A Word About Voting

Voting: it's the meat of what gets done at General Conference. All the work of the petition writers, the sub-committees, and the committees is done so that the plenary of voting delegates on the floor can vote on the petitions and thus change (or not change) the official position and rules of the United Methodist Church.

Pretty important stuff, right?

Now take into consideration the reality that 988 voting delegates are sitting at round tables, spread out on the floor of the Tampa Bay Convention Center. The Presiding Bishop sits at one end of the room and has the task of recognizing the people who wish to speak at a microphone. Let me also mention that the lighting in this room is poor at best. This should help you understand that getting the Bishop's attention on the floor is extremely difficult - especially if you are at the back of the room.

Each voting delegate is given three pieces of paper to use to get the Bishop's attention. Green means you want to speak "for" something. Orange means you want to speak "against" something. White means you have a question. Your job, as a person anxious to speak, is to sit at your seat and wave your paper wildly until the Bishop recognizes you. Once recognized, you go to a microphone, where you are allowed to speak for no more than 3 minutes (a big traffic light in at the front helps keep time - if you are close enough to see it).

A delegate holds up his green card to speak "for" an action.

If you are standing at the microphone, you must remember to speak slowly and clearly, so the translators (remember the 41% international delegates?) can do their job. If you don't speak slowly and clearly, you might be asked to start over at the beginning and repeat your speech. This requires a lot of patience for the body.

Now, Robert's Rules rule the day here at General Conference. So voting (while parliamentarily correct) is rarely straightforward. Typically, a petition is offered, and an amendment is made. The amendment is then open for debate. Speeches are limited to two speeches for, two speeches against. Questions don't count as speeches (although, make no mistake, they usually are!). Sometimes (read: often), an amendment to the amendment is proposed. When this happens, we start again with "two for, two against." And so on, and so on, and so on. Eventually, we either get back to the original petition or we vote on the amended petition (sometimes after it has been amended numerous times).

It's a messy process, to be sure. It's easy to be critical of it, it's easy to get impatient with it, and it's easy to say that we're losing our spiritual focus as we get mired in parliamentary (and political) details. But we are a global church. To have only 988 delegates representing the UMC at this time is pretty spartan, as it is. And to hope to find agreement among so many people...well, it's messy, but it gets the job done.

I just hope we're getting it done according to God's will for the UMC. Prayers are appreciated and necessary. Thank you!