A Lunchtime Walk Around GC2012

Every so often I have to leave my little cubicle in the newsroom and walk around the Tampa Convention Center to clear my head, and to get a broader sense of what’s happening down in the legislative committee rooms. Here are a few random notes from my hallway conversations:

• As I was leaving the newsroom, Gary Graves, Petitions Secretary for GC2012, wandered through. Gary shared that the Discipleship and Independent Commissions committees have completed their work and are done meeting. We talked a bit about the deadline established in the rules at the beginning of the General Conference which says that legislation not voted on by a legislative committee is placed into a “not considered” category, effectively killing that petition UNLESS 20 persons request that the motion be brought before the entire body.
• Ken Carter, a clergy delegate from the Western North Carolina Annual Conference, shared that the Global Ministries committee have finished their work. Much of their legislation focused on the work of United Methodist Women, who will likely be moving from being a division of the Board of Global Ministries to become an independent entity.
• A member of the General Administration Committee who would prefer not to be identified noted that the process seems to have become bogged down with many amendments being added on to the Plan B proposal (which is now the main motion before the committee). This person wondered aloud if there wasn’t a move to stall passage of the plan so that there would be nothing to show at the end of tonight’s session. He shared that he knew that a minority report advocating the CTA/IOT plan would likely be brought forth, but if nothing was adopted that might be moot because a minority report can only be brought forth if there is a majority report. All in all this delegate believes that we are in for a lengthy floor debate next week.
• Last but not least I ran into Katie Z. Dawson, a reserve delegate from Iowa who is attending her first General Conference. Katie shared that she was surprised by the degree of respect and patience delegates seem to have for one another even in the midst of great differences on issues. Katie has been blogging about her experience at http://salvagedfaith.wordpress.com.