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Synod Assembly 2022 of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod |
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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. AgendaAs 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 MitigationSynod 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. RegistrationRegistration Deadlines
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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.
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.
If you are an alternate for someone who has already
registered but now is not attending, one of the following
applies to you.
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.
Are you planning on submitting a resolution or a memorial? Click here!
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.
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):
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,
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
With these assumptions, the following planning goals were
accepted:
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.
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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.
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:
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:
For legislative work, we encourage possession of the
following:
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.
Deadline for Reports 25 April 2022 |
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.
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..