In this edition: August 22, 2022

• Audited parish finances
• Certification of voters
• Resolutions
• Elections
• Registration
• Finance & budget sessions



Friday and Saturday, November 18-19, 2022

University of Delaware | Clayton Hall

The annual convention may still feel like it is a long way off but there are a number of important deadlines that are much closer, see below:

Audited parish finances

Deadline: September 1, 2022

A parish’s last two annual audits must be filed by September 1, 2022, (Canon 14). This deadline, if missed, will prevent a parish’s lay representatives from voting at convention. The deadline for filing audits is set by Episcopal Church canons (I.7.1(g)) as “not later than 30 days following the date of such report, and in no event, not later than September 1 of each year.”

Certification of voters

Deadline: September 20, 2022

Certification ensures that persons entitled to speak and vote at convention are able to do so. This year, our annual convention will continue to use secure, electronic voting. Thus, all voters — lay and clergy — must certify their eligibility by the deadline to receive access to the voting system and training well before convention. There is no fee to certify delegates.

IMPORTANT: All voters — including alternates who might substitute for a delegate during convention — must have access to an internet-capable device (computer, tablet, or phone), the internet, and their email account in order to vote.

Lay voters. Your parish delegation is selected by your vestry (Canon 2). Certification of your delegates and alternates must be completed by the senior or junior warden or, if the senior or junior warden is not available, the secretary of the vestry. The following link goes directly to the Certification of Delegation form: Certification of Delegation Form.

Clergy voters. (Article IV, Section 2). For past conventions when voting only required printed ballots, canonical clergy were certified to vote when they checked in at the convention site. However, with the move to electronic voting, certification must be done by September 20, 2022, to ensure voting clergy receive the same training as lay delegates well before the convention. Certification of Canonical Clergy Form.

Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution and Canons states that those members of the clergy who fit the following criteria are eligible to vote: 

Every Bishop, Priest or Deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church who is canonically resident in this Diocese shall have a seat in Convention. Every Bishop, Priest or Deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church who is canonically resident in this Diocese and (a) holds a cure or office in this Diocese, (b) who shall have resigned a cure or office on account of age or physical incapacity, or (c) who holds neither a cure nor an office in this Diocese nor has resigned a cure or office on account of age or physical incapacity but is in good standing and has reported, in writing, to the Bishop each January or (d) whose ecclesiastical duty, for which the approval and the certification by the Ecclesiastical Authority are necessary, requires residence outside the jurisdiction of this Diocese (including, but not limited to, a chaplain in the Armed Forces of the United States), shall have a vote in Convention.

Resolutions

Deadline: September 20, 2022

Anyone who plans to submit a resolution to convention is invited to do so on time — that is, by September 20, 2022. This deadline allows voters the time to properly review and discuss each idea well in advance. This year we will again use a process that has been used in other dioceses. A hearing on resolution(s) will be held by Zoom in October in advance of convention. This will hopefully reduce the work on resolutions that needs to be done on the day of convention since any resolutions will have already been thoroughly discussed. While our rules of order technically permit late resolutions to be submitted up to convention day, these are only considered when a super-majority of voters approves hearing them. Late resolutions (often referred to as floor resolutions) are any debatable resolutions received after the 60-day deadline. These may only be introduced at the convention if a supermajority (two-thirds) agrees to receive them. Late resolutions are strongly discouraged. Therefore, convention will be urged to reject consideration of any late resolution that could have been submitted on time and instead resolution writers are urged to submit any late resolutions (on time) for the next convention. Having our collective business organized on time is a major way to help keep our large, hybrid gathering focused on mission and ministry and not bogged down in late legislation. For convenience the resolutions form can be accessed by clicking on the link.

In advance of the convention, a hearing on resolution(s) will be held via Zoom on the afternoon of Sunday, October 23, 2022, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. This will reduce the work on resolutions that needs to be done on the day of the convention since submitted resolutions will have already been thoroughly discussed.

Elections

All voting at the 238^th convention will take place electronically. It is essential that all eligible convention voters [delegates, alternates (potentially), and voting clergy] have ready access to the internet, an email account, and a Zoom-capable computer or device throughout the entire convention. For example, electronic voting will use your email account to send you your ballot for each vote, and you will then need an internet-connected web browser to place your vote.

Multiple training sessions will be offered on the voting system via Zoom, probably in November 2022. Dates will be sent to all those eligible and potentially eligible to vote. All voters are required to attend one training session. The voting system is simple and easy to learn. No voting training will be offered during the convention; we’ll jump right in and start voting when the time comes. Thus, all voters are expected to have committed themselves to learning the system in advance.

Registration

Registering for convention means the enrollment of all people attending the 238^th convention. Certifying a lay delegation or a canonical clergy person is separate from registering for convention. It is also separate from making a hotel reservation.

Following the pattern established at the 236^th convention all voting will take place electronically, and since all voters need to be trained, canonical clergy eligible to vote will need to certify attendance at convention by September 20, 2022. This information is needed so that we can coordinate voter training with the elections’ vendor. Registration will begin September 21, 2022.

As was stated in the Call to Convention, the 238^th Convention will be an in-person convention. The 238^th Convention   will be held at Clayton Hall in Newark, Delaware, 100 David Hollowell Drive, Newark, DE 19716.

Two Finance and Budget Presentation Sessions will be held by Zoom in the weeks leading up to Convention. Those sessions are scheduled for Wednesday, November 9, 2022, beginning at 4:30 p.m. and again on the morning of Saturday, November 12, 2022, beginning at 9:00 a.m. Each session is scheduled for approximately 90 minutes. Since convention will be asked to approve the 2023 preliminary budget, it will be helpful for voters to attend one of these sessions. No such sessions will be held the day of convention.

Please remember that the convention webpage, is a centralized repository of information and instructions for the 238^th Annual Convention.

Issue date: August 22, 2022