meeting of the
Synod Assembly shall convene on Saturday, 4 June 2022,
at 10:00 AM, at the Mon County 4H Center, Mylan Park,
Morgantown, WV.
Though first announced in December. Synod Assembly is
officially announced by the "Call of the Assembly," that
must be issued 60 days prior to the convening of the
assembly. So, this information has been up for a while,
but, now, it really counts.
Agenda
As this is a regular meeting of the Synod Assembly, all
business required by the governing documents will be on
the agenda. That includes an explicitly enumerated set of
reports and elections. New business is also allowed, but
there are rules currently in place that set a deadline for
submission of nongermane resolutions and memorials (see here).
The proposed agenda will be published in The Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports. It is subject to amendment by the assembly.
COVID Mitigation
Synod Council, in its 9 April 2022 Synod Council meeting, determined that this assembly's COVID mitigation policy shall be whatever the standard is of the CDC, WV State, and Mon County Health Department, and, where this is conflict among them, the higher standard prevails. Synod Council reserves the right to change this closer to the assembly. To be sure to receive information on last minute changes, sign up for our text messaging service.
Registration
Registration Deadlines
- 22 May 2022: In order to receive notice of
publication of the Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports,
registration must be submitted online by close of
business 22 May 2022. Those registering after this date
will be responsible for accessing the Synod Assembly
page themselves (or through their agent) in order to
obtain Synod Assembly reports and materials.
- 31 May 2022: Online registration closes at the end of the day. Those registering after this date will be responsible for for accessing the Synod Assembly page themselves (or through their agent) in order to obtain Synod Assembly reports and materials.
- 4 June 2022: You may register the day of the Synod Assembly. A downloadable registration form will be posted on this page after on-line registration closes. If registering the day of the Synod Assembly, please download the form, print it out, fill it out, and bring it with you to the Synod Assembly, reporting to the registration desk for submission and processing.
Voting Member Minimum Requirements
Voting members fall into two classes: clergy and laity.
Laity voting members are elected by their congregations
(either Congregation Meeting or Congregation Council,
depending upon the local practice). Laity voting members,
in addition to election by their congregations, must be
voting members of their congregations (voting members
being confirmed members who have made a contribution of
record and communed in the congregation during the current
or preceding calendar year). Some laity voting members are
enfranchised by virtue of being a member of Synod Council
or being the lay chair of a conference.
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Register On-Line Here! Click for form |
On-line registration for Synod Assembly 2022 is now open!
The first registration deadline is 22 may 2022. Click here to
review all registration deadlines.
On-Site Late Registration
You can register on-site.
The
On-Site Late Registration Form will be posted after
on-line registration closes 31 May 2022. Please use this
option as a last resort.
Alternate Voting Member
Registration
If you are an alternate for someone who has already
registered but now is not attending, one of the following
applies to you.
- If it is known that you are going to be replacing someone who had already registered, and it is prior to the closure of on-line registration (31 May 2022), fill out the On-Line Registration From and email the Synod Assembly Registrar (Registrar@WV-WMD.org) that you the alternate.
- If on-line registration has closed, complete the On-Site Late Registration Form mentioned above, filling in the information for alternates.
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Dispensation from M-F VM Click for form |
Normally, a congregation is to send one male and one
female voting member. Dispensation, however, may be
requested of the Synod Council. For smaller congregations,
in particular, it may be difficult to find both a male and
a female willing/able to attend. To request dispensation,
please complete this form: Dispensation from
M-F VM Requirement. Requests for dispensation will
be processed, at minimum, weekly. In the meantime, proceed
with registration of your voting members until informed to
the contrary.
Other Important Stuff
Resolutions & Memorials
Are you planning on submitting a resolution or a memorial? Click here!
Reports & Exhibits
Are you planning on reporting or exhibiting? Click here!Synod Assembly 2022: Nuts &
Bolts
Date(s)
4 June 2022
4 June 2022 was announced (by website, Roadshow,
and facebook) on (or about) 1 December 2021 as the
anticipated date of Synod Assembly 2022. At the same time,
it was announced that the assembly would convene at the
Mon County 4H Center, Mylan Park, near Morgantown, WV.
Adjourned Meeting
Synod Council has not yet reserved a date for an
adjounred meeting of the Synod Assembly. It is hoped that
all work can be completed in one day. A second day will be
necessary under two conditions (otherwise we are done at
the end of the first day and go home without having to
come back):
- The SA has uncompleted required business under the CBCR/WV-WMD or RONR.
- The SA has business, though not required, it wishes to take up on a second day.
An adjourned meeting is not a special meeting; it is a
continuation of session. Folks often get the terms
inverted. A "meeting" is a discreet sitting for business
without more than a momentary recess of short duration,
the assembly members remaining in the immediate area and
prepared to return to work. A dinner break, break for
mass, or the overnight break constitutes a break that ends
a meeting. The "session" is the work of the assembly that
is governed by one agenda. So, our assemblies are already
made up of at least three meetings in one session. An
adjourned meeting is the next meeting in a series of
meetings that make up the session. With an adjourned
meeting,
- We continue business where we left off;
- There is no new registration process, all the voting members at the first meeting continuing as voting members in the next;and
- Alternate voting members can be seated through the Committee on Registration should those originally serving be unable to continue.
Everything mentioned here is already the case with our
Synod Assembly, but we may not have recognized it as such.
Again, the major difference is the longer period of time
between meetings.
Venue
The Mon County 4H Center is located in Mylan Park, two
miles west of I-79 Exit-155, providing easy access for
travelers (click here for
google map). You can visit the facility online at
its Mylan Park
website. We are renting both the indoor and outdoor
pavilion, with the assembly business planned for the
indoor space and the outside space available for
exhibitors and socialization. Synod Council retains the
option to move to the assembly chamber to the outdoor
pavilion in response to pandemical and/or weather
conditions.
 Dining Guide |
There are ample dining options, ranging from fast food
drive-thru to high class sit-down, within a short drive,
the Gateway complex and University Town Centers being two
and three miles away respectively. Drive a little further,
and even more options become available. Lunch will be an
extended period of time not only to allow attendees to eat
with some leisure but also to allow the tellers to count
ballots. It will also be possible for attendees to pack
their own picnic lunches and eat at the pavilions (or
anywhere else in the park). Lunch is not included in the
registration package.
 Lodging Guide |
While the assembly is planned as a one-day event, some
may still opt for overnight accommodations. There is ample
lodging in the area for anyone wishing to secure
accommodations, and, it not being a WVU home football
weekend, availability and prices should be reasonable. Of
course, many will prefer to simply travel in the morning
and return home when we wrap up. A lodging guide is
available for your perusal, but there are many other
options that are not listed. The lodging guide does not
imply endorsement. Lodging can be had in the Morgantown
area at a wide variety of pricepoints and accommodation
level. Lodging is not included in the registration
package.
Cost
Synod Council has set the registration fee at
$0.00---that's right: free registration for the second
year in a row! This is possible because of
aggressive cost-cutting measures by SAPComm, redesign of
the Synod Assembly, an amazingly good deal on the meeting
venue, and a surplus in the Synod Assembly fund.
Synod Assembly Communications
Keeping abreast of all the information connected with
Synod Assembly isn't easy. To assist, we automatically
enroll registered attendees onto a dedicated email list.
Other means of communication (the synod website, Facebook,
and The Bishop's Road Show) are also employed.
Visit our Synod
Assembly Communications page for more information.
SMS/ Text Messaging
We've added a simple text messaging service to let you
know when announcements related to Synod Assembly are
published. Click here for more info.
Reserving the Right to Postpone or Cancel
Concerns about the pandemic have not abated. Synod
Council continues to monitor the situation and reserves
the right to postpone or cancel the Synod Assembly in
response to the pandemical situation. At the same time,
the state, the local health department, or the venue may
respond to the a change in the pandemical situation that
precludes our gathering.
Why This Way?
Synod Assembly 2021 posed the greatest challenge ever
faced by this synod in planning and holding an assembly.
As we are not yet out of the pandemic and pandemical
conditions change quickly, we are approaching this year
with similar caution. A formal decision on COVID protocols
for the assembly will be made at the 9 April 2022 Synod
Council meeting, but the synod Council reserves the right
to modify them in response to the situation on the ground.
Additionally, while not a perfect assembly---what assembly
is ever perfect?---feedback was generally positive, and
Synod Council deemed it reasonable to attempt replication
of several aspects.
Reviewing the COVID-19 Concerns for Synod Assembly 2021
Initial plans for the Synod Assembly 2021 were laid out
and accepted in principal by Synod Council at its October
2020 meeting. At the time, both risk mitigation and
pandemic psychology were forefront in the Synod Council's
thinking. The following assumptions drove planning:
- An easing of government restrictions and recommendations could not be expected, meaning social distancing, masking, attendance caps for indoor venues, and food service requirements (e.g., no buffets) would all still be in place;
- There would be a general uneasiness on the part of
potential voting members to stay in hotels/motels;
- Potential attendees would be dissatisfied with the
cost and quality of boxed meals and/or would be
uncomfortable with social dining (if even allowed by the
government or venue); and
- The sine qua non of the Synod Assembly is the
conduct of business.
With these assumptions, the following planning goals were
accepted:
- Synod Assembly should be in a high-ventilation context (e.g., an pavilion, amphitheater, field house, etc.);
- Synod Assembly should be as short as possible (with a proposed agenda including only those items of business required under the governing documents of the Synod and RONR);
- Synod Assembly should be planned to be held over two non-consecutive days and arranged such that it may adjourn sine die at the end of the first day if the work of the assembly is completed or deems the second day unnecessary;
- Synod Assembly should be held within a reasonable distance to the travel-calculated geographic center of the Synod; and
- Synod Assembly should be held in proximity to multiple dining options with an extended lunch hour.
SAPComm, monitoring the pandemical situation, concluded
that an open-air assembly, social distancing, and
mandatory masking were no longer necessary but, being of
the opinion that flexibility for response to possible
variants and new waves of the coronavirus, chose to retain
some of the planning parameters.
Synod Council reviewed SAPComm's work, settling on some
details and leaving others to the committee for further
work. As mentioned, details will be posted as they develop
and can be formatted for presentation.
Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports
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Pre-Assembly Bulleting
of Reports
Download link will be active 10 days before the assembly convenes
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The Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports for Synod
Assembly 2021 will be posted 10 days before the assembly
convenes on our web-based Manula platform.
You can navigate the Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports by
using the table of contents in the left of your Manula
interface (on a computer) or in the upper left corner (on
a mobile device).
Late reports and additional information will be posted
integrated into the Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports as
we receive them. To be alerted of such updates, you may
want to subscribe to our text message (SMS) service for
Synod Assembly matters; click here to learn more.
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Pre-Assembly Bulletin of
Reports
Download link will be active 10 days
before the assembly convenes
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Caveat Lector! Internet
connectivity may be limited at the venue. We recommend
printing or downloading to a mobile device those parts of
The Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports that you will
want access to at the venue. The master PDF (see below)
has everything you might need on site, but, if you want to
be more selective, these sections are vital:
- Assembly Program & Agenda
- Rules of Order for the Assembly
- Assembly Committees and Staff
For elections, we encourage possession of the following,
but one could do this work at home, prior to the assembly,
making your own voter guide:
- Report of the Nominating Committee (Report of the Nominating Committee, Part 1)
- Nomination Information (Report of the Nominating Committee, Part 2)
For legislative work, we encourage possession of the
following:
- Proposed Budget for FY2023-2024
- Report of Reference & Counsel (with all attachments).
Synod Assembly 2022: Submissions
Nominations 2022
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Deadline for Nominations 5 April 2022 |
The public input phase for nominations associated with
Synod Assembly 2022 will closed 5 April 2022. Floor
nominations will be allowed (as well as write-ins during
the election) at the assembly. To learn more about what
positions will be up for election at Synod Assembly 2021
and how to recommend people for nomination to those
positions, visit our Nominations &
Elections Page.
Reporting to/at the Assembly
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Deadline for Reports 25 April 2022 |
Exhibiting at the Assembly
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Deadline for Exhibit Application 5 May 2022 |
There are some significant changes this year when it comes exhibiting. Please visit our Exhibiting at Synod Assembly page for more information.
Resolutions & Memorials
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Deadline for Resolutions and Memorials 15 May 2022 |
As this is a regular meeting of the Synod Assembly, the introduction of non-germane new business is not only permitted by expected. Those interested in introducing new business should note the deadline, 15 May 2022. Understand, early submission is advantageous. Visit our Resolutions & Memorials page for details on submission, format, etc..