Election of Lay Delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences
Conference Board of Laity
Election of Lay Delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences
Delegates to represent the North Georgia Conference at the 2016 General and JurisdictionalConferences will be elected by the lay members of 2015 North Georgia Annual Conference session. Persons interestedin offering themselves as candidates for election must meet the qualifications asoutlined in Paragraph 36 of the 2012 Book of Discipline:
“The lay delegates tothe General and Jurisdictional or central conferences shall be elected by the laymembers of the annual conference or provisional annual conference without regard toage, provided such delegates shall have been professing members of The United
Methodist Church for at least two years next preceding their election, and shall have
been active participants in The United Methodist Church for at least four years next
preceding their election, and are members thereof within the annual conference electing
them at the time of holding the General and Jurisdictional or Central Conferences.”
It is the Board of Laity’s desire to offer this candidacy opportunity to alleligible lay members and to inform interested persons of the qualifications, expectations,and expense involved in the process. This advanced notification and information willhopefully provide opportunity for prayerful consideration of this important decision.
Self-nomination as a candidate requires preparation prior to the 2015 Annual Conference such as 300 word biographical sketch and application, speech preparation, attending the candidate forum prior to Annual Conference and the Laity Orientation Forum during Annual Conference.
Elected delegates can expect significant expenditures of time, work, study, andmoney in preparation for representing the North Georgia Conference.
• General Conference consumes approximately two weeks of time including travel, followed by the North GeorgiaAnnual Conference, which lasts three or more days and the Southeastern
Jurisdictional Conference duration is approximately four days. Delegates must commit
a minimum of four weeks within a three month period from April through July, 2016.
• There will be numerous meetings of thedelegation (clergy and lay delegates), usually
full day Saturday meetingseach month, during the year following electionin preparation for General Conference.
• General Conference, in particular, requires extensive preparatory studyplus extended long hours of continuous daily meetings during the twoweeks of the conference session.
• Most delegates find that the per diem provided by the General andJurisdictional Conferences does not cover all costs of being a delegate andhave to use personal funds to cover additional expenses.
The Board of Laity appreciates all persons who give consideration to offeringthemselves for election. This is an important commitment.
A Laity Candidates Handbook is produced by the Conference Board of Laity and containsinformation about each candidate along with the candidate’s photograph. The form belowprovides information for submission of the required information and materials for inclusion inthe Handbook. The Board of Laity requests this information be submitted betweenJanuary 1, 2015 and January 31, 2015. All materials must be received by the Lay Election Committee not later than January 31, 2015 to be an official lay candidate and for the candidate’s information to be included in the Candidate Handbook. The Board of Laity will provide a copy of thishandbook to each lay member to the 2015 Annual Conference in advance of the Conference.
Ron Davis, Co-Chair of the Lay Election Committee
Dianne Traynham, Co-Chair of the Lay Election Committee
CANDIDATE REGISTRATION FORM
2016 General & Jurisdictional Conferences
Please include my information in the Candidate Handbook. I certify that I meet therequirements in Paragraph 36 of the 2012Book of Discipline to be a candidate forelection as a lay delegate to the 2016 General and Jurisdictional Conferences. Ifelected, I will serve as a delegate.
Signature:______Date:Click here to enter text.
Name:Click here to enter text.
Address:Click here to enter text.
City:Click here to enter text.State:Click here to enter text.ZIP:Click here to enter text.
Home Phone:Click here to enter text.Mobile Phone:Click here to enter text.
Email:Click here to enter text.
Local Church:Click here to enter text.District:Click here to enter text.
Occupation:Click here to enter text.
Youth (18 and under):Young Adult (19 – 40): Adult (over 40):
Female:Male: Race:Click here to enter text.
Please submit a maximum of 300 wordinformation statementabout yourself and your candidacy. Suggestions for inclusion: information about family; church, district and conferencepositions (past and present); your position on issues that you believe to be pertinent tothe church and its future; any additional information that you would like the voters toknow about you. Please submit the following by email to
1)The completed application
2)The 300-word informational sheet
3)A photo of yourself
The Lay Election Committee will arrange your material in a one-page format for posting on the Conference Board of Laity webpage and in the Lay Election Handbook. The information for all official candidates will appear in the Candidate Handbook—listed in alphabeticalorder by last name and with an assigned candidate number.This material may also be sent via US Mail (however, you are strongly urged to send this material by email) to:
Lay ElectionCommittee in C/O Sybil Davidson
4511 Jones Bridge Circle
Norcross GA 30092
Packet of candidate information may only be sentafter January 1, 2015and received by the Lay Election Committee not later than January 31, 2015. One forum will be held prior to the 2015 Annual Conference to provide the lay members to Annual Conference an opportunity to get to know the candidates through a two-minutespeech. You will be notified of the date, time and location of the first forum. Thesecond forum will be held at Laity Orientation on the first day of 2015 AnnualConference session.
In case of any questions, please reach out to either Ron Davis () or Dianne Traynham ().