District Convention - Day 2

Today was filled with elections and some resolutions. As for the elections, it was a mixed bag - not in the sense of good or bad people elected, but because a lot of former people were re-elected to positions. I have long been an advocate of getting new people into these offices and give young guys a chance, but the convention returned a bunch of the older guys who were beginning to be phased out. That's not necessarily bad, but something to watch in the next couple of years. We missed out on

some good guys because of some silly by-laws that say people in certain positions have to be elected from different circuits. In some cases I think this makes sense, but in others, no. Some of the balloting took many rounds to complete, so the elections took quite a good part of the day. The elections people did a good job, though - I give them a lot of credit.

As for overtures/resolutions, we got a bad one defeated, which I am happy about - but how it was presented was humorous. The head of the resolutions committee was given the floor 5 minutes before the lunch break. The DP thought he would bring a simple "Mom and Pop" resolution to the floor and fill that time with something easy. Instead, he whipped out the longest and most contentious resolution in the book! So, it got presented and then waited until after lunch to be considered. Everyone (myself included) spoke against it - which was a surprise. And when the DP asked: Is there anyone who will speak in favor of the resolution? no one did! Not one. After that, I didn't even think we needed to vote, but we did anyway and it was defeated with something like 90% or so nays!

So in many ways, this has been a weird and unusual convention.

The food has been outstanding. I've had lots of good conversations with folks. Sadly, the day ended badly when the DP came up to me and said "You're the new CV? We need to talk." Uh oh. So this evening, for a couple of hours, I found out all the problems in my circuit and the issues I am now going to have to deal with as Circuit Visitor. Kyrie Eleison! What a mess. I never knew it, but seems like my little congregation is one of the healthiest in the circuit and in the district. So let's just say that didn't help me sleep real good last night!

Today we join in the Divine Service with the host congregation and have a brief session after lunch to finish things up. Then I head down to Philadelphia to see some old friends and help them video chat with my father. He's really going to like that. He hasn't had a chance to chat with them since he moved in with us.