Congregational Meeting to Vote on Bylaw Changes set for October 14

Please plan to attend our congregational meeting after church at approximately 11:30 am on October 14th to vote on the proposed changes to our bylaws. We will remain in the Sanctuary and conduct the meeting immediately following “Go Now in Peace”.

The following is a guide to the proposed changes. You may download a pdf of the proposed bylaws here.

PREFACE:

Late in 2017 Church Council began questioning the effectiveness of the use of Directors-At-Large to serve on council.  These positions were established in a bylaw change several years ago to relieve the ministry chairpersons from an extra meeting each month, however, the change resulted in diminished communication between each of the ministries and council – with the failure in evidence in both directions.  Council sensed a need to return once again to the old method where the ministry chairperson also served on council.  Therefore a committee of Robbyn Mosley, John Shore and Peter Wall was assigned by council to review the bylaws for changes to current needs.

After a review of the previous bylaw document, the committee noted several issues with the existing bylaw document: duplication of information in more than one section, minor spelling and grammatical errors, unnecessary capitalization and underlining, and inconsistent quantity protocol of numbers, i.e.:(three) (3).  These have all been edited to provide a more consistent document.

The Ministries of the church in Article XII are listed, however, the ministry functions and activities has been removed.  This specific information will be contained in the Policies and Procedures manual.

Three specific “Directors at Large” will still sit on the council, but will actually be “at large” positions rather than tied to any particular ministry.  

The following changes have been proposed to reflect the manner in which our church should be governed and conduct its business.

  • Article VII, Section 2, d. provides a better definition of “Associate Membership”.
  • Associate Members would be provided voting rights in Article VII, Section 6.
  • Voting rules and special voting items have been placed under one section, Article VIII, Section 8.
  • The Board of Directors, known as Council is changed to include the officers: Moderator, Vice-Moderator, Secretary and Chief Financial Officer, one leader representative for each of the five ministries, and three Directors-at-Large, a total of 12, in Article IX, Section 1.
  • In Article IX Section 2, the election and tenure of council members has been consolidated into one section.
  • In Article IX Section 4, Delegates to association and conference meetings is changed from “election” to “appointment” by council.
  • In Article X, Section 6, the Secretary may delegate duties to a staff person with council consent.
  • In Article X. Section 7, the Chief Financial Officer may delegate duties to a staff person with council consent.
  • Article X, Section 8, defines the role of the Directors-At-Large.  More specific duties would be cited in the policies and procedures manual.
  • Article XI, Section 1, changes the responsibility of the Pastor from “Administrative Head of the Church” to “Chief of Staff”.
  • Article XII, Directors-at-Large, is eliminated in its entirety.  This is now listed in Article X, Section 8.
  • Article XII lists the Ministries by name only with a referral back to Article IX for election and term information.  The purpose and function of each of the ministries is to be defined in the policies and procedures manual to be developed by each ministry with council approval.  Therefore, operational changes in the conduct of business of a ministry can be achieved without a By-Law change.
  • The various committees are likewise listed by name with a reference that their conduct will be in accordance with the policies and procedures manual.
  • The Ministries, originally defined in Article XIII have been removed but are noted in Article XII, Section 1, with the duties to be defined in the principles and operations manual to be developed after the approval of these By-Law changes by the congregation.
  • There are special committees of council whose duties are now defined in Article XIII.
  • The Committee of Elders is changed to reflect their chairperson will be elected within this group, and any new Elders will be selected by the group and announced at the annual meeting, no longer requiring council approval.
  • Article XVI Section 2 read is new and reads: The Council shall adopt, and from time to time, may amend policies and procedures to execute these bylaws. 

Respectfully Submitted,

Robbyn Mosley
John Shore
Peter Wall

2 thoughts on “Congregational Meeting to Vote on Bylaw Changes set for October 14

  1. Bruce Morris says:

    After a review of the proposed changes, I commend the BRC by-laws review committee in its efforts to strengthen the document and therebyy strengthening the BRC in its administrative and outreach to the community. All the best at the Congregational Meeting!

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